The Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, commemorates the first successful, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine. From 1900 to 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright came here from Dayton, Ohio, based on information from the U.S. Weather Bureau about the area's steady winds. They also valued the privacy provided by this location, which in the early twentieth century was remote from major population centers.

Authorized as the Kill Devil Hill Monument on March 2, 1927, it was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. Congress renamed it and designated it a national memorial on December 4, 1953. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the national memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The memorial's visitor center, designed by Ehrman Mitchell and Romaldo Giurgola, was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 3, 2001. The memorial is co-managed with two other Outer Banks parks, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Telegram home about the flights.
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Close to Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills is rumored to be haunted by the spirit of a woman who drowned or was killed in mysterious circumstances. Locals talk of hearing screams near the dunes at night — with no one around. Some say she’s searching for a lost child or husband.

Though not a widely reported ghost story, some believe the Wright Brothers Memorial and surrounding areas are watched over by the spirits of Orville and Wilbur Wright — or perhaps by an older presence displaced by their historic flight. Occasional tales mention shadowy figures or strange sensations at the memorial site at dusk.