Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station: Home to Unsung Heroes (Teaching with Historic Places)

Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station and crew, c. 1890s. North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences.

Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station is an excellent reminder of the stations constructed by the U.S. Lifesaving Service (U.S.L.S.S.) during its 44-year existence (1871-1915). The original station building was among the first seven constructed on North Carolina's treacherous Outer Banks in 1874. Use this lesson plan to learn more about Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station. (Click on the image for the full lesson plan.)

Essential Question

Where did the United States Lifesaving Service work? What did it do? What historic place could you study to answer these questions?

Objective

1. Understand why the Federal Government took an active role in protecting mariners by creating the U.S. Lifesaving Service;
2. Explain the nature of duty in the U.S.L.S.S., including the daily routine and rescue activities;
3. Describe how the U.S.L.S.S. was perceived by some of the Atlantic Coast sailors whose lives were saved;
4. Examine modern rescue methods in their community and to compare them to U.S. Lifesaving Service operations.

Background

Time Period: 1870s to 1910s
Topics: The lesson could be used in U.S. history, social studies, and geography courses in units on 19th-century commerce or transportation, civics, or the chronological period after Reconstruction. Little Kinnakeet will help students understand the need for the U.S. Lifesaving Service (U.S.L.S.S.), a government agency that often has been forgotten but was responsible for saving more than 175,000 lives during its 44 years of operation. In 1915 the U.S.L.S.S. merged with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to become the U.S. Coast Guard.

Grade level

Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Subject

Literacy and Language Arts, Social Studies

Lesson Duration

90 Minutes

Common Core Standards

6-8.RH.2, 6-8.RH.3, 6-8.RH.4, 6-8.RH.5, 6-8.RH.6, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.RH.8, 6-8.RH.9, 6-8.RH.10, 9-10.RH.1, 9-10.RH.2, 9-10.RH.3, 9-10.RH.4, 9-10.RH.5, 9-10.RH.6, 9-10.RH.7, 9-10.RH.8, 9-10.RH.9, 9-10.RH.10