Pleasure Island (North Carolina)
Pleasure Island is a coastal barrier island in Southeastern North Carolina, United States, just south of the City of Wilmington. Pleasure Island is located within Federal Point Township, in New Hanover County. The coastal resort towns of Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, as well as the annexed communities of Wilmington Beach and Hanby Beach are located on the island. The southern end of Pleasure Island was separated from Bald Head Island by Corncake Inlet until the inlet was shoaled and closed in 1998 by Hurricane Bonnie; thus Pleasure Island and Bald Head Island are no longer separate islands.
The combined island now stretches from Carolina Beach Inlet in the north, the Cape Fear River to the west, Onslow Bay to the east and Long Bay to the south. It is 17 miles long, 2 miles wide in the far north, 3 miles wide at the far south and about ½ mile wide in the middle. On the southeastern tip of the combined island lies "the point", or headland, known as Cape Fear. The shallow and treacherous Frying Pan Shoals jut 30 miles into the Atlantic Ocean southeasterly from the point. The shoal is formed by the intersection of the longshore currents of Onslow Bay and Long Bay as well as the discharge from the Cape Fear River.
Pleasure Island refers to the northern half of the combined island and Bald Head Island refers to the southern half of the combined island.
Prior to the 1931 completion of a man-made canal called Snows Cut, the land that now forms Pleasure Island was part of a peninsula known as Federal Point, a long narrow strip of sandy ground that stretched from Myrtle Grove to Fort Fisher. The Federal Point Light once stood at southern end of the peninsula at the edge of New Inlet.
U.S. Highway 421 provides the only bridge access to Pleasure Island. A ferry at the southern terminus of Route 421 at Fort Fisher connects Pleasure Island to Southport, NC at. A separate ferry from Southport brings travelers and supplies to Bald Head Island to the south. There are no roads between the two halves of the combined island, but park ranger vehicles, fat-tire bike riders and pedestrians can traverse the beach strand to make the connection as needed.
Pleasure Island is home to an unusual 11-acre fresh water lake that was once the headwater of Myrtle Grove Sound. It is spring fed and less than 200 yards from the salty waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The lake was formerly known as "The Freshwater Lake" but is now called "Carolina Beach Lake".
The name "Pleasure Island" was the product of a marketing effort by the local Chambers of Commerce back in 1972. They thought Pleasure Island was a positive way to refer to the coastal resources of the area.
Pleasure Island is now part of a 20-mile, unbroken strand of sandy beach stretching from Carolina Beach Inlet, 7 miles south to New Hanover/Brunswick County line, 10 more miles south to the Cape and then 3 miles west to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
History
Geography
The area that is now Pleasure Island has gone through a variety of changes over the last few hundred years to end up with its current shape, extending from the Carolina Beach Inlet to Cape Fear.The "island" started out as the lower tip of the Federal Point Peninsula which was originally bounded in the south at a break in the barrier islands called New Inlet. This inlet was "new" in that it opened up as a result of a massive storm in September, 1761. For the decades that followed, New Inlet was actually the preferred entrance to the Cape Fear River for ships bound for the port of Wilmington, as it offered a deeper, shorter, and less treacherous route compared to the Bald Head/Old Inlet Channel, at the mouth of the Cape Fear. During the Civil War, blockade runners routinely took the New Inlet route, which led to the building of Confederate Fort Fisher at this location. There are still dozens of sunken blockade runners in this region of North Carolina.
After the Civil War, reduced water flow in the river threatened the main shipping channel that led up from the mouth of the Cape Fear River to Wilmington. To protect access to the port, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a 1-mile long stone dam, eventually known as "The Rocks", between Zeke's Island and the southern tip of Federal Point. The work took place between 1870 and 1881, and eventually closed off New Inlet's direct access to the Cape Fear River. The enclosed area behind the dam is now known as "The Basin". A second dam, known then as "The Swash Defense", extended "The Rocks" from Zeke's Island south for another 2 miles. These were massive rock moving and engineering efforts, costing over $1M in 1880's money. After the building of the two rock dams, only smaller boats and skiffs could travel from the ocean into the meandering creeks behind Smith Island to access the Cape Fear River. However, for all intents and purposes, the inlet was closed.
New Inlet was then allowed to fill in naturally and soon Gold Leaf Inlet just to the south, was the only major division between Federal Point and Smith Island. Maps from the time also show Corncake Inlet, an inlet that opened between the ocean and Buzzards Bay further to the south. In 1933 Corncake Inlet silted over and maps from 1944 began to show Gold Leaf Inlet renamed to the old name of Corncake Inlet. By the 1960s the inlet was once again renamed to New Inlet. Regardless of name, these shallower inlets could still be used by smaller vessels as a way to slip out from the creeks into the sea. This "new" New Inlet made up the southern boundary of Federal Point for many years.
In 1930, Snows Cut was dug out connecting the Cape Fear River to Myrtle Grove Sound and officially turning the tip of the Federal Point peninsula into a barrier island. The man-made canal, 1.75 miles long, and originally 100 feet wide and 12 feet deep, was named after Major William A. Snow. Snow was the district engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who supervised the $5 million dredging work. Snows Cut was, and still is, an important part of the Intracoastal Waterway as it allows boats to avoid the treacherous Frying Pan Shoals, which extend some 30 miles into the ocean off Cape Fear. Cars could originally cross over Snows Cut via a small wooden bridge until a swing bridge was added. This remained in use until the present-day concrete high-rise bridge opened in 1962.
Prior to the 1950s, the north end of Carolina Beach was connected to what is now the south end of Masonboro Island. This meant that the closest navigable inlet for boats moored at the Carolina Beach docks was Masonboro, some 10 miles to the north. In 1952, a group of influential local businessmen got together and hired a dredge to dig out what is now Carolina Beach Inlet. Local captain Skippy Winner piloted the first commercial vessel to pass through the inlet.
The shape of the island remained relatively constant for the next 45 years, with Corncake Inlet, in the south, slowly silting up. In 1998, Hurricane Bonnie pushed large quantities of sand into the inlet and finally closed it off. Pleasure Island and Smith Island were combined as one and remain that way today.
The People of the Lower Cape Fear
Federal Point was historically home to small groups of Native Americans, but much heavier concentrations, perhaps numbering into the thousands, lived on the west side of the river or upstream. History has forgotten the names of these tribes so they are generally referred to as the Cape Fear Indians. It is, however, believed that they were of Siouan descent. The tribes called the lower Cape Fear River, "Sapona" and they lived on the abundant forest, river and ocean resources. By the time Europeans arrived in the late fifteenth century, the Native Americans of the region had largely transitioned from hunter-gathering to small-scale agriculture. Various artifacts and oyster mounds have been found on and near Federal Point over the years. One village site was discovered about "1.5 miles south of the head of Myrtle Grove Sound, 3 miles north of Fort Fisher, and less than 100 yards from the beach. Sugar Loaf is less than one mile from this site in a northwesterly direction". This location would be very close to where Carolina Beach Lake sits today.England laid its European claim to the area that is now the eastern United States in 1497 after the first voyage of Venetian John Cabot, who was in the service of King Henry VII.
It is reasonable to think that many Spanish sailors passed by the region as they headed north and east from St. Augustine to reach the Gulf Stream. In the early 1520's, Pedro de Quexos wrote of passing through the area of the Cape in the service of his Spanish sponsor Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón who hailed from Santo Domingo on Hispaniola.
In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the Frances I, King of France, wrote about reaching Cape Fear region on his ship La Dauphine. He talked about seeing smoke from a multitude of native campfires and went ashore to briefly meet with them.
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón himself came to the Carolinas, and presumably up the Cape Fear River, in 1526 with several hundred settlers on six ships. The Spanish called the Cape Fear River the Jordan River and the greater area "Cape San Romano". Shortly after arriving, Ayllón died of fever attempting to settle in what is now South Carolina. This was the end of any significant moves by Spain to protect their claims to North American lands above Florida.
Several attempts at English colonization in the areas North and South of the Cape Fear region were launched during the ensuing century, notably the failed colony of Roanoke. The Cape Fear area, however, did not see serious attempts at permanent colonization until the 1660s.
In 1650, an Englishman named Edward Bland briefly visited the Cape Fear area. He reported favorably on what he saw and likely encouraged the next wave of settlement.
In 1662, William Hilton Jr., an English captain raised in New England, sailed to the region on his ship Adventure in the service of Puritans from the "heavily-populated" Massachusetts Bay Colony. He spent three weeks exploring the lower reaches of the Cape Fear River, which he renamed the Charles River. Hilton's favorable reports of the area encouraged the adventurers from Massachusetts to quickly assemble and sail south with Hilton in early 1663 in an attempt to tame the area. They created a small settlement along the river, which was only to last a couple months. It was soon abandoned, presumably due to Indian problems or disease, and the colonists' livestock were left behind to roam freely along what is now Bald Head Island. Legend says the party left behind a sign on a tree near the bar at the mouth of the Cape Fear River warning others to not try to settle in the supposedly inhospitable area.
It was around this time that King Charles II granted all of his English lands south of Virginia and north of Spanish-held Florida to his eight Lord Proprietors of Carolina as a reward for their loyalty in restoring him to the English throne after the English Civil War. This gave the Lord Proprietors almost complete control of who could or could not settle in the area. The grant included all of the lands in the Cape Fear region, which they called Clarendon County. The Cape Fear River was therefore renamed as the Clarendon River.
In late 1663, Hilton accompanied another group of English colonists, this time from Barbados and led by John Vassall, who were hoping to settle in the area to escape the overcrowding on the booming eastern Caribbean Island. Vassal hope to petition the Lord Proprietors for a charter to settle the region. Others from both New England and Barbados followed until the number of Europeans reportedly reached 800, spread out along the river for some 60 miles. They created the village of "Charles Towne", just north of Indian Creek. Much to John Vassall's chagrin, the Lord Proprietors soon appointed the wealthy and well-connected Col. John Yeamans to serve as governor of this new Clarendon County, with John Vassall as his second. Yeamans favored settlement further south, down in the Port Royal area, and had the backing of the Lords.
Disputes with the Charles Town settlers, Indian issues, lack of resupply, and other factors soon led Yeamans to head back to Barbados, leaving Vassall in charge. The settlers stayed in the area for the next few years, but more significant conflicts with Indians, an ill-timed hurricane, and concerns of abandonment—after the start of an English war with the Dutch—prompted them to leave by 1667. The settlers evacuated Charles Town and some travelled to other Atlantic Coast settlements, while others returned home to Barbados. This was the end of the troubled Charles Town settlement and the area would remain largely unsettled for several more decades.
Within a few short years others from Barbados, again led by Col. John Yeamans, would return to the eastern American coast to help realize Yeaman's dream of new "Charleston" near Port Royal, South Carolina, a town that would quickly become a major factor in the region. The Englishmen from this new Charleston continued a brisk trade with the Indians on the Cape Fear River throughout these early years.
In 1710, the Lord Proprietors divided the province of Carolina into North and South on an ambiguous border along the Cape Fear River. In an effort to avoid taxation from the Charleston authorities, one trader known as the second Landgrave Thomas Smith, claimed the island lands on the lower east side of the river as part of North Carolina. The North Carolina authorities granted his claim and the area, then known as Cape Island, was renamed Smith Island. There are no records, however, that show Smith actually visited the island.
European Settlers slowly continued to arrived in the Carolina region which ultimately resulted in the Tuscarora War, which forced the Native Americans further west.
File:Bonnet.gif|thumb|Print engraving of Stede Bonnet in Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates
The area was also frequented by pirates, who would harass ships and the coastline and then slip away behind the many shoals and islands in their relatively shallow-draft boats. One such pirate was Stede Bonnet, who previously traveled with Blackbeard. In 1718, Bonnet was captured on the lower Cape Fear River, near present-day Southport, while he was laid over, repairing his ships and waiting out the hurricane season. The battle between the pirates and the English authorities from South Carolina lasted several hours, with the authorities eventually prevailing. Bonnet was later hanged in Charles Town in South Carolina.
In 1715, Maurice Moore, the son of the Carolina provincial Governor James Moore, crossed the Cape Fear River on his way south from Beaufort on a military mission to aid South Carolina during the Yamasee Indian War. He crossed near the Haulover at the Sugar Loaf and landed on the west side of the river at what would eventually become Brunswick Town. He liked the land he saw and eventually petitioned the Lord Proprietors for a grant. In 1725 the new governor, George Burrington, granted several thousand acres of land in that same area to Maurice. In addition to vast lands on the western side of the river, Maurice's holdings included some 3,000 acres on the eastern peninsula near the upper Haulover at Sugar Loaf. In 1725, Maurice's brother, Roger Moore, moved from the Province of South Carolina to the area by then known as Orton located just below the former Charles Town settlement on the west side of the Cape Fear River. Roger acquired Orton from his brother and together they founded Brunswick Town one mile to the south. The town was named after King George I, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg. Over time the Moore brothers gained control of tens of thousands of acres in the region. Roger built a home at Orton in 1725 that was soon destroyed in an attack by local Native Americans. Roger gathered a group of men and slaves and crossed over the river and attacked the Indians from the north near the Sugar Loaf, in the last major Indian action on the peninsula. Roger rebuilt the Orton house and created Orton Plantation, and specialized in rice growing in the nearby marshes as well as other crops. The rebuilt house has been added onto many times, but still stands today.
The settlement of Brunswick Town was located directly across the Clarendon River, by then renamed as the Cape Fear River, from the Federal Point Peninsula, 5 miles south of the old Charles Town settlement and a couple miles north of Howe's Point. A ferry was commissioned from Brunswick Town to the Haulover on Federal Point, tightly linking the two areas and allowing easy access to the main coastal road that headed north to the relatively large town of New Bern. Brunswick Town saw success in its early years and housed two of the North Carolina's early colonial governors.
In the 1730s, English settlements along the coast of North Carolina lacked fortifications to protect against the various attacks of pirates and privateers, as well as Spanish forces. In response, construction began on Fort Johnston in 1748 on the lower Cape Fear River at what eventually became Smithville. Later that year, before the fort was finished, two Spanish ships sailed up the Cape Fear River and attacked Brunswick Town, an act that was part of King George's War. After initially fleeing, the colonists regrouped days later and counterattacked, successfully driving the Spanish from the town. One Spanish ship, the Fortuna, exploded in shallow water during the retreat, likely due to a magazine fire. In all, nearly half of the attackers were killed. The colonists were later able to recover most of the plunder from the sunken ship to help rebuild the heavily damaged town.
Over the next several decades, Brunswick Town slowly declined as more commerce moved to Wilmington which was located several miles to the North on the opposite bank of the river, and the seat of government moved to Tryon Palace in New Bern. Brunswick Town was burned by the British during the American Revolutionary War, and was never rebuilt. The land was eventually purchased by the nearby Orton Plantation. Brunswick Town is now a popular historic and archaeological site.
From the inception of Brunswick Town and Wilmington, dozens of large slave-holding plantations were quickly established, capitalizing on the vast lands and the low cost of overwater transport. These included the Haulover Plantation which covered most of Pleasure Island, and eventually Sedgely Abbey and Gander Hall slightly to the north. By 1767, slaves accounted for more than 62% of the population of the region. In addition to rice, hemp, indigo and traditional agricultural crops, the area was rich in naval stores. These included tar, pitch, and turpentine as well as lumber, and were all significant exports for the region. With Wilmington as the remaining hub of commerce, the export growth of the region continued after the American Revolution and well into the 1800s.
Around 1850, in the midst of the antebellum era, two "free colored persons" of mixed African and Native-American heritage, Alexander and Charity Freeman, acquired 250 acres of swampy, sandy land on the lower portion of the Federal Point Peninsula near Myrtle Grove Sound. The family made their living as small farmers and fishermen. In January 1876, their son Robert Bruce Freeman, purchased an additional 2,500 acres of nearby land, making him one of the largest landowners in the area. Robert eventually amassed land holdings of nearly 5000 acres including the former Gander Hall and Sedgeley Abbey Plantations and his holdings stretched from the freshwater lake in the south, to the north, far beyond what is now Snows Cut. Robert called this land the "Old Homestead Tract".
The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad open in 1840 and was, at the time, the longest track in the world. The railroad greatly increased the importance of trade via the lower Cape Fear River. It was not uncommon to see 90 vessels in the Port of Wilmington loading or unloading, or waiting their turn at anchor in the river. Imports included coffee, sugar, molasses, hoop iron, cotton ties, and salt, among many other items.
The Cape Fear River and the surrounding area also held a strategic role during the American Civil War. Wilmington was a major port for Confederate Blockade Runners, who used the two Cape Fear River inlets to slip past the Federal blockade and bring much-needed European goods to the war effort. Fort Fisher, on the lower tip of the Federal Point Peninsula, was the site of a major amphibious battle in 1865. The subsequent fall of the fort and the loss of Cape Fear River shipping greatly diminished the south's ability to prosecute the war and eventually helped lead to a cessation of fighting. After the war, shipping and farming remained a major source of income for the region.
By the 1880s, entrepreneurs and promoters from the Wilmington area had their eye on the lower portion of Federal Point due to its easy access from the town and the short distance across the island to the ocean. Steamboat service was established and soon thousands of Wilmington tourists were visiting the new "Carolina Beach Resort" each year. The area steadily grew over the next several decades as a get-away destination.
In the early 1920s, descendants of Robert Freeman founded the African-American beach resort at Seabreeze, on family lands now to the north of Snows Cut. This also included the oceanfront strip of land they named Freeman Beach.
The land that is now Pleasure Island became an actual island in 1931 with the digging of the canal now called Snows Cut, which chopped off the end of Federal Point Peninsula. The island continued to flourish and its reputation as a tourist destination grew quickly during World War II. Tens of thousands of military personnel, from Camp Davis, Fort Bragg and Fort Fisher flocked to the area every weekend to enjoy the beachside resorts and nightly entertainment. A growing permanent population, established shortly after the war, reshaped the island to resemble what one sees today.
In 1955, Robert E. Harrill, who eventually became known as "The Fort Fisher Hermit", took up residence in an abandoned World War II Army bunker on the Fort Fisher end of the island. He was seen as a sort of philosopher and was, at one point, the second most-visited "site" in the state. Robert died of mysterious circumstances in 1972. The bunker can still be seen today via Basin Trail .