Kure Beach, North Carolina -
Memorial to a Bunker-Dwelling, Mysteriously-Dying Hermit

Memorial to a Bunker-Dwelling, Mysteriously-Dying Hermit

At one time he was the second most popular tourist attraction in North Carolina. Roadsideamerica.com Report...

Fort Fisher Hermit

Photo of the concrete bunker lair of North Carolina's Fort Fisher Hermit, who died in 1972. His tombstone reads: "He made people think." [Juli Denning, 04/18/1998]

Fort Fisher Hermit

One of the most interesting locations "off the beaten path" is the home of Robert Harrill -- The Fort Fisher Hermit -- at Fort Fisher,just south of Wilmington, NC -- near the present-day NC Aquarium. Aside from the historical nature of the area, where the largest land-sea battle took place in the history of the world (prior to WWI), Robert Harrill lived there, in an abandoned WWII bunker for 17 years -- sort of like Henry D. Thoreau -- in "voluntary poverty". He became the largest tourist attraction in the area until his "mysterious death" in the summer of 1972. [Michael Edwards, 07/26/1997]