 This ruling further stated that only current residents and descendants could occupy the property, but it did not give any individuals title to the land.This ruling remained intact until 1979 when a legal settlement permitted Salter Path residents to hold title to their property and for Carteret County to levy taxes on the former squatter’s village.The Emerald Isle Coast Guard Station is located on the western end of Bogue Banks; Fort Macon State Park, located on the eastern end, beyond Atlantic Beach, saw action during the Civil War; there the ornithologist and naturalist Elliott Coues spent two years, 1869–70, as US Army surgeon, taking the opportunity to study the sea birds, marsh birds and shore birds that nested there, noting lynx and mink, "describing a coastal world scarcely touched by commercial fishing, much less by the unrestrained tourism and real-estate development of today".