You’ll be glad to know the pier you photographed (formally Yaupon Pier) is now open and owned by Oak Island as a public pier – thus, it is now Oak Island Pier. Full restaurant and bar attached.

Reggie

Poor Daedalus! The thought of lapping up all that salt water makes my stomach turn. :)

Your melancholy reflections about the first pier reminded me of a quote by Rousseau:

“The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, ‘This is mine’ and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race had been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: ‘Beware of listening to this impostor; you are lost if you forget the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one.’” ["Discourse on Inequality," The Social Contract and Discourses, p. 84]