One of the baskets that you will find in our exhibit on Outer Banks natives is this exquisite eel basket. Eel was a staple food for tribes along waterways and these baskets, usually made from willow bark, were the most effective way at catching these slippery creatures.
The eels swim into the large mouth cone at one end of the basket. Because eels are naturally curious creatures, sometimes bait wasn’t even used in luring the eels into the basket! The strips of bark are strong enough to retain the shape of the basket while being flexible enough to allow the eel easy passage through the narrow opening. This helped to ensure that they would have a very difficult time going back out though the narrow end of the cone.
To release the eels, the baskets were lifted out of the water and the cone was removed, letting the eels fall freely into a basket to carry them home or into pot to cook them.