Frying Pan Tower was once the first light of the Cape Fear, serving as a light tower 32 miles off the coast of Southeastern North Carolina to warn mariners of the dangers of Frying Pan Shoals. Today, it has been retired by the U.S. Coast Guard and is well past its prime, but a group of owners and volunteers are working against rust and time to preserve and restore it for the future.

One Night at Frying Pan Tower

StarNews Media Presents "Cape Fear Unearthed," a podcast digging into the history books of Southeastern North Carolina. The weekly podcast will feature stories drawn from the region's persisting legends, historical oddities and mysterious figures that have helped shape its legacy and culture.

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We talk with longtime Wilmington resident Elaine Henson about what shopping downtown in the 1950s and '60s was like.

Christmas shopping in the downtown Wilmington of yesteryear

Wilmington filmmaker Kent Chatfield talks about his 1898 documentary "McKinley's Guns," which will be available for streaming online Nov. 10.

Film documentary 'McKinley's Guns' digs into 1898 coup

For this week's episode, we talk with Margaret M. Mulrooney, author of "Race, Place and Memory: Deep Currents in Wilmington, North Carolina," a comprehensive deep dive into Wilmington's long and troubled racial history.

'Race, Place and Memory': Wilmington's troubled racial history

The tourists who stay there might not know, but the Holiday Inn at Wrightsville Beach sits on the former site of Moore's Inlet. We take a look back at the days when Wrightsville's north end, Shell Island, was actually an island.

When Shell Island was an island, and a Black beach resort

We talk to Wilmington native and North Carolina jazz historian Larry Reni Thomas about The Barn, a club that shone brightly during the days of segregation in the 1940s and early '50s.

One Night at Frying Pan Tower

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