Fort Macon State Park Fort Macon State Park is a North Carolina state park in Carteret County , North Carolina , in the United States . Located on Bogue Banks near Atlantic Beach , the park opened in 1936 . Fort Macon State Park is the second most visited state park in North Carolina , with an annual visitation of 1 . 3 million , despite being the third smallest park in North Carolina with . The Battle of Fort Macon was fought there during March and April 1862 . In addition to the fully restored fort , the park offers visitors both soundside and surf fishing , nature trails , ranger guided tours , a protected swim area , a refreshment stand , and a bathhouse . With the exception of the bathhouse , there are no fees to enjoy the park . The park is open year round and does not charge an admission or parking fee . During the non - summer months the protected swimming area , refreshment stand , and bathhouse are not available . However , you can swim at your own risk and public restrooms are open year round . Fort Macon State Park also completely surrounds United States Coast Guard Base Fort Macon . The main gate is located directly across from the park office and barracks , and visitors can catch a glimpse of one of the Coast Guard Cutters that are moored there . History . Five - sided Fort Macon is constructed of brick and stone . Twenty - six vaulted rooms ( also called casements ) are enclosed by outer walls that are thick . In modern times , the danger of naval attack along the North Carolina coast seems remote , but during the 18th and 19th centuries the region around Beaufort was highly vulnerable to attack . Blackbeard and other infamous pirates were known to have passed through Beaufort Inlet at will , while successive wars with Spain , France and Great Britain during the Colonial Period provided a constant threat of coastal raids by enemy warships . Blackbeard ' s ship , the Queen Anne ' s Revenge " QAR " is thought to have been discovered in shallow water right off the park in the Atlantic Ocean and is being recovered . Beaufort was captured and plundered by the Spanish in 1747 and again by the British in 1782 . North Carolina leaders recognized the need for coastal defenses to prevent such attacks and began efforts to construct forts . The eastern point of Bogue Banks was determined to be the best location for a fort to guard the entrance to Topsail inlet now identified as the Beaufort Inlet . In 1756 construction of Fort Dobbs began . Fort Dobbs was commissioned as a small fascine fort but was never fully completed leaving the Topsail inlet undefended during the American Revolution . During the same time frame and with an escalating Indian War on the western frontier of North Carolina ; another fortification was being constructed in the piedmont region of the state near Statesville , North Carolina . Fort Dobbs was constructed to specifically provide defense on the edge of the western frontier during the French and Indian War . The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general embargo enacted by the United States Congress against Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars referred to as Orders in Council ( 1807 ) and the second attempt at building a fort to protect the town and port at Beaufort , North Carolina began as a part of the United States Government desire to build a National Defense Chain of coastal fortifications . Construction began on Fort Hampton , a small masonry fort with a horseshoe - shaped parapet facing the channel . The parapet was seven feet high and made using oyster shell cement called tabby , or tapia . The parapet wall was fourteen feet thick at its base tapering down to eight feet as the wall rose to its top . Located behind the parapet was a gun platform 23 feet wide where there were to be five 18 - pounder cannons mounted . Each cannon could fire an 18 - pound iron shot with an estimated range of just under one mile . At the rear of this fort at the two prongs of the horseshoe were located , the walls were eighteen inches thick at the top and were loopholed for riflemen to fire their rifles through . Connecting the two prongs and enclosing the fortification ' s rear was a two - story barracks roughly 82 feet long and 30 feet wide . Each story contained five 13×16 - foot rooms , three laid out for enlisted men and two for the fort ' s officers . The barracks could accommodate a single company consisting of fifty men . Beside the barracks on the right - hand prong was a small 15×16 - foot brick building for a gunpowder magazine . From rear wall to front the fort was 90 feet long , 123 feet wide and had a perimeter of about 440 feet . In July , the United States engaged in the War of 1812 and Fort Hampton ' s soldiers withdrew the fort ' s garrison to other service for the war . However , North Carolina Governor William Hawkins ordered four local militia companies to occupy the fort and the surrounding harbor area in anticipation of an English attack . When no attack ensued , the militia was withdrawn until November 1812 when the 10th US Infantry was garrisoned there and remained for 9 months until reassigned in June 1813 . In July 1813 the British assaulted Ocracoke Inlet at which time North Carolina Militia was re - instated to protect Beaufort and the interests of the state . The fort ' s armament was increased with the addition of two 6 - pounders and a 4 - pounder cannon to supplement the main battery of 18 - pounders cannon already in place at the fort . In 1814 after much internal struggle the State of North Carolina convinced the United States Department of War to secure the fort with Federal Troops . The War Department garrisoned elements of the 43rd US Infantry where they remained until the end of the war . By 1820 and 1821 engineers surveying the fort noted that the high tide mark had advanced to the point of lapping the base of the fort ' s rounded front . Still , there was limited interest in Fort Hampton because by now the federal government had begun the construction of a chain of permanent forts for a new system of Seacoast defense in the United States known as the Third System . Fort Hampton for reasons of an eroding facade and beach at Bogue Point . During a survey in February , 1826 , the high tide mark lay over 200 feet to the rear of the spot where Fort Hampton stood . By 1834 , Fort Hampton lay in now Beaufort inlet along the line of a 12 - foot deep ship channel . Initially the new fort at Bogue Point was designated by the engineers to be 130 feet SW of Fort Hampton , by 1826 with Fort Hampton in the channel , the US Army Corps of Engineers elected to move 300 yards west of Fort Hampton where Fort Macon now stands . The War of 1812 demonstrated the weakness of existing coastal defenses of the United States coastline and prompted the United States government to develop an improved coastal defenses through a chain of coastal fortifications . The present fort , Fort Macon , was a part of this chain . Fort Macon ' s purpose was to guard Beaufort Inlet and Beaufort Harbor , North Carolina ' s only major deepwater ocean port . Named after U . S . Senator from the State of North Carolina , Nathaniel Macon , who procured the funds to build the facility , Fort Macon was designed by Brig . Gen . Simon Bernard and built by the US Army Corps of Engineers . Construction began in 1826 and lasted eight years . The fort was completed in December , 1834 , and it was improved with further modification during 1841 – 46 . The total cost of the fort was $ 463 , 790 . In the 1840s , a system of erosion control was initially engineered by Robert E . Lee , who later became general of the Confederate Army . At the beginning of the Civil War , North Carolina seized the fort from Union forces . The fort was later attacked in 1862 , and it fell back into Union hands . For the duration of the war , the fort was a coaling station for navy ships . Often an ordnance sergeant acting as a caretaker was the only person stationed at the fort . The Civil War began on April 12 , 1861 , and only two days elapsed before local North Carolina militia forces from Beaufort arrived to seize the fort for the state of North Carolina and the Confederacy . North Carolina Confederate forces occupied the fort for a year , preparing it for battle and arming it with 54 heavy cannons . Early in 1862 , Union forces commanded by Maj . Gen . Ambrose E . Burnside swept through eastern North Carolina , and part of Burnside ' s command under Brig . Gen . John G . Parke was sent to capture Fort Macon . Parke ' s men captured Morehead City and Beaufort without resistance , then landed on Bogue Banks during March and April to fight to gain Fort Macon . Col . Moses J . White and 400 North Carolina Confederates in the fort refused to surrender even though the fort was hopelessly surrounded . On April 25 , 1862 , Parke ' s Union forces bombarded the fort with heavy siege guns for 11 hours , aided by the fire of four Union gunboats in the ocean offshore and floating batteries in the sound to the east . While the fort easily repulsed the Union gunboat attack , the Union land batteries , utilizing new rifled cannons , hit the fort 560 times . There was such extensive damage that Col . White was forced to surrender the following morning , April 26 , with the fort ' s Confederate garrison being paroled as prisoners of war . This battle was the second time in history new rifled cannons were used against a fort , demonstrating the obsolescence of such fortifications as a way of defense . The Union held Fort Macon for the remainder of the war , while Beaufort Harbor served as an important coaling and repair station for its navy . During the Reconstruction Era , the US Army actively occupied Fort Macon until 1877 . During this time , because there were no state or federal penitentiaries in the military district of North Carolina and South Carolina , Fort Macon was used for about 11 years as a civil and military prison . The fort was deactivated after 1877 only to be garrisoned by state troops once again during the summer of 1898 for the Spanish - American War . Finally , in 1903 , the US Army completely abandoned the fort . In 1923 , Fort Macon was offered for sale as surplus military property . However , at the bidding of North Carolina leaders , a Congressional Act on June 4 , 1924 , sold the fort and surrounding reservation for the sum of $ 1 to the state of North Carolina to be used as a public park . This was the second area acquired by the state for the purpose of establishing a state parks system . During 1934−35 , the Civilian Conservation Corps restored the fort and established public recreational facilities , which enabled Fort Macon State Park to officially open May 1 , 1936 , as North Carolina ' s first functioning state park . At the outbreak of World War II , the US Army leased the park from the state and actively manned the old fort with Coast Artillery troops to protect a number of important nearby facilities . The fort was occupied from December 1941 to November 1944 . During the occupation some unsuspecting soldiers rolled cannonballs into the fireplaces as andirons , mistaking them for solid iron shot . The powder - filled balls exploded , killing two men and injuring others - thus firing the " last shot of the Civil War " . On October 1 , 1946 , the Army returned the fort and the park to the state . A conclusive history of Fort Macon and Fort Macon State Park can be found in Paul R . Branch Jr ' s book , " Fort Macon : A History " . ( ISBN 1 - 877853 - 45 - 3 ) . Paul R . Branch is Fort Macon ' s on - site historian and has been part of the Park Ranger staff for over 20 years .