- Introduction
- Three Regions
- North Carolina Counties
- North Carolina Gazetteer
- City Nicknames
- Related Links
- Assignment 5
Introduction
From Manteo to Murphy, North Carolina places offer opportunities to teach
about most all aspects of geography, as well as language arts, science,
and many other social studies fields.
North Carolina Places and the Five Themes of Geography
All five themes play prominent roles in the study of North Carolina places.
- Location: North Carolina places—from towns to state historic sites—can be used to show both relative and absolute locations.
- Place: Both physical and human characteristics of place are a natural part of the study of North Carolina places.
- Human Environment Interactions: The interactions of humans and their environment have shaped North Carolina places for thousands of years, and continue to do so today.
- Movement: The movement of residents into, out of, and around North Carolina has significantly impacted the state’s towns, cities, and rural areas for thousands of years. Visitors have also affected North Carolina’s places.
- Regions: North Carolina places are located in three regions of the state; these regions are based on geologic areas, but have also come to shape human geography.
Courtesy of the North Carolina Department of
Commerce
The Coastal Plain
The Coastal Plain extends westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the fall line, or boundary of the Piedmont region, a term referring to the rocky rapids that have formed in the rivers and streams where they leave the higher elevations of the Piedmont and drop to the lower elevations of the Coastal Plain. The region ranges from 100 to 150 miles wide and gently rises in elevation to the west, from sea level on the coast to as much as 500 feet in the sandhills area. The Coastal Plain is divided into two sections, the tidewater and the inner coastal plain. The tidewater, a very flat area ranging from thirty to eighty miles wide, forms the eastern section. Here the changing tides affect the level of water in the sounds and rivers. The inner coastal plain forms the western section of the Coastal Plain region. Its western boundary is the fall line, its eastern boundary the tidewater.
Called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for its hidden shoals, strong currents, and shallow inlets, the coast made sea transportation treacherous, and caused a slow start to settlement in colonial North Carolina. In time, though, the obstacles of a hostile coastal environment were overcome and became an advantage. In the interior counties, the Cape Fear River became an important trade route. It is the only river in the state that flows into the Atlantic Ocean; the others flow into the sounds or out of the state.
Communities in the Outer Banks, traditionally dependent on fishing and coastal trade, today focus on tourism. Riverine settlements in the tidewater region, such as Elizabeth City to the north and Wilmington to the south, remain tied to fishing, port industries, small-scale manufacturing, food and forest products, and public services, with an increasing importance on tourism. A mainly agricultural economy remains in the inner coastal plain, as it has for several centuries, though major military installations (Johnson Seymour Air Force Base in Goldsboro and Fort Bragg in Fayetteville) and East Carolina University in Greenville add stability and diversity.
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Geography of the Coastal Plain: Fast Facts
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The Piedmont
The Piedmont, North Carolina’s central geographic region, sprawls over 22,000 square miles. It contains the majority of the state’s population, its largest cities, and the bulk of the state’s wealth and industry. The region lies between the Atlantic Ocean to the each and Appalachian Mountains to the west. It measures about 200 miles wide and gradually rises in elevation from 500 to 1,500 feet. Punctuating this gently rolling countryside are ancient mountains, varying from 1,700 to 2,700 feet high.
A traveler heading west across the state leaves the coastal plain east of Raleigh and enters forests dominated by oak, hickory, and poplar trees. The clay-based soils, heavier than the sandy loams of the east, are difficult to cultivate. Low quality soils, thick forests, and the many hills shaped a colony economy of small farms rather than large plantations. Unlike the broad, sluggish rivers of the Coastal Plain, the streams of the Piedmont are narrow, rocky, shallow, and rapid. These streams were historically poor for transport but good sources of power, fueling the state’s manufacturing giant: the textile industry.
From the legislative halls in Raleigh to the financial board rooms of Charlotte and Winston-Salem to the industrial headquarters in Greensboro and Hickory to the intellectual research centers of Research Triangle Park, the future of the state is planned in the Piedmont today. The region is the most urbanized of the three, with seven of the state’s ten largest cities located in the Piedmont. In fact, the swaths along Interstate 40 from Winston-Salem to Raleigh and along Interstate 85 from Greensboro to Charlotte and Gastonia are known as North Carolina’s “Main Street.”
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Geography of the Piedmont: Fast Facts
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The Mountain Region
The mountains of western North Carolina are part of the larger Appalachian chain. There are forty-three peaks higher than 6,000 feet and another eighty-two between 5,000 and 6,000. Mt. Mitchell, at 6,684 feet, is the highest point in the eastern United States. Cutting through these mountains is the Eastern Continental Divide. Precipitation falling west of this imaginary line reaches creeks and rivers that flow into the Gulf of Mexico; whatever falls east flows downstream into the Atlantic Ocean.
In the thirty-mile drive from Asheville to Mt. Mitchell, visitors can see changes in vegetation and climate that one could experience in a drive from North Carolina to Canada. There is also a great diversity of mammals and birds.
Today, much of the eastern foothills are an extension of the western Piedmont’s manufacturing industry; to the west, small towns dominate. Some of the towns have a thriving tourism industry, capitalizing on skiing, boating, and other recreational activities. Mountain agriculture continues, from general commercial farming in the northwest to specialized crops, such as Christmas trees and native medicinal plants, elsewhere.
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Geography of the Mountain Region: Fast Facts
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North Carolina
Counties
by Beth Crist
Courtesy of the North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services
North Carolinians take pride in the state’s one hundred counties, and many natives identify themselves by the county in which they were born. Each county has its own character, geography, and, although subtle, unique accent. The establishment of these counties occurred gradually, beginning in the colony of Carolina in 1664. Two hundred forty-seven years later, on February 23, 1911, the General Assembly established North Carolina’s last county, Avery. Although some changes have occurred in county boundaries and the spelling of county names since then, Avery County’s creation was essentially the last piece in the fascinating history of the state’s counties.
| In 1664 the Lords Proprietors ordered the creation of the first three counties—Albemarle, Clarendon, and Craven—in the area that is now North Carolina. Although the latter counties did not have defined boundaries and never operated effectively, Albemarle County did function well. It was dissolved in 1689 because its four precincts—Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, and Perquimans—had become functional counties in their own right. | How do you pronounce that?? Not from North Carolina, and not sure how to pronounce some of these county names? Go to Talk Like a Tar Heel: North Carolina Place Names for help. |
The county was similar to the English shire, which acted as the administrative arm of the national government as well as the citizen’s local government. The structure of the shire was adapted to suit the economic and geographic needs of each colony. Under proprietary rule, the county was the primary political and geographical unit of the colony. The Lords Proprietors appointed governors to counties; they, in turn, appointed justices of the peace, who performed both judicial and administrative functions. Justices assessed and levied taxes; established and maintained roads, bridges, and ferries; and erected and controlled mills. By their appointments, they supervised the work of law enforcement officers, administrative officers of the court, surveyors, and wardens of the poor.
After America gained independence from England, county governments in the state remained similar to those in colonial times, although the process of creating new counties became quite political. As more people moved into the backcountry of the Piedmont and Mountains, the new inhabitants expected that counties would be created. But those in the more populous eastern part of the state felt that adding counties in the western regions would threaten their political dominance; thus, they tried to prevent the creation of new counties. When they were forced to yield, they attempted to offset the addition of new western counties by dividing eastern counties in half. This is the reason there are so many small counties in eastern North Carolina today. Between 1777 and 1823, thirty-three counties were created: eighteen in the west and fifteen in the east. In 1830 the state had sixty-four counties, thirty-six of which lay east of Raleigh.
In 1868 the newly rewritten Constitution of North Carolina brought changes to county governments. Although the position of justice of the peace was retained, judicial responsibilities were distributed between the justices and the North Carolina Superior Court. A board of county commissioners, elected by the voters of the county, assumed administrative duties. This board of five members was responsible for public buildings, schools, roads and bridges, and the financial affairs of the county, including taxation. The positions of coroner, clerk of court, register of deeds, surveyor, and treasurer became elected posts rather than appointments. Each county was divided into townships, with the voters of each township electing two justices of the peace and a clerk, who served as the governing body of the township. Under the county commissioners’ supervision, the township board was responsible for roads and bridges and for assessing property for taxation. Each township had a constable and a school committee. The General Assembly modified this democratic arrangement of county government in 1875, amending the constitution to require that county commissioners be appointed by justices of the peace rather than elected. Twenty years later, however, the right of the people to elect county commissioners was restored in most counties.
By the end of the nineteenth century, North Carolina had ninety-seven counties; three counties were added in the 1900s. Changes to county government have continued. For instance, in response to some counties nearing bankruptcy during the Depression, Governor Angus W. McLean’s administration established the County Government Advisory Commission in 1927 to give financial advice to ailing counties. In 1931 the General Assembly created the commission’s more powerful successor, the Local Government Commission, which retains great importance in county government management today. Counties’ roles in building and maintaining roads, operating schools, conducting elections, housing lower courts and their records, maintaining property ownership and mortgage records, enforcing the state’s criminal law, and administering public health and public welfare programs have been redefined over the years and will most likely continue to evolve as needs and populations change.
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Fast facts about North Carolina counties
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The following article appeared in Tar Heel Junior Historian 44 (spring 2005), p.
North
Carolina Gazetteer
by Kevin Cherry
North
Carolina can claim some strangely named places. Iron Duff, Pig Basket
Creek, Rabbit Shuffle, Relief, Aho, and Dirty Britches Creek are actual
locations in the Tar Heel State. These names, along with those of more
than twenty thousand other places and geographic features, fill the pages
of The North Carolina Gazetteer. This important reference book
records when North Carolina places were founded, when their names were
first used (if known), and how the place-names came into existence.
Tar Heel places are named for animals and birds, trees, and even the wind. Forty-one places in North Carolina have the word elk in their names. The buffalo can claim even more namesakes. People have named their hometowns for politicians and soldiers, both the famous and the little known. A few places even carry the names of the infamous. In Caldwell County, Cajah’s Mountain is named for Micajah, a man who was hanged there long ago. There are two Black Ankles in the state. Randolph County’s Black Ankle is named for the burned ground left by bootleggers trying to trick Prohibition agents. Robeson County’s Black Ankle is named after the local soil, which is reportedly so fertile that it leaves the farmers’ ankles black when they walk through it. The town of Aurora in Beaufort County is credited to a newspaper, the Aurora Borealis. The town of Oriental took its name from a ship that wrecked nearby in 1852. And a man named the community of Lizard Lick for the many lizards he spotted licking the air as they sunned nearby. Quite a few places in the state have names that aren’t polite, and some of them are a bit naughty. Well, naughty or not, if it weren’t for The North Carolina Gazetteer, finding this sort of information would be quite difficult.
Creating the Gazetteer
William S. Powell is one of North Carolina’s best-known and most
prolific historians. He has written several books about his native state
and its inhabitants. In 1951 Mr. Powell was working with a journal that
a British merchant had written in the 1700s. This merchant had visited
North Carolina and mentioned in his journal a number of places and bodies
of water. These place-names were no longer used, and Mr. Powell could
not find them on any old maps. A few months later, an airplane exploded
over a small North Carolina community, and even though this place made
the national news because of the crash, Mr. Powell could not locate it
on a map. This same situation repeated itself several times over the next
few years. In response, Mr. Powell began to record North Carolina place-names
on index cards. He had kept index cards with interesting bits of historical
information on them for a number of years before this, but his geographical
name cards began to greatly increase.
Just as some people collect baseball cards, Mr. Powell began to collect these North Carolina place-name cards. He looked at old maps and searched through old reports. He hunted down old lists. Whenever he discovered the name of a town, creek, county, or community, he wrote that name down on a card, along with any information he could find about where the place was, when it was named, and how it got its name. Then he arranged these geographic name cards by counties, and his collection grew rapidly. His wife, Virginia, helped to maintain his collection, and his children taught themselves card games with the index cards he did not need. Those cards almost became part of the family. Mr. Powell’s collection really expanded after he asked local historians from across the state to help him. They provided information for places Mr. Powell had found and made suggestions for adding places he had missed.
For fifteen years, Mr. Powell directed the collection of North Carolina place-names by managing his card files. In 1968 the University of North Carolina Press merged Mr. Powell’s organized cards into a book, The North Carolina Gazetteer. As with any major undertaking, the Gazetteer contains a few mistakes, and it doesn’t capture every Tar Heel place. But thanks to the hard work of Mr. Powell, and his local historian friends, North Carolina can claim one of the most comprehensive gazetteers of any state. Because of North Carolina’s Gazetteer, when a person now reads about a creek in a journal from the 1700s or hears about an obscure Tar Heel place on the news, it’s possible to pull a book from the shelf to discover more about that place. And Mr. Powell’s Gazetteer has made it possible to know why a place might have a strange name.
*Kevin Cherry is a visiting instructor in the Department of Library Science and Instructional Technology at East Carolina University’s College of Education. William S. Powell has thoughtfully annotated Cherry’s copy of The North Carolina Gazetteer to show that Denver, North Carolina, is the author’s hometown.
Largest Municipalities in North Carolina, 2002
| RANK | MUNICIPALITY | COUNTY * | POPULATION (2002) |
| 1 | CHARLOTTE | MECKLENBURG | 581,676 |
| 2 | RALEIGH | Durham, WAKE | 303,567 |
| 3 | GREENSBORO | GUILFORD | 227,793 |
| 4 | DURHAM | DURHAM, Orange, Wake | 198,688 |
| 5 | WINSTON-SALEM | FORSYTH | 190,851 |
| 6 | FAYETTEVILLE | CUMBERLAND | 123,844 |
| 7 | CARY | Chatham, WAKE | 102,241 |
| 8 | WILMINGTON | NEW HANOVER | 91,458 |
| 9 | HIGH POINT | Davidson, Forsyth, GUILFORD, Randolph | 88,277 |
| 10 | ASHEVILLE | BUNCOMBE | 70,070 |
*City boundaries often encompass portions of more than one county. Counties in which the greatest proportion of the population resides are capitalized. From the State Library of North Carolina.
City Nicknames
All the staff at the North Carolina Museum of History pitched in to create
this list of official and well-known nicknames and slogans of cities and
towns across the state. It began as just a fun addition to this session,
but it turns out that many of the nicknames and slogans nicely tie together
many aspects of the state’s geography.
| Town | Nickname/slogan |
| Aberdeen | Home of American Golf |
| Andrews | Little Town with the Big Heart |
| Angier | Town of Crepe Myrtles |
| Apex | Peak of Good Living |
| Asheville | Land of the Sky |
| Atlantic City/Beaufort | Crystal Coast |
| Beaufort | Fish Town |
| Beech Mountain | Eastern America's Highest Town |
| Black Mountain | Front Porch Of Western
North Carolina |
| Blowing Rock | Crown of the Blue Ridge |
| Boiling Springs | Crossroads of Opportunity |
| Boone | Heart of the High Country |
| Brevard | Tree City USA; Wonderland Of Waterfalls |
| Calabash | Seafood Capital of the World |
| Canton | Where The Mountains Kiss The Sky |
| Carrboro | Paris of the Piedmont |
| Carthage | Buggy Capital Of The World |
| Cary | Where Better Living Begins; Technology Town |
| Chadbourne | Sunny South Colony |
| Chapel Hill | Southern Part of Heaven; Blue Heaven |
| Charlotte | Queen City; Hornet’s Nest |
| Cherokee | Land of the Blue Mist |
| Concord | City Meeting the Future |
| Cooleemee | Where Family Traditions Are a Way of Life |
| Durham | City of Medicine; Bull City |
| Edenton | The South’s Prettiest Small Town |
| Edneyville | Heart Of Apple Country |
| Elizabeth City | Harbor of Hospitality |
| Flat Rock | Little Charleston Of The Mountains |
| Franklin | Simple Pleasures: Mountain Treasures |
| Garner | A Great Place to Be |
| Gastonia | Spindle City; Heartbeat of the Piedmont |
| Gold Hill | Richest Mining Property East Of The Mississippi |
| Goldsboro | Where Legends Begin |
| Greensboro | Gate City |
| Greenville | Emerald City |
| Grifton | Family Town |
| Hamlet | Hub of the Seaboard |
| Hatteras | Graveyard of the Atlantic |
| Havelock | Gateway to Cherry Point |
| Hiddenite | Gem Capital Of The World |
| High Point | Home Furnishings Capital of the World |
| Holly Springs | Where Tradition and Vision Meet |
| Kannapolis | City of Looms |
| Kings Mountain | Historical City |
| Knightdale | Living at its Best |
| LaGrange | The Garden Spot |
| Lenoir | Furniture Capital of the South |
| Lexington | Hickory Smoked Barbecue Capital Of The World |
| McAdenville | Christmas Town USA |
| Matthews | Stumptown |
| Mooresville | Race City USA |
| Morrisville | Heart of the Triangle |
| Mt. Airy | Mayberry; Granite City; Hosiery Capital of the World; Small Town USA |
| Norlina | Where North Carolina Begins |
| Old Fort | Catawba Vale |
| Pembroke | Scuffletown |
| Raleigh | City of Oaks |
| Richlands | Town of Perfect Water |
| Rockingham | A City Looking Forward |
| Rolesville | Small Town—Bright Future |
| Roper | Progress through Unity |
| Roxboro | Progress is Our Business |
| Saluda | Pace's Gap |
| Seagrove | Pottery Capital Of The World |
| Shelby | City of Pleasant Living |
| Spencer | We’re on the Right Track! |
| Spruce Pine | The Mineral City |
| Tabor City | Yam Capital Of The World |
| Taylorsville | The Apple City |
| Thomasville | Chair City |
| Troy | Gateway To The Uwharries |
| Tryon | Friendliest Town In The South |
| Valdese | Every Drop Counts |
| Warrenton | Front Porch Town |
| Washington | Little Washington |
| Wendell | Town of Progress and Opportunity |
| Whiteville | Small Town Charm With Big City Connections |
| Wilmington | Hollywood East; Wilmywood; Port City; Azalea City |
| Winston-Salem | Twin City |
| And the state itself... |
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| North Carolina | Tar Heel; Old North State; Rip Van Winkle State |
Did we miss the nickname of your hometown or favorite vacation spot? Please post it on the Bulletin Board!
North Carolina river names River names can be interesting too. For information on the origins of North Carolina river names, click here. |
America’s Byways: North Carolina
http://www.byways.org/browse/states/NC/
National Park Guide: North Carolina
http://data2.itc.nps.gov/parksearch/state.cfm?st=nc
North Carolina–City Populations
http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-NorthCarolina.html
The North Carolina Collection (UNC-Chapel Hill): North Carolina County
Collection
http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/01counties.html
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources: Historic Sites
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/default.htm
The State Library of North Carolina Encyclopedia: County Histories
http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NC/CNTYOUT/CTYCOVER.HTM
University of Virginia Library: Geostat Center: County and City Data
Books
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/ccdb/
Assignment 5
Complete one of the following assignments:
Option1:
Research the reasons for or origins of two of the following town nicknames
or slogans:
Aberdeen: Home of American Golf
Beaufort: Fish Town
Carthage: Buggy Capital Of The World
Durham: City of Medicine OR Bull City
Gastonia: Spindle City
Greensboro: Gate City
Hamlet: Hub of the Seaboard
Lexington: Hickory Smoked Barbecue Capital Of The World
Matthews: Stumptown
Mt. Airy: Granite City OR Hosiery Capital of the World
Pembroke: Scuffletown
Saluda: Pace's Gap
Spencer: We’re on the Right Track!
Spruce Pine: The Mineral City
Tabor City: Yam Capital Of The World
Taylorsville: The Apple City
Thomasville: Chair City
Wilmington: Hollywood East OR Port City
Winston-Salem: Twin City
Outline the reasoning behind each of the nicknames; include whether or not you feel they are appropriate (if not, offer alternatives). Explain generally how you could use this type of information to teach geography in your classroom.
Option 2: (If you
are seeking reading credits, choose this option.)
Create a lesson plan in which your students read at least two works of
fiction, poetry, drama, and/or creative nonfiction works in order to capture
the essence of one or more North Carolina places. Have the students compare
the perceptions of the places and the state in general that are expressed
in each work; include a discussion of any differences noted. (Be sure
to read Special Session 2 for a discussion
on teaching geography through literature.)
Option 3: (If you are seeking technology credits,
choose this option.)
Develop a virtual field trip to “take” your students on a
tour of at least three North Carolina places of your choosing. You may
choose several locations in one region, a few small towns or large cities
scattered throughout the state, historic sites, state parks, etc. Once
you’ve chosen your places, find one or more Web site to represent
each one and create an activity around them using an outline or a narrative
form. Include the following elements:
- an introduction explaining the purpose of the “trip” and why you chose these particular places to explore
- the address and a brief description of each Web site
- questions the students should answer after visiting each site AND/OR
- a larger assignment or activity based upon all the material
- other details you wish to include
For examples of virtual field trips, go to http://www.field-trips.org/trips.htm. These sites have elaborate formats, but they might give you ideas. The site http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr057.shtml offers simpler but still effective examples.
(Optional: please answer, for the museum's informal survey: Do you think you would use this virtual field trip in your classroom? Why or why not? Have you ever used virtual field trips or similar Internet activities with your students in the past? If so, please describe your experiences. Thank you!)
Submit your completed assignment via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncmail.net.