Topics Related to Carteret County

Built by U.S. Corps of Engineers, 1826-34. Good example of brick fort. Seized by Confederates, April 14, 1861. Scene of battle, April 25, 1862.

Large map marker with extended text, which follows:

Astronaut, Navy aviator. Pilot of ill-fated space shuttle Challenger, lost Jan. 28, 1986. Recipient, Space Medal of Honor. Lived ½ mile south.

Militia Act formed the National Guard in 1903. First N.C. encampment held at Camp Rodman nearby, July 22-28.

First Jewish member of N.C. legislature, 1808. Delivered a landmark address on religious freedom. Lived here.

Blockade runner, iron steamer, chased ashore by Union ship, June 9, 1864. Remains lie offshore, 220 yards SE.

Est. 1929 in response to increased traffic & accidents. First training school was held here; graduated 27 officers.

Union occupied the town March 22, 1862, & used this area in staging the Fort Macon campaign. Union camps remained in vicinity until 1865.

The marine environment in this vicinity has long attracted researchers. In the 1880s Johns Hopkins University operated a laboratory at the Gibbs House on Front Street. The U.S. government opened the nation’s second fisheries lab in 1899 in Beaufort. Environmentalist and author Rachel Carson (1907-1964) worked at the lab in 1930s. Marine labs were opened by Duke University at Pivers Island in 1938 and by UNC in Morehead City in 1947.

National Guard camp, 1906-1918; later site of U.S. Navy base, and first U.S. Coast Guard air station, 1920-1921.