town, seaport resort, Carteret county, eastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies on Bogue Sound (there receiving the Newport River) and on the Intracoastal Waterway opposite Beaufort, to which it is bridged. In 1853 John Motley Morehead, governor of North Carolina (1841–45), purchased land on the site (then called Shepherd's Point) of the projected eastern terminus of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, which he believed had great potential for an Atlantic seaport. The railroad arrived in 1858, and the town was incorporated in 1861; it was captured by Union troops the next year and held by them until the end of the American Civil War.

Morehead City is now the state's only deepwater port north of Wilmington, with facilities for oceangoing, sportfishing, and commercial fishing craft. It has become a popular resort with a large summer cottage population. Light manufacturing supplements the tourist economy. Neighbouring Beaufort is a colonial fishing village, and Atlantic Beach, Fort Macon State Park, and Theodore Roosevelt State Natural Area are on Bogue Banks offshore. Croatan National Forest is just to the northwest. Carteret Community College (1963) is in the city. Pop. (1990) 6,046; (2000) 7,691.