Editing Harkers Island, North Carolina (section)

===Twentieth century===
Harkers Island gradually became more connected to North Carolina and the world at large early in the 20th century. With the influx of new residents from the Outer Banks, a post office was opened in 1904. The first public road to extend the length of the island, Harkers Island Drive, was built in 1926 when a footpath was widened and paved with the oyster shells from the Coree mound at Shell Point. The road was hard paved by the county in 1936. The road and the post office were connected to the mainland by a ferry service until the Earl C. Davis Memorial Bridge was built in 1941.

A wooden structure, the bridge connected the northwestern end of Harkers Island to the small town of Straits directly to the north. The location of the bridge was a matter of some local controversy at the time. Most islanders would have preferred a bridge to the west, connecting the island directly to the city of Beaufort with its commercial infrastructure and the county hospital. Local politics and the shorter distance to Straits likely dictated the final location of the bridge. A local political effort to relocate the bridge during its renovation to a steel structure in 1966 also failed.<ref name="prioli"/>

The [[1933 Outer Banks Hurricane]] which made landfall on September 15 would forever change the economy of Harkers Island. The storm was blamed for at least 21 fatalities in North Carolina (although none on Harkers Island) and an estimated US$1&nbsp;million of damage. The [[storm surge]] damaged fisheries and inland waterways, but there was one unexpected beneficial result. Retreating storm surge and heavy rainfall combined to carve out a new channel in the Banks, separating the Core Banks from the Shackleford Banks near the [[Cape Lookout Lighthouse]]. This new channel gave Harkers Island fishermen a new, direct access route to offshore fishing grounds.  The new channel was named Barden Inlet after US Senator [[Graham Barden]], who sponsored legislation to require that the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] use dredging equipment to maintain the new channel.<ref name="prioli"/>

More economic opportunity for Harkers Island came as the country began pulling itself out of the [[Great Depression]]. Electrification came to the island in 1939. The Harkers Island Rural Electric Authority was the first [[electrical cooperative]] in the United States to supply power to members through a submarine cable system.<ref name="roses">Roses's Vacation Rentals (2002). [http://www.rosesvacationrentals.com/history.html Island History: Harkers Island, NC]. Retrieved July 28, 2006.</ref> In November 1941, the construction of a new [[United States Marine Corps]] Air Station at [[Cherry Point, North Carolina|Cherry Point]], {{convert|30|mi}} to the northwest of Harkers Island, brought more wage-earning jobs to the local economy. When the United States entered [[World War II]], Harkers Island was on the front lines. [[U-boat|German submarines]] patrolled the North Carolina coast and sank merchant shipping traffic, especially oil tankers. Island residents could watch the tankers burning offshore at night.<ref name="prioli"/> Further improvements in the island's utility services would have to wait until after the war. Telephone service finally arrived in 1948.<ref name="roses"/>