Indian Beach, NC

Indian Beach is a Carteret County town on Bogue Banks, the barrier island that runs along North Carolina’s Crystal Coast. The 2020 census counted 223 residents. The town sits between Salter Path and Pine Knoll Shores, with N.C. 58 following the length of the island and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Bogue Sound to the north. Indian Beach incorporated in 1973, when the island’s scattered fishing and seasonal communities were becoming formal beach towns.

The town’s built map is primarily homes, vacation rentals, condominiums, and beach access points, without a conventional downtown strip. The Salter Path story sits close by: families from the old fishing communities of the Outer Banks carried houses and traditions onto Bogue Banks after the storms that reshaped Diamond City. Indian Beach remains one of the smallest towns on the island, with ocean beaches, sound-side water, and the long Bogue Banks road defining daily life. It is a North Carolina coast town where maritime history and modern beach living share a narrow island.