The Chicamacomico Life Saving Station and Museum will open for the 2018 season Monday, April 2.

Chicamacomico is one of the most complete sites of all remaining U.S. Life Saving Stations in the nation.

Located in Rodanthe, the site is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission fee is $8.

Site restoration work has continued over the winter with new shingles on the 1911 station, a reorganized gift shop and repairs to the parking area.

On Thursday, April 5, from Noon to 2 p.m., Dixie Browning will be on hand to launch and sign her latest book “The Warfield Bride,” a historical novel set at an Outer Banks Life Saving Station in the late 1800’s.

At 2 p.m., the re-enactment drill team will perform the beach apparatus drill. The drill team is made up of local men, some of whom are sons of earlier re-enactment drill team members, much the way the Life Saving Service was made up of generations of local men.

At 5 p.m., a chicken barbecue dinner will be offered at the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Building across NC 12 from Chicamacomico Life Saving Station.

This year, 2018, is the centennial of the Mirlo rescue. The Mirlo was a British tanker of 6,997 tons and a crew of 51. She had taken aboard a full cargo of oil and gasoline in New Orleans and was passing Cape Hatteras on her way to New York Harbor. The year was 1918 and there was heavy Uboat activity off the East coast. US and German interaction offshore caught the eye of the Life Savers at Chicamacomico and resulted in one of the most heroic rescues of all time. A detailed account of that famous local rescue can be found at the website Chicamacomico.org.

The Aug. 13-17 week for this Mirlo Centennial Year will feature several events. All are open to the public with admission fees which are good for the entire week.