North Carolina’s rivers and streams, a forty-thousand-mile network, have a rich history, both natural and cultural. One way to explore this heritage is to learn about their routes and the origins of their names. Here’s a look at some of the state’s major rivers.

Cape Fear River
The Cape Fear River begins where the Deep and Haw Rivers meet, near Moncure in Chatham County. When the river nears Wilmington, it turns into an estuary; thirty-five miles farther, it empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

In the early 1500s, Spanish explorer Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón was the first European to record a name—Jordan—for the river. English explorers dubbed it the Charles River in 1664 and later the Clarendon River. But the name that stuck originated from the dangers that the river’s cape posed to ships. The large sand dunes jutting out from Smith Island and Frying Pan Shoals, a shallow area perilous to boats, caused European mariners to name the river mouth Cape of Fear. The river came to be called the same name, which was then shortened to Cape Fear.

Catawba River
The Catawba River flows from the Blue Ridge Mountains through the Piedmont, passing by Charlotte on its way to South Carolina. It turns into the Wateree River near Columbia. Because of excessive land development near its banks, sewage discharges and spills, and water withdrawals, the Catawba River was declared the thirteenth most endangered American river of 2001 by the national organization American Rivers. After lawmakers in both North Carolina and South Carolina enacted legislation protecting the river from further harm, however, the Catawba River has been removed from the list in 2002.

Early European explorers named the river after the Catawba Indian tribe, which they encountered along its banks. In fact, Catawba may have meant “people of the river banks.” The Catawba numbered about 4,600 in 1682. Today, descendants of the tribe live on a reservation in York County, South Carolina.

Chowan River
The Chowan River begins in southeastern Virginia and flows southeasterly, finding its way into North Carolina before draining into the Albemarle Sound.

The river’s name derives from the Chowanoc, or Chawanoke, Indians, who lived along the river in north-central North Carolina in the 1500s and 1600s. Chowan comes from the Algonquian sorwain (south) or sowainohke (south country). Like many tribes in the state, the Chowanoc saw their numbers severely depleted when settlers moved into the area in the 1700s. Though the tribe is extinct, members of the Meherrin tribe trace their ancestry to the Chowanoc.

See http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=XPO001-019 to learn more about the Chowan River.

French Broad River
The French Broad River originates in Rosman, Transylvania County, and flows 210 miles through western North Carolina into northern Tennessee. It joins the Holston River outside Knoxville to create the Tennessee River.

The Cherokee, who lived in the area thousands of years before European settlement, knew the river as Agiqua (long man) and as Tahkeeostee (racing waters). Early settlers renamed it for its wide waters, which flowed into French territory.

Find more information on the French Broad River at http://seris.info/RiverLink/.

Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River begins as a creek at the confluence of Betty and Darnell Creeks in Rabun County, Georgia. It becomes a significant river as it flows northward into North Carolina, where it joins the Nantahala and Tuckasegee Rivers, which run into the Fontana Reservoir.

The Cherokee called the river Wahatchee (great river). European settlers arriving changed the river’s name to Tanasi, also the name of a principal Cherokee village before 1730. The inclusion of “little” differentiates this river from the larger Tennessee River.

Lumber River
The Lumber River’s headwaters are known as Drowning Creek. The river extends from the Scotland County–Hoke County border in south-central North Carolina and flows into the Little Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

The river was originally named Lumbee, from an Indian word meaning “black water.” Early settlers called it Drowning Creek; that name appears in colonial records from the mid-1700s. In 1809 the state legislature changed the name to the Lumber River, most likely because of the lumber industry’s use of the river in transporting its products. Today, sections of the river are included in the National Park Service’s National Wild and Scenic River System.

Neuse River
The Neuse River, estimated to be more than two million years old, originates in Durham County at the junction of the Eno—from the Tuscarora e-eno (a great way, or far off)—and Flat Rivers. Above New Bern it becomes a shallow estuary; continuing downstream, it empties into Pamlico Sound as the widest-mouthed river in the continental United States. The Neuse measures 348 miles, making it North Carolina’s longest river.

The Neuse River was named for the Neusiok tribe, which lived along the southern banks of the river when Englishman Richard Grenville explored Pamlico Sound in 1585. By the early 1700s, many tribal members had died from warfare and the diseases brought by European settlers, and others may have merged with the larger Tuscarora tribe.

See http://www.neuseriver.org/ for more information.

New River
On early maps of the Piedmont, the New River appears as Wood’s River. It was named for Colonel Abraham Wood, who sought trade with local Indian tribes in 1654 and was probably the first European to have seen the river. Several stories explain how it became known as the New River. One story asserts that Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, named the river—thinking it had not already been discovered—when he surveyed the North Carolina–Virginia boundary in 1749. Another says it was Jefferson’s omission of the river on a map that caused a future road builder to call it the New River. A third story claims the river was named for a man who ran a ferry service across it. And yet another story contends the name came from an Indian word meaning “new water.”

Ironically, the New River is actually North Carolina’s oldest river. It is also believed to be one of oldest rivers in North America. The north and south forks of the New River flow north from the Blue Ridge Mountains, meeting a few miles south of the North Carolina–Virginia line. It continues its unusual northward flow through Virginia and West Virginia, its waters eventually reaching the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi River. The National Park Service has designated sections of the river’s south fork as part of the National Wild and Scenic River System.

Go to http://www.ils.unc.edu/parkproject/visit/neri/history.html to learn more about the New.

Roanoke River
The Roanoke River begins in the mountains of southwest Virginia and flows southeasterly, into the Albemarle Sound. Of the river’s 410 miles, 140 flow through North Carolina.

Before the eighteenth century, the Roanoke River was called the Moratoc or Moratucke, after the Algonquian-speaking people who lived on its banks. The word Roanoke may derive from rawrenock, the shell beads used by the coastal tribes as trade goods. It may also mean “northern people,” implying either that the Algonquian tribe lived on the northern part of the island or that the tribe originated in the North (New York area).

Click on http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/ northcarolina/preserves/art5631.html for more about the Roanoke River.

Tar-Pamlico River
The Tar River begins near Roxboro in Person County and flows southeasterly for 140 miles, where, as an estuary, it becomes the Pamlico River and flows another thirty-seven miles before emptying into Pamlico Sound.

Some people believe that the Tar River takes its name from the Indian word tau (beautiful water or river of health); others think it was named for the Taw River in Devonshire, England. Most historians, however, agree that the name reflects the area’s abundance of pine trees, an important source of tar to early settlers. The Pamlico River gets its name from the Indian tribe—also known as the Pampticoe and the Pampitough—that lived along its banks. The tribe probably merged with the Tuscarora after losing much of its population during European settlement.

The Web site http://www.ptrf.org/index.html offers more information about the Tar-Pamlico River.

Yadkin–Pee Dee River
The Yadkin River drains from the Virginia border, flowing through west-central North Carolina. It becomes the Pee Dee River about fifty miles east of Charlotte and continues flowing southeastward through South Carolina to the Atlantic Ocean.

Europeans first knew the Yadkin River as the Sapona River, after the Saponi tribe. Yadkin may refer to Yattken, a tribe or tribal town that existed along the river in the late 1600s, as recorded by Abraham Wood. Early European explorers mapping the Piedmont met the Pee Dee tribe, also known also as the Peedee and the Pedee. The tribe left a rich archaeological record, interpreted today at Town Creek Indian Mound State Historic Site in Montgomery County.

Go to http://www.eenorthcarolina.org/public/ecoaddress/riverbasins/yadkin.pdf for more information.