Farming on the Dismal Swamp Canal, 1899.

Source: NC Outer Banks History Center- Carol Cronk Cole Collection, 1897-1901
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Corydon Pirnie Cronk began his career in the U.S. Signal Corps and was later stationed at the U.S. Weather Bureau at Cape Henry, Virginia around the turn of the 20th century.

One of Cronk's duties was to inspect the telegraph poles that ran between government offices. In so doing, he traveled to the Weather Bureau stations at Kitty Hawk and Cape Hatteras.

Many of the photographs in this collection show the destruction after the San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899. Some of the photos are also in the H.H. Brimley Collection.

It is not known whether Cronk obtained the images from Brimley or vice versa.