island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
located in
Currituck Sound
Currituck Sound () , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
and is part of the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge. Contrary to its name, there are no monkeys on Monkey Island and is not related to the
Monkey Island
''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth was developed by Telltale Games with LucasArts, while the sixth was developed by Terribl ...
games. It is named for the
Pamunkey
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Pamunkey people in Virginia. They control the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William County, Virginia. Historically, they spoke the Pamunkey language.
They are one of 11 Native ...
nation that once inhabited the area, and used the island for summer hunting.
The island was also once the site of the Monkey Island Hunting Club, which remains standing today. The Monkey Island Hunting Club was incorporated in 1919 by a group of
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
executives including George Hill, president of the
American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter, Goodwin & Company, and Kinney Brothers. The company was one of the or ...
and its Executive Vice-president Charles Penn. It was sold in 1974 and after a series of failed businesses came into the possession of US Fish & Wildlife Service. A bell salvaged from a locomotive was used for many years to help members of local Hunt Clubs navigate the waters around Monkey Island on foggy days. The bell is currently on display in Historic Corolla Village.
Approximately half of the island is
forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
ed and has long supported a large colony of wading
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
s. It is currently the most northerly known native habitat of the ''
Sabal minor
''Sabal minor'', commonly known as the dwarf palmetto, is a small species of Arecaceae, palm. It is native to the deep southeastern and south-central United States and northeastern Mexico. It is naturally found in a diversity of habitats, includi ...
''
palm
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
** List of Arecaceae genera
**Palm oil
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music ...
. The island is often visited by
deer
A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...