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is a town in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,349 at the 2000 census.
Newport was officially chartered in 1866. Although the crossroads community on the Newport River was known by that name decades earlier, the area was also known as Bell's Corner and Shepardsville in earlier years.
Early industry included agriculture, logging, and naval stores, including turpentine production. During the town's early history, the Newport River was navigable all the way to Old Topsail Inlet, now known as Beaufort Inlet, which opens to the Atlantic Ocean. The town was home to one of the earliest organized churches in Carteret County, the Newport River Primitive Baptist Church, established 1778. The structure was burned near the end of the American Civil War but soon rebuilt on Church Street and remains active today.
In 1858, the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad was completed when the final 96-mile stretch of rail from Goldsboro through Newport to Beaufort was laid. The community is also the site of numerous Civil War battlefields, forts, and strategic locations. Newport was occupied by Union forces for much of the war.
Part of the town's residential area known as the "housing project" was originally developed as housing for civil service employees and military serving at nearby Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.