Monkey Junction, North Carolina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Monkey Junction, North Carolina
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Northerly view of Monkey Junction in September 2021, taken from the junction's southeast corner.
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| Country | United States |
| State | North Carolina |
| County | New Hanover |
| Time zone | Eastern |
Monkey Junction is an unincorporated area near Wilmington, North Carolina in New Hanover County at the intersection of College Road (NC 132) and Carolina Beach Road (US 421). It is one of several centers of recent commercial and residential growth near Wilmington and is currently being targeted for annexation by the city of Wilmington.
Geography
History
The intersection has been known as "Monkey Junction" for almost seventy years thanks to a gas station that was located there from the late 1930s through the mid-1970s. The station, run by Dina and Jack Spindle, kept live monkeys in order to attract customers from a bus that passed by on the way to and from Carolina Beach, which lies several miles south of the junction. The bus driver would stop near the station and announce "Monkey Junction". Soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Fisher were also regular customers who enjoyed being entertained by the monkeys.
Non-natives can be readily identified as they refer to the locale as it appears on maps "Myrtle Grove Junction", a reference to the local residential neighborhood nearby.
