When Smithville, N.C., Became Southport, N.C.-- Part 2: Snapshots and Postcards of Smithville/Southport

Photographs accompany the article.

**  One shows the Stuart House.  It was a boarding house and many blockade runner captains and pilots would stay there during the war.

**  Another one shows a large sign with the words:  "Welcome to Southport, a deep Water Natural  Harbor" from when the city was trying to become a major North Carolina seaport.  Wilmington, up the Cape Fear River, became that seaport.  Blockade runners would drop down to Smithville (now Southport) after taking on cargo in Wilmington, and wait to see which of the two exits was the best one for their voyage (least blockaded).

**  Another one showed Capt. John Harper's  steamer Wilmington which was the most popular way to get from Wilmington to Southport from 1896 to the 1910s.  Thus was also the ship you took to go to Carolina Beach and Fort Fisher.

**  A hospital which once stood at Fort Johnston.

**  Pirate Steed Bonnet, the "Gentleman's Pirate" who was captured near Southport.

**  The barracks that once stood at Fort Johnston.

**  Fort Johnston marker:  "Gov. Gabriel Johnston ordered  construction of the fort, 1745.  Burned by defiant colonists, 1775.  Rebuilt later..  Only the officers quarters remain."  Today it is the Southport welcome center and museum.

**  United States Quarantine Station  at Southport.  Too bad we didn't have more of these back in January and February this year.

--Old B-Runner