Qualla: Pleasure Island https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Pleasure Island https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina Pleasure Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina/ Photo credit Johnmcmains, CC BY-SA 4.0. The name was invented in 1972 by a chamber of commerce. They wanted something cheerier than "Federal Point Peninsula," and "Pleasure Island" tested well. What the name papers over is the geological violence that has been reshuffling this coast for centuries. The land was not always an island. It became one in 1931 when engineers dug Snows Cut and chopped the tip off Federal Point Peninsula. It rejoined Bald Head Island in 1998 when Hurricane Bonnie pushed enough sand into Corncake Inlet to close it. The Cape Fear coast keeps moving. Marketing taglines don't.

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/dq09-pleasure-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Pleasure Island: The Geography Keeps Changing https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina/ Photo credit Johnmcmains, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pleasure Island runs about 17 miles along the southeastern North Carolina coast, varying from two miles wide at the far north to barely a half-mile in the middle. Its southeastern tip is Cape Fear itself, the headland that gives the river and the region their name. Off that point...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/dq09-pleasure-island-the-geography-keeps-changing.mp3 0:06 2 full Pleasure Island: The Rocks https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina/ Photo credit Johnmcmains, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the Civil War, the river started to dry up. New Inlet, which had been the preferred route into the Cape Fear for nearly a century, was bleeding so much water out of the river that the main shipping channel to Wilmington was at risk of becoming impassable. So between 1870 an...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/dq09-pleasure-island-the-rocks.mp3 0:06 3 full Pleasure Island: Seabreeze and Freeman Beach https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina/ Photo credit Johnmcmains, CC BY-SA 4.0. Around 1850, Alexander and Charity Freeman, described in the records as "free colored persons" of mixed African and Native-American heritage, bought 250 acres of swampy land on the lower Federal Point Peninsula. Their son Robert Bruce Freeman, born 1832, would eventually own near...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/dq09-pleasure-island-seabreeze-and-freeman-beach.mp3 0:06 4 full Pleasure Island: Fort Fisher and the Hermit https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina/ Photo credit Johnmcmains, CC BY-SA 4.0. Confederate Fort Fisher, the largest earthwork fortification in the Confederacy, sat at the island's southern end and fell to Union forces in January 1865 after the largest amphibious assault in American history to that point. With Fisher gone, Wilmington fell, and the war's last...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/dq09-pleasure-island-fort-fisher-and-the-hermit.mp3 0:06 5 full Pleasure Island: Wildlife at the Edge https://qualla.com/pleasure-island-north-carolina/ Photo credit Johnmcmains, CC BY-SA 4.0. The island sits between two major estuarine reserves: Masonboro Island to the north and Zeke's Island to the south. Loggerhead sea turtles nest on the beach each summer; green, leatherback, Kemp's ridley, and hawksbill turtles turn up less often. The Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Pr...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/9/pleasure-island-north-carolina-wp/dq09-pleasure-island-wildlife-at-the-edge.mp3 0:06 6 full