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Fort Macon State Park

Fort Macon, like many parks, offers more than its namesake, which in this case is a historic stone fort. The 424-acre site also has a large beach on Beaufort Inlet that is popular for fishing and kite flying, and a protected swimming area farther up the beach, which is open seasonally.
	But, the five-sided brick-and-stone fortress is the real reason to make the trip. The courtyard, the moat between the interior and outer walls, the tops of the walls, and several of the fort’s 26 arched rooms, or casements, provide plenty of room to stroll, explore and enjoy the simple, utilitarian 19th century military architecture.

	Fort Macon was first garrisoned in 1834 to guard Beaufort Inlet and Beaufort Harbor, which was North Carolina’s only major deepwater ocean port. The Confederates seized it from Union forces at the beginning of the Civil War, and the Union took it back in 1862 as North Carolina’s coastal defenses fell apart. It was a federal prison from 1867 to 1876, garrisoned during the Spanish-American War and closed in 1903. The state bought it in 1923 and made it the second state park (Mount Mitchell was the first.) It was restored by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1934-35, and garrisoned for the last time for three years during World War II. (Our aerial view is a State Parks photo)
Several cannons and mortars are posted in the courtyard and on the walls of the fort. The cannon on the wall is a replica Model 1841 Navy 32 pounder, which means it fired a 32-pound cannonball. The empty mounts before it show where more cannons were positioned. The one in the courtyard is an 1841 six-pounder field cannon.
Exhibits in separate casements show the coastal system of forts during the Civil War, life as a Confederate soldier at Fort Macon and how things looked there during World War II. Additional exhibits include a Civil War-era mess hall replicated in another casement.

In addition to the fort, the park opened a 22,547-square-foot coastal education and visitor center in October 2009. It was operating when we visited in October, a day before its formal dedication, but not completed. Signs promised additional exhibits about the area’s ecology by spring of 2010. The visitor center, which is connected to the fort by a short brick-and stone sidewalk, has a gift shop, auditorium and conference rooms. It was designed with five sides and arches, like the fort, and is LEED-certified. The pentagon is repeated in doorway details. We also appreciated the heavy storm doors.
Two enlarged photos in the visitor center – this one from the 1950s – show Fort Macon before it was fully restored.	Fort Macon is in Carteret County off of N.C. 58, across the bridge from Morehead City and east of Atlantic Beach. (Click on the map for a larger version.)