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| 1854 Map |
CARROT ISLAND ... Did you know that Carrot Island was noted and spelled
"Carrot" on Moseley's 1733 map? Pretty much negates the "Cart Island"
tale. (Perhaps some locals mispronounced "Carrot," thus the beginning of
the tale of how the name evolved.) This
1854 map labeled the channel that flowed from the downtown waterfront
to south of Carrot Island as "Carrot Island Channel." Before the channel
and Taylor's Creek were dredged, Taylor's Creek was literally a stream
between the eastern half of Beaufort and the then Carrot Island marshes (see 1888 map).
My theory?...I think Carrot Island may have been named for its shape at
the time.
Today TOWN MARSH, the island just across Taylor's Creek from the town docks, parallels the
Beaufort waterfront and extends to incorporate about one third, or the western
end, of the original Carrot Island. Today, Carrot Island is located across from the
eastern half of the Taylor's Creek waterfront. The "cut" between the
islands, Deep Creek, is located about half way down Front Street, near Carrot
Island Lane.
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| 1888 Map |
In 1893 the
citizens of Beaufort asked the federal government to build a breakwater on Town
Marsh to protect the channel along the town's waterfront. The request was
denied, but in the early 1900s the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers began dredging
the mouth of Taylor's Creek, using Town Marsh and Carrot Island as dredge
material deposition areas.
Before the
dredging, these islands were essentially all tidal marsh with some elevated
hammock land. By the 1930s the islands had been built up by the dredge material
deposition to the point that they provided protection for the town from high
winds, flooding and storm waves. The Corps of Engineers continued to utilize
the islands as deposition sites for local dredging projects and maintain rights
for this purpose today.
