Rocky Point is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Pender County Pender County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,203. Its county seat is Burgaw. Pender County is part of the Wilmington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The count ...

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 ...

, United States. The population was 1,476 at the 2020 census. Rocky Point is within the

Wilmington, NC Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 census, it is the eighth-most populous city in the state. The county seat of New Hanover County, it is the principal cit ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

Rocky Point is located at Exit 408 off of

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

. It is situated along

North Carolina Highway 210 North Carolina Highway 210 (NC 210) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina that connects settlements in the Atlantic Coastal Plain region. Due to its meandering route NC 210 changes directional orientation twice, changi ...

North Carolina Highway 133 North Carolina Highway 133 (NC 133) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It traverses from Oak Island Drive in Oak Island, North Carolina, Oak Island to North Carolina Highway 210, NC 210 in Bells Crossroad ...

, and U.S. Route 117. The community is located in southern Pender County, north of Castle Hayne. Rocky Point is situated 15–20 miles from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, with Wrightsville Beach being the nearest public beach. The ZIP Code for Rocky Point is 28457.

Public services

The community is served by the Rocky Point Fire Department, Pender County Fire and

EMS Ems or EMS may refer to: Places and rivers * Domat/Ems, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Grisons * Ems (river) (Eems), a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands that discharges in the Dollart Bay * Ems (Eder), a river o ...

, and the Pender County Sheriff's Office.

Schools

* Rocky Point Elementary School * Cape Fear Elementary School * Cape Fear Middle School * Heide Trask High School

School system

Rocky Point schools are within the Pender County Schools system. The superintendent of PCS is Dr. Brad Breedlove, who assumed the position on January 1, 2023.

Former schools

* Long Creek High School (1924–1993) * PCTS (1929–1969) * Rocky Point school (1925–1943)

Notable people

John Baptista Ashe John Baptista Ashe (1810December 29, 1857), was an American lawyer and the nephew of the Revolutionary War veteran John Baptista Ashe, who served as a U.S. Congressman for Tennessee for one term (1843–1845). Biography Ashe was born in Rock ...

, former

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

for

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

* William Shepperd Ashe, former

* Richard Brickhouse,

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

driver who won the inaugural

Talladega 500 The Talladega Superspeedway hosts two 500-mile races in the NASCAR Cup Series calendar, both generically referred as "Talladega 500". * The spring race, currently known as Jack Link's 500 * The fall race, currently known as YellaWood 500 The Y ...

in 1969

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in North Carolina Census-designated places in Pender County, North Carolina Cape Fear (region)