Bogue Banks

The island, separated from the mainland by Bogue Sound, runs east to west, with the ocean beaches facing due south.

Bogue Banks is the only island on the Carteret County shore that has been developed with housing:[1] numerous 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, which is the more heavily traveled bridge, or from Cape Carteret to Emerald Isle.

After purchasing the property from Royall, Alice Hoffman sued the residents of Salter Path in 1923 because their cows were wandering onto her estate.

A subsequent court decision permitted the residents of Salter Path to remain, but the cows were not allowed to graze on the Hoffman estate.

This ruling remained intact until 1979 when a legal settlement permitted Salter Path residents to hold title to their property and for Carteret County to levy taxes on the former squatter’s village.

[2] The Emerald Isle Coast Guard Station is located on the western end of Bogue Banks; Fort Macon State Park, located on the eastern end, beyond Atlantic Beach, saw action during the Civil War; there the ornithologist and naturalist Elliott Coues spent two years, 1869–70, as US Army surgeon, taking the opportunity to study the sea birds, marsh birds and shore birds that nested there, noting lynx and mink, "describing a coastal world scarcely touched by commercial fishing, much less by the unrestrained tourism and real-estate development of today".

Surrounding the aquarium is the Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area, a 265-acre (1.07 km2) maritime forest owned, maintained and protected by the state.

Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator in the service of France, explored the state's coast from Cape Fear to Kitty Hawk in 1524.