N.C. Jan. 2017-- Part 33: South Past the Hermit To "The Rocks"

JANUARY 17, TUESDAY

I took US-421 (and I've driven from its northern terminus in Michigan City, Indiana, by Lake Michigan, all the way to the end of it, which is just a short distance south of Fort Fisher) from Fort Fisher to "The Rocks," which is at the end of federal Point.  "The Rocks" is a man-made dam in effect built to close New Inlet in the 1870s.  It extends for several miles out to some islands.  I've written about it before, just click "The Rocks" label.

Along the way, I passed by the Fort Fisher State Beach, the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher and the Fort Fisher-Southport Ferry.

By the aquarium is the World War II bunker where the Fort Fisher Hermit lived for many years.  Our family never went to Carolina Beach without visiting this strange man.  He could tell some great stories.

"The Rocks"  has been a family favorite for as many years as I remember.  We used to do a lot of crabbing and fishing there.  They have some huge blue crabs there.  I took a walk out onto for a distance.  "The Rocks" were constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers back in the 1870s to close off New Inlet entrance to the Cape Fear River, which Fort Fisher had protected during the Civil War.

I also walked onto the remains of the Civil War's Battery Buchanan, which was apart of the Fort Fisher defenses and where the garrison finally surrendered to the overwhelming Union forces January 15, 1865, just 152 years earlier.

It most closely resembles a sand dune now.

It's a Hermit's Life for Me.  --RoadDog