Jockey's Ridge became a North Carolina State Park in 1975 after local residents and visitors resisted efforts to develop the dune. The origin of the name Jockey's Ridge remains uncertain. It may have come from the practice of early "bankers," who used the flats around the base of the dunes to race wild Spanish mustangs while spectators watched from atop the dune, or it may have arisen from ownership of the dune by a family named, or similarly named, Jackey.