Almost in the center of the village was a sand dune estimated to be twelve hundred feet long, four hundred feet wide, and at least forty feet high. For many years the dune offered Diamond City protection from the wild Atlantic storms. Homes and furniture to furnish them were built of wood from the timbers of shipwrecks and the forests along Shackleford Banks. Natives made their living in the very waters that were destined to eventually drive them away from this area. The biggest industry at the time was whaling.
Two great storms in the later part of the 1800s would eventually toll the end of Diamond City and four other communities on Shackleford Banks. The storm surge of the hurricane of 1899 devastated the area. Homes were washed away, fertile land was replaced by salty sand, cattle and other livestock killed, and graves lay uncovered in its wake. The sand dune was gone, and with it the hopes of the hardy residents who had withstood the harsh elements for so many years. By 1902, only a few old cemeteries and fishing shacks remained in Diamond City. Her people had moved to Harkers Island, or inland to Morehead City to an area that is still referred to today as the "Promised Land."
