Before the European colonization of America, Carrot Island and Middle Marsh may have been used intermittently by the Coree Indians. European settlement of the Beaufort area began in the first two decades of the eighteenth century. In 1723, the town began to sell lots and Beaufort developed as a port. In 1782, a Revolutionary War skirmish near the mouth of Taylor's Creek began a short- term British occupation of Beaufort. Mullet and other fish were caught by a fishery on Carrot Island and processed for sale in Beaufort. It was also a center for Menhaden processing with only one plant remaining. However, Beaufort began to decline as a port in the 1850's. Currently Beaufort is becoming a resort area.
Wild horses inhabit the islands of the Rachel Carson Coastal Estuarine Reserve off Beaufort and Morehead City and American bottlenose dolphins swim in the channels and creeks.
Rachel Carson Coastal Estuarine Reserve is accessible only by boat. The islands at the western end of the site, Carrot Island, Town Marsh, Bird Shoal and Horse Island, are more than three miles long and less than a mile wide, covering over 2,000 acres. Middle Marsh, separated from the rest of the site by the North River Channel, is almost two miles long and less than a mile wide, covering nearly 650 acres.
The Rachel Carson site is in the midst of one of the state's fastest growing areas. The area is also a center of marine research and education. The marine laboratories of Duke University, University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University are located here, as is a regional office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.
Over 200 species of birds have been observed within the area. The site is located within the Atlantic Flyway and is an important feeding area for Wilson's plovers in the summer and piping plovers in the winter. The shrub thicket of Middle Marshes support egret and heron rookeries. River otters, gray foxes, raccoons, marsh rabbits and feral horses inhabit the islands. American bottlenose dolphins swim in the channels and creeks, along with over 50 species of fish. Invertebrate species common to the site include various bivalves and whelks.
Peregrine falcons have been observed on the Reserve. The site also serves as an important feeding place for the piping plover and Wilson's plovers, both listed by state biologists as species of special concern. Loggerhead sea turtles occasionally nest on Bird Shoal.
The low salt marsh is colonized by salt marsh cordgrass, while high marsh typically contains a mixture of saltmeadow hay, sea ox-eye and black needlerush. Weedy asters, grasses, vines and shrubs occupy successional communities on the numerous spoil areas along Taylor's Creek. A small area of maritime forest and shrub thicket on the east end of Carrot Island is dominated by live oak, loblolly pine, red cedar, yaupon and wax myrtle.
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