The loss of an iconic cottage in Nags Head has been captured in a photo that has become a symbol of Hurricane Irene's destruction along North Carolina's Outer Banks.

The Markham-Albertson-Stinson Cottage, known to many as Stinson's Ranch, succumbed to Irene on Saturday. Billy and Sandra Stinson of Greenville, along with their daughter, Erin, waded into the Roanoke Sound on Sunday to watch the sunset from a set of wooden steps — all that remained of the vacation home the family has owned for nearly 50 years.

Scott Olson of Getty Images captured that moment, which has now been shared with readers of the New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle and London Daily Mirror, among others.

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