The earliest white settlers in Straits arrived from the Chesapeake Bay area and New England. Many of these people came because they were commercial whalers and fishermen. They named the community for the body of water on which it is located. The colonial government encouraged many New Englanders to relocate here to harvest the "royal fish", paying 1/10th to the crown. One of the first fishing licenses issued in North Carolina (1725-1726) was for whaling by paying a royalty. The first sheriff of Carteret County was a former whaler from Straits. An early map (1733) called the body of water between Craney Island (now Harkers Island) and Straits Core Sound. However, this was changed in later survey (1783) to reflect the Straits of Core Sound. This area provided some of the county’s best farmland and it remained that way until the 1960s.

Tree farming was the first commercial agricultural endeavors, and provided wood by products for naval stores. These were the turpentine farmers, an early enterprise of the "Down East" farmers. Other agricultural crops included cotton, Irish and sweet potatoes, cabbage and corn. Sweet potatoes were cured in sweet potato banks made of juncus marsh grass. Today, this would be illegal. After the revolutionary war the residents of the area would no longer belong to the Anglican Church. In 1778 Bishop Asbury traveled by pole skiff from Beaufort to Down East to help establish the Straits Methodist Church. Shortly after this religious wakening the first Masonic lodge was established in Straits, Jerusalem Lodge No. 35. The Beaufort Lodge was not established until 1806.

Milling by windmill power was an everyday operation in many of the Down East communities. One mill was located at Straits on the property of Guy Chadwick's heirs. It is no longer in existence, but the millstones are located on the Beaufort Historical Site. Gloucester, part of Straits Township, was named in 1904 for the seaport of Gloucester, Mass., after a sea journey made by Captain Joe Pigott.

Today, the communities of Straits and Gloucester are primarily residential, with businesses related to salt water activities, recreation and construction.