Beaufort NC Inlet & Harbor: Rachel Carson Reserve

A synopsis of Rachel Carson Reserve information, transcribed/compiled/updated by Mary Warshaw from The North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve.

LOCATION

The Rachel Carson component of the NCNERR is located in the central part of North Carolina's coast. It is located near the mouth of the Newport River in southern Carteret County, directly across Taylor's Creek from the historic town of Beaufort. Rachel Carson is bounded on the north by Taylor's Creek and Beaufort, to the east by Back Sound, to the south by the Cape Lookout National Seashore, and the west by Piver's and Radio Islands. The reserve is located in the White Oak River Basin and on a broader scale in the Carolinian biogeographical province. Acquisition of the area was completed in 1985, with the addition of Middle Marshes in 1989. The site is accessible only by boat. The 2625-acre site consists of several small islands--Carrot, Town Marsh, Bird Shoal, Horse Island and Middle Marshes--and extensive salt marshes and intertidial/subtital flats.

HISTORY

COREE: Prior to colonization of North Carolina, the Carrot Island-Middle Marshes area may have seen intermittent use by the Coree tribe of Native Americans. The Coree are thought to have spent considerable time on the nearby Outer Banks especially in the vicinity of Cape Lookout.

EARLY SETTLERS not only fished but used the waters in and near the Rachel Carson site for shipping lumber, naval stores and farm commodities.

WAR: In 1782 a Revolutionary War skirmish near the mouth of Taylor's Creek involved townsmen and a small British-landing party. Following an initial exchange of fire, the British moved about one-half mile eastward and landed on Carrot Island, spending the night there. At sunrise the British crossed Taylor's Creek to the mainland, overcame the troops and swept into Beaufort to begin a short-lived occupation.
With Fort Macon so close by, during the Civil War there was significant activity in the area before, during and after the siege of the fort when Union forces took control of the fort and Beaufort inlet.

A LITTLE EARLY HISTORY

Coree Indians once occupied the peninsula and coastal area south of the Neuse River in present-day Carteret and southern Craven counties. Cwareuuock, the reference to the Coree tribe on a few early maps, included the Algonquian ending ―euuock, roughly translated "people of" Cwar.

"About 1706, five years before the beginning of the Tuscarora War, the Coree had already begun to roam the coast from the New River of Onslow to Core Point and into their old homeland on the Pamlico south shore of 'Coree Tuck.'" (Al Pate)

Within months after the power of the Tuscarora Indians had been broken in March 1713, the Lords Proprietors gave permission to establish and lay out the town of Beaufort - October 2, 1713. Also in 1713, John Shackelford and son-in-law Enoch Ward purchased 7000 acres of “Sea Banks.” In 1723 the two men divided the property. Shackelford got Cape Lookout Bay to Beaufort Inlet; this western part became known as “Shackelford Banks”

In 1722, one year before the town of Beaufort was incorporated, then Governor Pollock confirmed an order from the Lords Proprietors appointing Beaufort as an official port. Carteret became a precinct in 1722; a county in 1739.

The inlet was known as Old Topsail Inlet. In his 1734 will, John Shackelford referred to his land as "eastward of Old Topsail Inlet." At some point the name evolved to "Beaufort Inlet."

Beaufort NC Inlet & Harbor

Rachel Carson Reserve - An Overview

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