MARSHALLBERG - Half a century ago, seven families donated rights to a few acres so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could dig a harbor in this fishing village. The harbor was to be used by "the boat owners of the people of Marshallberg, and any and all other boat owners," according to a 1956 deed.

The long, rectangular basin came to define Marshallberg, a hamlet in Carteret County east of Beaufort, where many residents still pull a living from the water. The community club that oversees the harbor is the closest thing to a government, which is fine by locals, who don't care much for authority.

They use boats like city folk use cars, and in an era when slips can cost $100,000 or more, they're glad to have a free harbor.

They might be about to lose it. A surveyor from Raleigh and a Winston-Salem lawyer and appraiser have bought much of the land along the harbor. They and members of a local family are suing nearly 40 people who keep boats there, as well as the county and federal government. They want to boot out most boats and stop locals from crossing their property. To reach their boats, locals walk and drive onto private property, and a road runs down Scott D. Nafe's land along the harbor's edge.

The 1956 deed gives the Army the right to build and maintain the harbor -- it since has passed its rights to the county. It gives locals the right to use it but doesn't say that they can cross private property along the harbor's sides.

Nafe, the Winston-Salem lawyer, plans a subdivision there of perhaps nine houses. He said the plaintiffs want full rights to the waterfront and harbor.

Those named in the lawsuit are struggling to pay their legal bill, which could top $100,000. The only place they can turn for money is the same place they've always turned: the water. They are holding fish fries with fish, crabs and shrimp that they catch themselves.

"That harbor is Marshallberg," said boat owner and defendant J.M. Brown. "If we lose, we're just another neighborhood that has lost its identity."

It is far from clear who has the legal edge. A judge last month tossed out a motion to dismiss the case and has ordered a trial.

The locals point to their use for five decades as proof that's what the harbor was built for. The county agrees.

"The construction of the harbor was to be for public purposes and was certainly not to be used by a private concern," County Attorney Claud R. Wheatly wrote in a letter to state regulators in 1997 when a previous property owner sought a permit for a private dock. That owner backed down.

A key passage in the deed, Nafe said, states that the land owners donated property rights knowing that the harbor added to the value of their land.

"Those signs say 'Save the harbor.' Well, save it for who?" Nafe asked, referring to signs that have sprung up in yards. "There are a couple of dozen individuals who are using the harbor to the exclusion of all others," he said. "It's positively not fair to those who own land on the harbor."

Nafe said that the county clearly controls the head of the harbor -- the small tract at the inner end -- and that the public should be allowed to use that. "I like these people, the majority of them," he said. "They are just used to having something for free."

Restricting access along the sides of the harbor would significantly reduce the number of boats that could use it.

No matter who wins, times are changing. A 14,000-square-foot mansion is taking shape within view of the harbor, and more people from somewhere else have been buying cottages or building homes.