Qualla: Beaufort County, North Carolina

Beaufort County, North Carolina: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SocUrb, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Pamlico River doesn't so much pass through Beaufort County as cut it in half. Look at a map of eastern North Carolina and you can see what it means to live here: a thick blue band of brackish water two miles wide in places, splitting the county into a north shore and a south shore and giving every settlement its own waterfront. The original name of this place was Pamptecough, a 1705 colonial precinct that nobody could pronounce. Around 1712 it was renamed for Henry Somerset, the second Duke of Beaufort, who had just become one of Carolina's Lords Proprietor. The dukedom is gone. The river is still here, and the county takes its rhythm from it.

Image: SocUrb | CC BY-SA 4.0

Beaufort County, North Carolina: Bath Came First

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Indy beetle, CC0. Before Washington, before any of the county's other towns, there was Bath. Founded a few years before Beaufort County itself, Bath holds the title of oldest incorporated town in North Carolina and is now preserved as a state historic site on the north bank of the Pamlico. The tow...

Image: Indy beetle | CC0

Beaufort County, North Carolina: Split by the Pamlico

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit bobistraveling, CC BY 2.0. Beaufort County covers 962 square miles and is the fifth-largest county in North Carolina by total area. Thirteen and a half percent of that area is water - one of the highest water-area ratios in the state, driven by the Pamlico itself and by the maze of creeks and swamps draini...

Image: bobistraveling | CC BY 2.0

Beaufort County, North Carolina: The Landing Field That Never Was

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Homeland Security. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Public Affairs Division. 3/1/2003, Public domain. In the early 2000s the U.S. Navy proposed building an Outlying Landing Field somewhere in eastern North Carolina, a practice strip where carrier pilots could rehearse touch-and-go landings. Beaufort County was on the short list. The proposed site would have sat near the Pungo lak...

Image: Department of Homeland Security. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Public Affairs Division. 3/1/2003 | Public domain

Beaufort County, North Carolina: Pamlico Towns

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cebzcity, CC BY-SA 4.0. The cluster of communities along the river - Washington, Belhaven, Bath, Aurora, Chocowinity, Pantego, Washington Park - each carries a different flavor of working-river life. Belhaven, downstream on the north shore, is the gateway to the Pungo River and the Intracoastal Waterway...

Image: Cebzcity | CC BY-SA 4.0