In the next series of blogs, I will examine the history, geography and early development on Bogue Banks. In this series, I will also introduce you to the several communities that call this island "home."
I was introduced to Bogue Banks while an undergraduate at Duke University. The University had, and still has, a Marine Biology Program in Beaufort. Students in the Program lived in houses on Front Street until a campus was built on nearby Pivers Island. Neither living arrangement diminished the isolation students felt from activities on the main campus in Durham. As a solution, a number of students eager to visit the coast, like myself, gladly traded our dorm rooms in Durham for a weekend vacation in Beaufort. From our base, we would take the Causeway from Morehead City to Atlantic Beach and drive west through Salter Path, Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach and into Emerald Isle. We rarely ventured past the dogleg at the end of the numbered streets. Occasionally, we would be adventurous and tent camp at Camp Ocean Forest just west of the Bogue Inlet Pier.
Subsequently, my wife and I rented ocean front homes in Emerald Isle for vacations and in 1997 we purchased an ocean front duplex in the Ocean Forest development just to the east of Bogue Inlet pier. I share this personal history to admit that I am especially fond of Bogue Banks, and in Emerald Isle, particularly. That said, I plan to present only the facts about the island that I call home.
Bogue Banks, the most southern of the Outer Banks, is a 25 mile long barrier island off the mainland of North Carolina in Carteret County. At its widest, it is a mile deep. The island, separated from the mainland by Bogue Sound, is the only Outer Banks that runs east to west, with the ocean beaches facing due south. The island is bordered on the east by Beaufort Inlet and on the west by Bogue Inlet. Bogue Banks, the last of the Outer Banks barrier islands, is the only island on the Carteret County shore that is inhabited. Several communities are located on the island and can be accessed by one of two bridges across Bogue Sound, either from Morehead City to Atlantic Beach, or from Cape Carteret to Emerald Isle.
Salter Path The collapse of the whaling industry coupled with several hurricanes, prompted some residents from the Shackleford Banks community of Diamond City to relocate westward to the island of Bogue Banks in the 1890’s. Schools of mullet fish that practically swam onto the shore would mobilize these settlers with their nets in tow. Nets brimming with mullet were hauled onto the beach, the fish cleaned, salted and packed into barrels. Transporting these barrels to boats anchored sound side wore a path through the dense maritime thicket and in front of the Owen Slater household, hence the name Salter Path. Many of the families who moved to Salter Path in the late 1800s / early 1900s established their residences with little regard to land ownership and the area of Salter Path subsequently became known as a squatter’s community.
In subsequent blogs in this series, I will introduce the other communities that dot htis island. In the meanwhile, to learn more about life in Emerald Isle, NC, my town of residence, go to my website, www.EIHomesforSale.com and request my free Guide to Living Were You Vacation or text your email address to: 919-308-2292. Stay well and stay safe.
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