North Topsail Beach, NC

North Topsail Beach is the northern end of Topsail Island in Onslow County, a barrier-island town where the road, the dunes, and the ocean all compete for the same narrow strip. The 2020 census counted 1,005 residents. The island was once boat-access only, and its pirate-treasure folklore still hangs around the name, but the more important local story is Ocean City Beach, the historic Black beach community now within the town. The island's narrow shape means every storm, bridge, and inlet becomes part of local conversation by late summer.

Ocean City's 700-foot pier opened in 1958 as the only ocean pier on the South Atlantic coast open to Black visitors, and the community's history now appears on the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail. That gives North Topsail Beach a deeper story than the usual sand-and-surf shorthand. The town's local scoop is a long, narrow island community where beach life, storm-shaped geography, and Black coastal history share the same few miles.