This small quaint seaport has roots back to April 7, 1730 when Isaac and Jonathan Green Sr. purchased from Ebenezer Harker "a certain plantation and track of land containing by estimation 441 acres situate lying and being in ye Carterett in ye county of province of aforsaid being ye west side of ye mouth off White Oak River." By 1771 Theophilus Weeks started a town on his plantation, laying out a plat and selling lots. Formerly known as Bogue, Week's Point, The Wharf and New Town, the town was officially designated by the North Carolina General Assembly on May 6, 1783. Above photo (from North Carolina State Archives) courtesy Jack Dudley, as included in Swansboro - A Pictorial Tribute

Deer Island Wharf Investigation 1994


DEER ISLAND WHARF INVESTIGATION

Deer Island, approximately three acres in size, is situated just south of Swansboro at the junction of Hawkin's Creek and the White Oak River. The creek and an unnamed tributary, which separates Deer Island from the mainland by a narrow channel, are spanned by a private, one-lane bridge. The island's owners in the summer of 1983 were Burwell and Peggy Jackson. Though the Jackson's didn't buy the property until 1953, Mr. Jackson has been visiting the island since the 1930s. During extreme low tides, Mr. Jackson has observed up to thirty feet of the length of the wharf exposed.
 
The wake created by passing watercraft on the Intercoastal Waterway and the scouring effects of the daily tides and occasional hurricanes have continued to erode the shoreline around the wharf fronting the waterway. Mr. Jackson estimates that as much as ten to twenty feet of land has eroded from the property since he first started visiting the island. Filling in with bricks and blocks and other debris as well as bulkheading in recent years has slowed down the erosional effects of the constant wave action to some extent, but not stopped it. MORE...

1 comment:

Major Phillips said...

My parents, C.W. and Joetta Phillips owned much of the property to the NW of the creek. For a time we had horses that caused erosion of the hill. You would start finding all sorts of bottles, pottery, clay pipes, etc. Closer to Hawkins Creek I use to always find gold, so I thought at 8 years old. It was just pockets of turpentine. My father was a Dredge Superintendent by trade and said he would never dredge the creek due to the botto covered with logs from the mill.