Figure Eight Island

Island of North Carolina

Figure Eight Island is a barrier island in the U. S. state of North Carolina, just north of Wrightsville Beach, widely known as an affluent summer colony and vacation destination. The island is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Area, and lies between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. As a private island, Figure Eight can only be reached by boat or via a guarded causeway swing bridge—the only private bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in the American Southeast. Nicknamed "The Hamptons of the South", the island has been a destination for celebrities and politicians—including former U. S. Vice President Al Gore—and a summer residence for noted businessmen, including John J. Mack and William Johnston Armfield.

Figure Eight Island was first recorded as part of the Province of North Carolina in 1762, during the reign of George III, as a tract in a royal land grant to James Moore Jr., brother of Orton Plantation's Roger Moore. In 1775, the island passed from James Moore to American revolutionary Cornelius Harnett and became known as The Banks. In 1795, Harnett's property was purchased at an auction by James Foy, and the island became part of Poplar Grove Plantation. It was renamed Foy Island and also popularly called Woods Beach. Foy Island remained a part of the Plantation for the next 160 years. During the American Civil War, on September 21, 1863, a Confederate States Navy screw steamer called Phantom, which was acting as a blockade runner, was chased into the shallows along the island by the USS Connecticut. The ship was carrying rifle muskets, cannons, other arms, lead, whiskey, and gin. The crew set fire to Phantom and abandoned ship. Confederate sharpshooters shot and killed a U. S. Navy landsman who approached Phantom in an attempt to put out the fire. Following the shooting, USS Connecticut destroyed the ship in the New Topsail Inlet, just north of the island. Another Confederate blockade runner, the Anglo Confederate Trading Company steamer Wild Dayrell, wrecked in Rich Inlet, on the north side of the island, on February 1, 1864. The shipwrecks are part of the Cape Fear Civil War Shipwreck Discontiguous District. On April 17, 1877 a lumber schooner from Norfolk, Virginia, the John S. Lee, wrecked at sea near the island after setting sail from the Cape Fear River in Wilmington towards Venezuela. A storm had caused the ship to break in half and wash up on the beach at Rich's Inlet. During World War II, the United States Coast Guard maintained a structure and small water tower on the island, which itself was patrolled via horseback. Coast Guard Auxiliary craft monitored the surrounding inlets. Republic P 47 Thunderbolt and Bell P 39 Airacobra aircraft based at Bluenthenthal Field used the island for strafing practice. The first bridge was built on top of a government surplus landing ship tank. In August 1974, a federal grand jury indicted fifteen people connected to smuggling 14,000 pounds of marijuana from Colombia at Figure Eight. The smuggling ring was operated by an attorney who had rented two houses on the island. The drugs were smuggled into the island's yacht marina by the use of a sports fishing boat. Since Dino De Laurentiis opened his studio in Wilmington in 1983, Figure Eight has been a popular temporary residence for Hollywood actors working on films in Wilmington. Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Kathy Bates, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, Andy Griffith, Richard Gere, Barbra Streisand, and Paul Newman have all been guests on the island. Due to it being a popular vacation destination for wealthy North Carolinians, celebrities, and politicians, the island has been referred to as "The Hamptons of the South." On March 14, 2018 a $2 million house on the island was destroyed by a fire while undergoing renovations. No one was injured in the incident. On August 8, 2019 a funnel cloud formed off of the north tip of Figure Eight. In October 2020, a house sold on the island for $5.5 million, becoming the highest sale ever recorded in the North Carolina Regional Multiple Listing Service. The island has tennis courts, a boat ramp, a yacht club, and a marina. The Eagle Point Golf Club, located on the mainland, has connections to Figure Eight, built by several Island residents. The majority of the residents of Figure Eight are seasonal. An estimated 90 percent of the houses on Figure Eight Islands are second homes, and fewer than one hundred houses are on the rental market. Houses on Figure Eight average above $2 million in property value.

In September 1996, Hurricane Fran damaged the island properties. All utilities and telephone lines were knocked out, septic tanks overflowed, the roads were blocked by debris and standing water, all docks were washed out, and one house was destroyed. In September 2019 the island was evacuated prior to Hurricane Dorian making landfall. Hurricane Dorian caused a waterspout to move ashore onto the north end of Figure Eight Island, causing damage to some beachfront houses.

The local chapter of the National Audubon Society has recorded 104 different species of birds on Figure Eight. Most live in Rich Inlet, generally considered the southernmost nesting area for the critically endangered Great Lakes piping plover. In 2001 and 2002, the homeowners association commissioned a survey of endangered plants and animals on the island, including piping plovers, sea turtles, sea beach amaranth, and marine mammals. The University of North Carolina at Wilmington surveyed the island's bird populations as part of the $50,000 "Mason Inlet Relocation Project" commissioned by New Hanover County. On November 17, 2016, the Figure 8 Island Homeowners Association announced that the proposal to pursue a Terminal Groin did not pass and would not proceed.

In June 2001, author Wanda Canada published a murder mystery novel titled Island Murders, which takes place on Figure Eight Island. Figure Eight is referenced in the 2020 Netflix original series Outer Banks as an affluent neighborhood where the "Kooks" live.