OV Beaufort4 - Beaufort, Morehead City, Down East and Western Carteret County Overviews | NC's Central Coast

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		Newport/Western Carteret County Newport is known as "the town with old-fashioned courtesy." When traveling from Carteret County to New Bern on U.S. 70, it is the first incorporated town through which you pass. The town continues to grow as Morehead City gets larger and as Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock expands. Chartered in 1866, Newport was first supported by logging, farming and fishing. Today, its nearly 4,000 residents work throughout the county and region. Newport is home to a development park on U.S. 70 and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service's Weather Forecast Office that offers state-of-the-art weather tracking and forecasting. The town is situated beside Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. Newport has many residential sections, an elementary school and a middle school, stores, a town hall and a public library. It is home to the popular Newport Pig Cooking Contest each April (see our Crystal Coast Annual Events chapter) and it boasts a strong volunteer fire department and rescue squad. Northeast of Newport is the community of Mill Creek. This area continues to rely heavily on farming although many new homes are being built in the rural waterfront areas. Mill Creek can reached by driving through Newport or by approaching from N.C. 101 out of Beaufort. Traveling west from Morehead City, N.C. 24 parallels Bogue Sound. The highway passes through several communities that dot this part of the county. Broad Creek is an old community, once made up almost exclusively of commercial fishermen and their families. Some of these fishermen came to the area as long ago as 100 years; others came from Diamond City on Shackleford Banks after the devastating hurricanes forced them to vacate. Today, there is a middle school and much new residential development in the unincorporated town. Ocean was once a thriving village with one of the county's first post offices. Now it is the home of the North Carolina Coastal Federation (a nonprofit conservation group that offers exciting excursions into the county's marsh and forest habitats) as well as an elementary school, a high school and many new developments. As you leave the unincorporated town of Ocean, the next little town is Bogue. With almost 600 residents, it was incorporated in a special election in September 1995 and now has a commissioner-mayor form of local government. The U.S. Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field is in Bogue. At the junction of N.C. Highways 24 and 58 lie two communities: Cedar Point and Cape Carteret. Cedar Point (not to be confused with the Down East community of Cedar Island) is the westernmost incorporated town in Carteret County and the westernmost point of the county. The town was established in 1713 but not incorporated until 1988. Chartered in 1959, Cape Carteret is one of the few planned communities in the county. The late W. B. McLean, one of the developers of Emerald Isle, initiated the town's development. In laying out "Cape C," McLean donated land for a Presbyterian church, a Baptist church and White Oak Elementary School. The first homes were built on the Bogue Sound waterfront near the foot of what is now the B. Cameron Langston Bridge, the high-rise bridge built in 1971 to replace the ferry. The town features stores, a town hall, fire and rescue departments, a school, a new library and community college annex. If you turn right at the traffic light at the intersection of N.C. highways 24 and 58, you will go northwest on N.C. 58 through the Croatan National Forest and through several old settlements including Peletier, incorporated in 1997 and home to about 500 residents, the Hadnot Creek community and Kuhn's Corner. Kuhn's Corner marks the intersection that leads to Stella, a once-thriving village with stores, mills, a good many farmhouses and even a couple of large plantation houses. Traveling east on N.C. 58, you will cross the high-rise bridge that takes you to the beach town of Emerald Isle.
		Swansboro Swansboro is the only geographic area of our six described here that is not in Carteret County; it is in Onslow County near the Crystal Coast. This historic, water-oriented town sits on the Intracoastal Waterway along the mouth of the White Oak River. Many fishing boats call Swansboro home, and residents keep sport-fishing boats at marinas in Swansboro. You can reach Swansboro by taking either N.C. 58 (from Bogue Banks) or N.C. 24 (from Morehead City). From its origins as the site of an Algonquian Indian village to its current status as the "Friendly City by the Sea," Swansboro is a lovely place to visit because of its mild climate and friendly citizens. The town began about 1730, when Jonathan and Grace Green moved to the area from Falmouth, Massachusetts. With them, and owning half of their property, was Jonathan Green's brother, Isaac. They lived there about five years until Jonathan Green died at the early age of 35. His widow, Grace, married Theophilus Weeks, who had moved with his family from Falmouth to settle on Hadnot Creek a few miles up the White Oak River. After their marriage, the Weeks moved into the Green family home on the Onslow County side of the White Oak River. Theophilus soon purchased all of Isaac Green's interest and became sole owner of the large plantation. Weeks first farmed, then opened a tavern and was appointed inspector of exports at the thriving port. In 1771 he started a town on that portion of his plantation called Weeks Wharf, selling 48 numbered lots recorded as being "in the plan of a town laid out by Theophilus Weeks," thus earning him the title of founder of the town. Originally called Weeks Point, the New-Town-upon-Bogue was established by law in 1783. The General Assembly named the town Swannsborough, in honor of Samuel Swann, former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives and longtime Onslow County representative. Swansboro (the later spelling of the town's name) was home to the famous Otway Burns. During the War of 1812, this native son became a privateer with his schooner, the Snapdragon. His participation during this "Second War of Independence" was acclaimed as an act of bravery and patriotism. After the war, he returned to the trade of shipbuilding and was later appointed keeper of the lighthouse at Portsmouth, where he died in 1850. He is buried in Beaufort's Old Burying Ground. Swansboro's port continued to prosper, mainly because nearby pine forests produced the lumber, tar, pitch and other naval items shipped through the port. Prosperity continued until the end of the Civil War. Then, gradually, the town came to support itself with farming and fishing. Swansboro features an historic downtown section built along the water's edge. Here you will find old structures, specialty and antiques shops, restaurants and plenty of space to stroll and gaze at the water and boats. The town's historic commission supervises the restoration of many of the town's oldest structures.
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Newport/Western Carteret County

Swansboro

Newport/Western
Carteret County