Qualla: Onslow County, North Carolina

Onslow County, North Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liltyguy, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1941, about 2,400 people in Onslow County, North Carolina, were told to leave their land. The federal government had decided that the flat sandy farms along the New River would become a Marine Corps base. The families packed up, the engineers moved in, and within a few years a quiet agrarian county had become something else entirely. Today Onslow County still has hog farms and tobacco fields, but it also has 43,000 Marines and sailors stationed at Camp Lejeune. The county's identity sits on that hinge.

Image: Liltyguy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Onslow County, North Carolina: Before the Marines

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hammerattack at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Onslow County was created in 1734 and named for Arthur Onslow, the longest-serving Speaker of the British House of Commons. English settlers had been pushing inland from the coast since 1713, building plantations and small ports up the New River. After a lethal hurricane wiped ou...

Image: Hammerattack at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Onslow County, North Carolina: The Marines Arrive

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Census, Ruhrfisch, Public domain. Construction on Marine Barracks New River began on 1 May 1941 under Lieutenant Colonel William P.T. Hill. By the end of the year the United States had entered World War II and the construction tempo was frantic. About 2,400 county residents were displaced to make room for what wo...

Image: US Census, Ruhrfisch | Public domain

Onslow County, North Carolina: A Coastal Plain Without Drama

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DiscoA340, CC BY-SA 4.0. The land itself is flat. Onslow County covers 905 square miles, 143 of them water. Pine forests give way to salt marsh and barrier island as you move south toward the Atlantic. Hammocks Beach State Park guards a stretch of undeveloped shoreline reachable only by ferry. Bald eagle...

Image: DiscoA340 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Onslow County, North Carolina: A Marine Town

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tiparrish, CC BY-SA 3.0. About 200,000 people live in Onslow County now, more than ten times the population a century ago. The median age in the 2020 census was 28, the lowest in North Carolina, because so much of the population is young Marines and their young families. For every 100 women there are 123...

Image: Tiparrish | CC BY-SA 3.0