.....The Fort Fisher Hermit...
..My Sitemap..
..photo by George Dunn..
..My Sitemap..
..photo by George Dunn..
..The Hermit Path..
..The Hermit Story..
..the hermit..
For further information you may want to check with the New Hanover County Library. They did have a lot of the newspaper articles about the hermit.
The Jungle. Hermit's bunker. When last down here there was a sign noting the path leading back to the bunker. This is down by the aquarium.
...personal photos of marjorie smith ward...
If you lived in Wilmington, North Carolina you heard of The Fort Fisher Hermit. A few years back I went down to the aquarium for a presentation about the hermit. We went back to "The Jungle" to see where the hermit had lived.
At this time I met the hermit's son and his son's wife, I had a nice talk with both of them, telling them the hermit and I shared Feb 2 as our birthday.
Many years before my hubby and I had gone back to see the bunker the hermit called home for many years. I took a picture of my hubby standing in front of the bunker.
On the path back to the bunker. It is a ways but not really too far.
find missing picture***
As a matter of a fact people in all of North Carolina and many other places had heard of the hermit. At one time he had 250 guests a day. In one year 17,000!! They came from all over, even Nakita Khrushchev was asked to come visit the hermit, so he could see how a real American lived. Though Nakita did not come, some Russians did come check out his area.
At one time there was an article written by the hermit, it was supposed to be in Life Magazine, for some unknown reason once the story was completed, the hermit refused to let them publish this.
In all The Fort Fisher Hermit spent 16 years at the ocean's door. He had an old car that he slept in, pictures were taken with his many visitors in front of the car. Do you have any of these pictures?
The hermits real name was Robert Edward Harrell, he had been born on Feb 2 1893. The Hermit had a troublesome childhood, this is thought to be part of the reason he took to the sea in later years, to get away from things.
Over the years The Hermit battled everyone for his right to stay on the beach where he lived. However, he fought for and retained his "homestead rights".
Ron at the Hermit's bunker. Back of picture says..The Real Hermit..
..Ronnie Ward..
11-14-43--12-20-04
..Ronnie would have loved living like this for a while..
No one knows for sure what took place on the night of June 3 1972. The Hermit was gone, he had died. There are stories that he was murdered. Why? It was thought that The Hermit had a lot of money hidden in the area, people would leave donations at the site. This has never been proven though.
The Hermit was originally buried elsewhere, but, his body was later returned to the area. He is now buried a short ways down the road. Seashells decorate his grave.
I have always thought this would make a great made for TV story. I am really surprised that no one has done this.
If you have a story or pictures of the hermit we can add them to this page. Contact Seasiders@aol.com..