When Grave Digger Drove Across Currituck Sound

At precisely 10:28 a.m on July 4, 1994, Dennis Anderson drove up to the Poplar Branch Landing boat ramp in Currituck County to attempt something that hadn’t been tried before or since. With a rev of the engine, he drove Grave Digger—a monster truck with five-and-a-half-foot-tall tires—down into the water. It began to float.

Thus began a seven hour journey across the Currituck Sound. It was a legendary voyage that was thrown together on a whim, and it’s somehow never been properly memorialized in the 30 years since. But yes, to celebrate Independence Day, a world-famous monster truck once swam its way across seven miles of open water, inspired a flotilla of Outer Banks fishermen and tourists to tag along, almost got stuck, had to pull off an oil change in the middle of the sound, and rolled up on the other side to a hero’s welcome… read more >