09/26/2026
Some of the houses on Topsail Island started life as something else entirely. They were observation towers for a secret Navy missile program. 🚀
In 1946, the Navy moved about 500 people onto Topsail Island and turned an old wartime anti-aircraft firing point at Sears Landing into a missile testing facility. Working with the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, they put up an assembly building, a control tower, a launching platform, a bombproof shelter and eight concrete observation towers about thirty-five feet tall. The goal was a jet-powered missile that could destroy an air target as far as twenty miles away. They called the project Operation Bumblebee, because the aerodynamic problems looked about as impossible as a bumblebee in flight. 🐝
Over about eighteen months, an estimated 200 rockets were launched from the island, and the records stayed classified for years afterward. Then in 1948 the Navy packed up and moved its testing to White Sands, New Mexico, and Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the weather was better. What it left behind became part of the town. Seven of the eight towers still stand. Some are private homes, and one is part of a fishing pier. The launching platform later became the patio of the Jolly Roger Motel, and the old assembly building now houses a museum. 🏖️
Have you ever stayed near one of the Topsail towers without knowing what it was built for?
