[guitar melody
leads upbeat folk tune]

♪

(Bland Simpson)
The Lockwood Folly River

is one of the shortest
and loveliest

of North Carolina's
coastal streams.

Its black waters run down

through swampy
Brunswick County,

below Supply,
past Varnamtown,

out between Holden Beach
and Oak Island,

through Lockwood Folly Inlet
to the sea.

♪

The name Lockwood Folly

has been a part
of our cartography

since John Ogilby's map
of 1671,

where it was given
as "Look Wood" Folly.

Lockwood Folly
may be the first

and thus oldest
named river in our state.

No one knows for sure anymore
just who Lockwood was

or what was the precise nature
of his folly,

though one oft-repeated legend

holds that Lockwood
built himself

a nice big ship upriver,
launched her,

and headed for the open ocean

only to find that she
couldn't cross the bar.

She was too big
to get out of the inlet,

so there she foundered
and went to pieces.

[geese honking]

Nowadays, the story

is more about
a coming together.

Back in 2006, a coalition

of the very concerned
about the river and its future

formed around the shared goal
of cleaning up the river

at a time when over half of it

was closed to shellfishing.

This group included
the Brunswick County-appointed

Lockwood Folly Roundtable,
municipal governments,

and the North Carolina
Coastal Federation.

And to improve
the river's health,

they suggested
a variety of tools:

low-impact development,

better management
of storm-water runoff,

rain gardens,
and oyster reef restoration,

over 15,000 bushels
of shells.

Ten years after its start,
there is considerable momentum

for this great conservation
effort going forward.

The lower portion of the river
is open to shellfishing,

and everyone here hopes
that someday sooner than later

to reopen the rest of it,

and that is no folly.

This is Varnamtown

on the west bank
of the Lockwood Folly River.

It got its name
from a bunch of schoolchildren

makin' up a song about it
and singin' of it that way.

Well, the Varnams
of Varnamtown

have been building boats
hereabouts

for a century and more,

though the old craft
of the 1920s and '30s

were much smaller
than the shrimpers of today,

which might range
to 90 feet or so.

In those old days,

the boats
were only 40 feet long,

12 feet wide,
3 feet deep, round-hulled,

and crafted
with nothing but hand tools.

[bright acoustic
guitar arrangement]

They used longleaf heart pine
for framing and decking

and cypress for the hulls.

Though there is
no official, accurate count,

these Brunswick builders
completed and launched

hundreds of workboats
over the past century.

Some of the builders
were John Varnam,

Clyde Varnam,
Weston Varnam,

Billy Varnam,
Clyde and Weston's nephew,

and master rigger
Norman Bellamy.

And like
their fellow boatbuilders

up Harkers Island way
in Down East Carteret County,

the Brunswick County craftsmen
legendarily used no plans.

Billy Varnam, whose enterprise
was named B-Var,

once said,
"When a Varnam builds a boat,

"all he needs to know

"is the length,
width, and depth

that the customer
wants his boat to be."

(mixed chorus)
♪ Ohh ♪

♪ Shrimp boats
is a-comin' ♪

♪ Their sails are in sight ♪

♪ Shrimp boats is a-comin',
there's dancin' tonight ♪

♪ Why don't you hurry,
hurry, hurry home ♪

(Simpson)
Native Americans,
who inhabited our coast

for 10,000 years or more
before the Spanish and English

got here in the 1500s,
used to dip shrimp

out of coastal waters
with hand nets.

Around here,
shrimp were called bugs,

and those who went after them,

whom today
we would call shrimpers,

were known as bug hunters.

Brunswick County's
first-reported commercial catch

of these delicious bugs
was back in 1897.

Now, that year,

fishermen gathered
400,000 clams,

worth over $22,000.

They caught
333,000 pounds of mullet,

worth almost $10,000,

but they netted
just 2,500 pounds of shrimp,

worth $125,
a nickel a pound.

[woman singing]

Just a few years later,
it was a different story.

By the end of World War I,
Brunswick County's fleet

landed 370,000 pounds
of shrimp.

By the end of World War II,

the catch
was almost 3 million pounds.

Jo Stafford's 1951 song,

"shrimp boats a-comin',
there's dancin' tonight,"

really meant something here.

And it continues to mean a lot
up and down our coast.

In 2004,
North Carolina fishermen

brought in 4.9 million pounds
of shrimp,

worth $9 million,
and in 2013,

again nearly
4.9 million pounds,

worth $12.9 million.

We're here at one
of North Carolina's

most historic fish houses,
Garland's Fresh Seafood,

right on
the Lockwood Folly River

east of downtown Varnamtown,

an establishment--
an institution

that just celebrated
its 61st anniversary.

[guitar leads folk tune]

Garland's son Nicky Varnam
and his wife Jackie

are running
the fish house now

and have been since 1984.

Shrimp boats pull
into the docks at Garland's

from spring to late fall,

having worked waters
south of Lockwood Folly Inlet

and well to the north,

including the rich fishing
and shellfishing grounds

of Pamlico Sound,
the inland sea,

and the largest part

of North Carolina's
great estuary,

the Albemarle lagoon.

Jackie Varnam also serves
as current president

of Brunswick Catch,

one of four fishermen's catch
groups in our state,

comprising
commercial fishermen,

seafood dealers,
and restaurateurs

under the umbrella
of North Carolina Catch.

These nonprofits
are frontline components

of the contemporary effort

to put more fresh, wild-caught
North Carolina seafood

onto breakfast, lunch,
and dinner plates

in the homes and restaurants
of our state.

Whether it's Garland's
or Captain Pete's Seafood

under the Holden Beach Bridge

or Holden Beach Seafood
in Supply

or right here
at Jon Haag & Son, Oak Island,

or any number of other
Brunswick Catch members,

whatever high-grade, down-home
Carolina seafood spot

we stop in,

we'll have gone
to the right place,

and we'll have gotten
real good seafood

from real good folks,

and we'll be eatin' better
than Louis XIV, Queen Mary,

and J. P. Morgan
all put together.

As the vaunted Cajun cook
Justin Wilson

would emphatically put it,
"I garontee."

♪

We might just push a few spots
and pompano around the pan,

frying them for breakfast,
two or three per person,

along with toast
and fig preserves

and scrambled eggs.

We may even scoot a few
butterflied jumping mullet

or some rockfish
onto the grill,

for these are gorgeous fish
that absolutely love smoke.

What'll we have,
and how will we have it?

When it comes
to the fish house delights,

the fruits of North Carolina's
legendary coastal

and sound-country waters,

no questions are more joyfully
put or answered.

And that is the word
on North Carolina's catch,

the boats and the bounty,

from Varnamtown
in Brunswick County

and from Lockwood Folly Inlet,
where the river meets the sea.

[jazzy chord
concludes folk tune]