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Pine Knoll Shores The Bogue Banks town of Pine Knoll Shores, immediately west of Atlantic Beach, was incorporated in 1973. In 1918 Alice Hoffman bought substantial acreage on Bogue Banks (known then as "Isle of the Pines"). She made her home here, off and on, until her death in 1953. The property was then inherited by her niece, wife of President Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and her four children. These Roosevelts envisioned Pine Knoll Shores as a planned community, sensitive to the delicate ecology of the maritime forest that surrounds it. Today, town policies still strive to protect the environment. As it was being built, early town planners worked to ensure that Pine Knoll Shores would be a residential community, and it has remained so. The town's 1,700 year-round residents share their community with the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, one of the state's three aquariums. This newly renovated aquarium is a must-visit for everyone regardless of their age. Surrounding the aquarium is the Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area, a 265-acre maritime forest owned, maintained and protected by the state. It is one of the few remaining maritime forests on North Carolina's barrier islands. (See our Crystal Coast Attractions chapter for more about these sites.) A historic marker stands at the corner of N.C. 58 and
Roosevelt Boulevard (MM 7), noting the spot of the first landing of
Europeans on the North Carolina coast. Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine
navigator in the service of France, explored the state's coast from Cape
Fear to Kitty Hawk in 1524. His voyage along the coast marked the first
recorded European contact with what is now North Carolina. |
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Indian Beach As you leave Pine Knoll Shores and travel west on N.C. 58,
you enter the resort and residential town of Indian Beach. It was
incorporated in 1973, and offers residents and visitors beautiful beaches
for sunbathing, surf fishing and watersports. The community is home to
condominiums, camping areas and restaurants, which you’ll find profiled in
various chapters within the Crystal Coast section of this book. This town of
about 100 residents surrounds the unincorporated community of Salter Path,
creating an East Indian Beach and a West Indian Beach. So don't be surprised
when you drive through Indian Beach, Salter Path and then Indian Beach
again. |
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Salter Path The first families to settle in Salter Path arrived in the late 1890s from Diamond City, which at the time was a whaling community on Shackleford Banks. Shackleford Banks is a 9-mile-long island that is now part of Cape Lookout National Seashore. By 1897 approximately 500 people were living in Diamond City, a town with
several stores, a school, a post office and church buildings. Hard storms in
the late 1890s convinced many Diamond City residents that it was time to
leave the island. Many cut their homes into sections, tied them to skiffs
and floated or sailed their dwellings across the water. Once at the new home
site, the houses were reconstructed. Many residents of Diamond City settled
on Harkers Island, in the Shackleford Street area of Morehead City or in
Salter Path on Bogue Banks. Many locals credit the early residents of Salter Path with bringing
shrimp into the culinary limelight. Early fishermen considered these
delectable creatures a menace, and enjoyed instead such community fishing
catches as the jumpin' mullet. But after local residents began to eat them,
shrimp soon became a marketable and profitable commodity. Shrimping is now a
lucrative industry along the Crystal Coast, much to the joy of residents and
visitors alike.
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Continue to Emerald Isle |
Simply walking along the beach can be one
of life's greatest pleasures.