Located near Swansboro, along the Southern Outer Banks, or Crystal Coast, the state park covers 1,611 acres (6.52 km2)[1] and consists mainly of Bear Island.

The park also owns three smaller islands, Dudley, Huggins and Jones, located in the nearby mouth of the White Oak River.

It is characterized by an extensive dune system, a pocket of maritime forest, and a shrub thicket and marsh on the northern sound side, of the island.

[3] A ferry service runs from the Hammocks Beach State Park headquarters on the mainland to Bear Island via Cow Channel.

The channel has increasingly become more difficult to navigate at low tide since 1996 due to sand migration in the estuary and a series of hurricanes.

Prominently situated in the middle of the river about a mile off the town of Swansboro, Jones Island is the dominant landmass in the Lower White Oak.

Loblolly pine and live oak trees are prominent on the property and eastern painted bunting have been seen nesting on the island.

The island, which is considered a regionally significant natural heritage area, was zoned for residential development and will now be protected for years to come.

[6] Dugout canoes once traveled the vast coastal waterways as woodland Native Americans journeyed between the mainland and surrounding islands.

During the Civil War, Confederate troops on Bear Island defended it against Union forces occupying Bogue Banks.

Confederate Brigadier General Walter Gwynn, in charge of coastal defenses from New Bern to the South Carolina line, working with North Carolina Adjutant General Richard Gatlin, proposed to erect a six-gun battery on the southern tip of Huggins Island to protect Bogue Inlet.

Construction of the fort was completed in December 1861 with labor supplied by local slaves working alongside the troops detailed for that purpose.

On August 19, a Union force commanded by Colonel Thomas G. Stevenson of the 24th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry made a reconnaissance to Swansboro.