Since the 1800s, my family has owned a farm beside the Cape Fear River. The fertile fields once yielded rice, cotton and tobacco; now, we grow turf. As a boy, I’d climb the high banks of Walker’s Bluff (the highest peak on the Cape Fear) and hunt for shark’s teeth, fossils and anything fascinating that could be dug up. There’s a certain fern that’s indigenous to our farm and otherwise extinct. Scientists from Duke would visit and tell me that the fern is to plants what homo habilis is to humans. It’s a special place.

 

Decades later, I found myself living on the other end of the Cape Fear River, on Bald Head Island where the river dumps into the sea and forms the treacherous Frying Pan Shoals, part of the Graveyard of the Atlantic that was feared by sailors and the basis for the frightful cape’s name. On Bald Head Island, I fished tarpon, trout, flounder, redfish, mackerel and other species so plentiful that their names could fill the rest of this page. The Cape Fear region is dear to me, and so are its people and environment.

 

I’m also a sailor. Many times, I’ve sailed my ketch from Cape Fear to the Bahamas, sometimes staying offshore and sometimes bouncing in and out of the beautiful inlets and waterways that grace their way through South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The east coast is my refuge.

 

The Cape Fear Distillery Conservation Foundation has been created to give back to our coastal regions, their ecological initiatives and communities. We strategically partner with charities such as The Busch Family Foundation, The Emeril Lagasse Foundation, the Conine All-Star Golf Classic benefitting the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Reelin’ For Research (which has become the second largest fishing tournament in NC), the Bald Head Island Conservancy, the Old Baldy Foundation, Cape Fear River Watch and the Bahama’s Friends of the Environment, as well as others.

 

Cape Fear Distillery’s brands celebrate the nautical lifestyle, so we’re pleased to give back with our products’ success. Thanks for supporting our brands and the Cape Fear Distillery Conservation Foundation. When we flourish, our environment flourishes. It’s the American way!

​

Alex Munroe, Owner

Cape Fear Distillery

​