About a quarter of a mile south of the visitor center lies Kill Devil
Hill, used by the Wrights for gliding experiments during the period
1900-1903. The north slope of this hill was also used for the
unsuccessful attempt at flight on December 14, 1903. Before the Wright
memorial shaft was erected, conservation work was begun in 1929 on the
massive 26-acre dune of shifting yellow sand to anchor the 91-foot-high
dune by seeding it with special grasses adapted to sandy soil.