Fort Macon State Park occupies the eastern end of Bogue Banks near Atlantic Beach, guarding Beaufort Inlet at a site long valued for coastal defense. Earlier threats from pirates and foreign raids led from the failed Fort Hampton to the construction of Fort Macon, a Third System fort designed by Brig. Gen. Simon Bernard and completed in 1834. Its defining moment came in 1862, when Union rifled land batteries forced the surrender of the Confederate garrison after an 11-hour bombardment, showing the growing obsolescence of brick seacoast forts. Restored in the 1930s, the site became North Carolina’s first functioning state park and remains a major historic and recreational destination.