ADT Home Security Monitoring Southport, North Carolina

Southport is a city in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Its population was 3,828 as of the 2018 census. The mayor is Joseph P. Hatem.

Southport is the location of the North Carolina Fourth of July Festival, which attracts 40,000 to 50,000 visitors annually.

The Southport area was explored in the 1500s by Spanish explorers. During the 18th century, British settlements along the Carolina coast lacked fortifications to protect against pirates and privateers, and numerous Spanish attackers exploited this weakness. In acceptance to these attacks, Governor Gabriel Johnston in 1744 appointed a committee to choose the best location to construct a fort for the explanation of the Cape Fear River region. It was positive that the fort should be constructed at a site at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. During the similar year, France avowed war adjacent to Britain, later known as King George’s War, increasing the fort’s need. Further, increasingly bold Spanish privateer raids led the North Carolina General Assembly to sanction the construction of “Johnston’s Fort” in April 1745, which would ascend be known as Fort Johnston. The proprietor of South Carolina utterly to lend ten little cannons for the fort, and the legislature, in spring 1748, appropriated 2,000 pounds for construction costs, and construction finally began. Southport developed on the subject of Fort Johnston.

Southport was founded as the town of Smithville in 1792. Joshua Potts had requested the formation of a town neighboring Fort Johnston, and the North Carolina General Assembly formed a commission of five men to administer its founding. The town was named after Benjamin Smith, a colonel in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later officer of North Carolina. Smithville grew as a fishing village and through supporting military activity. Smithville was the county chair of Brunswick County from 1808 to 1977. In an effort to shout out the town as a major shipping port, Smithville was renamed Southport in 1887. Smithville Township, in which Southport lies, and additional local landmarks, such as the cemetery, retain the Smithville name.