NC Chap-01

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The Lay of
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the Land
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L
indsay McCloy made the
Chapter Preview whole state of North Car-
olina proud when she
competed in the National
Terms: region, sound, barrier Geography Bee in Wash-
island, inlet, Gulf Stream, wetland, ington, D.C., in 2004. At the time
estuary, pocosin, savanna, crossroads Lindsay was an eighth grader in Jack-
hamlets, tobacco towns, Carolina sonville, which is on the coast near
bays, fall line, headwaters, sectional- Camp Lejeune. Her father, Marine Lt.
ism, mill village, NASCAR, monad- Col. Darin McCloy, was serving in
nock, elevation, bald, cove, weather, Iraq. He called her all the way from
climate, westerlies, humidity, Baghdad to wish her luck. He was
precipitation, tornado, hurricane particularly proud that his daughter
Places: Tidewater region, Outer knew so much about people and
Banks, Jockey’s Ridge, Coastal Plain places around the world.
region, Sandhills, Fort Bragg, No one can make sense of North
Piedmont region, Research Triangle Carolina’s history, heritage, and cul-
Park, Uwharrie Mountains, Piedmont ture unless, like Lindsay, he or she
Crescent, Blue Ridge, Mountains learns the lessons of geography. Al-
region, Appalachian Mountains, though you live in a global society,
Mt. Mitchell, Black Mountains, you still have local ties. The physical
Great Smoky Mountains, Balsams, and social shape of North Carolina
Fontana Lake helps develop those ties. A central
theme of this book is that North Caro-
linians have always been greatly in-
fluenced by particular geographic
conditions. These geographic condi-
tions have produced historical prob-
lems, as you will learn in later
chapters. That is why we should all
become more like Lindsay. Our un-
derstanding of history depends upon
2 North Carolina: Land of Contrasts

our knowledge of geography. There is a traditional saying in North Caro-
lina: You have to know “the lay of the land” to know where you are going.
The key lesson in North Carolina geography is to learn that North
Carolina is one state but has several distinct parts called regions. A
region is a specific area where the lay of the land and the habits of the
people are much the same. Two of North Carolina’s regions are relatively
flat—the Tidewater and the Coastal Plain. There the people have tradi-
tionally raised large crops of tobacco, cotton, and foodstuffs. These two
regions make up the eastern section of the state. The other two regions— Below: The granite top of Pilot
the Piedmont and the Mountains—look like their names imply; they are Mountain, north of Winston-Salem,
hilly. These two regions make up the western section. Its people tradi- has been a landmark for more
tionally herded livestock and used the water power of its streams to run than a thousand years. Opposite
factories and make manufactured goods. Each region has distinctive page: Ocracoke Lighthouse is one
characteristics that continue to help shape the state. of the oldest on the Atlantic coast.
Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land 3

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SIGNS OF THE TIMES
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VITAL STATISTICS
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________Area:
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_______________52,712
_____________________________________miles
______________________________largest)
_________________________________
____________________________________square
_________________________________(28th
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________Land:
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______________49,412
__________________square
_________________miles
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________Water:
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_______________3,570
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_______East-west
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_________________________________length:
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_______________503
___________________________greater
________________________________any
________________________east
_________________
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_____________________________________than
_______________________state
________________________________
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_______________of______the
_________Mississippi
_____________________________River
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________North-south
_______________________________length:
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_______________187
____________miles
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________Number
___________________________bordering
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_________________________________states:
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______________4______________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________Lakes
__________________________ponds:
_________________________________________________________________________________ LOCATION
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_______________________and
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______________Over
____________50,000
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________River
_______________basins:
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______________Between
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_____________________________37 _________________________
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_______________17____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________33-1/2
_________________________________________and
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_____________________north
______________latitude
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_______Number
__________________________land
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_____________________________of__________________regions:
____________________________________________________________________ ________Longitude:
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_______________4____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________Between
_____________________75 ________degrees
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__________84-1/2
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________Number
___________________________counties:
________________________________________________________________________________ _______________degrees
_____________________west
____________longitude
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______________100
______________________________________________________________________________________________ ________Location
_______________________________________United
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__________________________________States:
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________Highest
_____________________point:
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______________Mount
________________Mitchell,
_____________________________________feet_________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________6,684
____________________________________________________________ ________Location
_______________________________________South:
_______________________________within
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________Lowest
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________Eastern
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______________Atlantic
___________________coastline,
________________________________level
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____________________________________________________________sea_______________________________________________________ ________East-west
_________________________divider:
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_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________Fall
___________line
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___________________________________center
______________________the
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________Geographic
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_______________In
______Chatham
________________________County,
____________________10
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_______________northwest
__________________________of
______Sanford
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4 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

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TARGET READING SKILL
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Reading Maps
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Defining the Skill • look at the scale and compass rose to determine
A map provides information in a graphic manner. There distance and direction.
are many types of maps, including topographical, physical/
political, historical, and satellite. Some common forms of Practicing the Skill
maps that are found in textbooks include weather, water- Look at the map of North Carolina’s counties below. As
ways, natural resources, land regions, road, and population. you examine the map, answer these questions.
To properly read a map, you should
• read the title to find the subject or purpose, 1. What is the subject of the map?
• determine the type of information that is displayed, 2. What type of information is found on the map?
• look at any key or legend to determine the meaning of 3. Is there a scale? If yes, what does it tell you?
symbols or colors, 4. Is there a legend? If yes, what does it tell you?
Target Reading Skill 5

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The Tidewater Region

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As you read, look for:

Map 1 • the features of the Tidewater region
• the barrier islands
North Carolina’s • North Carolina’s five major sounds
Regions • major rivers in the Tidewater region
• vocabulary terms sound, barrier islands, inlet, Gulf
Map Skill: In which region do Stream, wetland, estuary, pocosin, savanna
you live?
Water, water, everywhere! That describes

the Tidewater. This narrow strip of land
extends along the Atlantic Ocean. In the
southern part of the state’s coast, the Tide-
water is no more than thirty miles wide,
but in the north, where inland bodies of water are large, it goes back
more than fifty miles in places. Throughout the region, the land is influ-
enced by the daily movement of the ocean’s tides. The tides alter cur-
rents in streams and sounds. Sounds are the inland bodies of mixed water
found through much of the Tidewater. The resulting mix of salt and fresh
water distinguishes the Tidewater from the other regions of the state.

Barrier Islands
The islands off the North Caro-
lina coast form the beach for much
of the Tidewater. They have influ-
enced life in the state from the first
explorations to the present. Only
a few islands, like Roanoke, where
the first English attempt at settle-
ment was made, sit alone. Most are
part of a long chain of sand spits
called barrier islands, the most
famous of which, along the north-
ern half of the state coastline, are
called the Outer Banks.
The barrier islands are really just
a very long ridge of sand, spread along the ocean floor, ever shifting in the Top: The Outer Banks are
tides and storms that come off the Atlantic. Like the tips of icebergs, only accessible to all state residents at
the tops of the barrier islands show above the waterline. Most of the bar- the Cape Hatteras National
rier islands are less than two miles across. In some places, a visitor can Seashore. The sea oats shown are
actually see from shore to sound. The size of the sand can vary consider- an important preserver of the sand
ably. At Cape Hatteras, the barrier island is wide enough to still support a dunes on the barrier islands.
considerable maritime forest, made up of bay, holly, and live oak trees. Above: Hang gliding on Jockey’s
The highest point along the barrier islands is at Jockey’s Ridge, located not Ridge imitates the earlier flights
far from Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first flew. Although the of the Wright Brothers on nearby
winds shift the sand daily, Jockey’s Ridge averages about 114 feet in eleva- Kill Devil Hill.
tion, making it the highest natural point on the eastern seaboard. Where
Section 1: The Tidewater Region 7

the sand has low places, inlets allow the
seawater to come in and out with the tides.
Because the ocean is endlessly churning
the sand and the water, different inlets have
opened and closed at various times. For
example, Roanoke Inlet, which English
explorers used in the 1500s, is long gone.
Today, North Carolinians in that vicinity
use Oregon Inlet, which was carved out by
a hurricane in 1846.
The very eastern nose of our state,
Cape Hatteras, is the peak of a huge spit
of sand that projects out for miles into the
ocean. The ocean current running by it,
heading north, is the Gulf Stream, one of
the principal influences in the world’s
weather. It carries warm water from the
Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic to the
British Isles. Cooler water is then pushed
south toward Africa, to be warmed once
again near the equator. Before airplanes,
this was the “road” ships took back from
the New World to the Old World. Rela-
tively speaking, then, North Carolina is
located at the place where the warm wa-
ter began to move toward the colder north. In fact, Cape Hatteras for
Map 2 centuries was known as the “graveyard of the Atlantic” because frigid
North Carolina’s Arctic water, known as the Labrador Current, collided with the warmer
Barrier Islands Gulf Stream just offshore. The turbulence made for unexpected storms.
and Sounds That is why the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has become so legendary. It
served a vital purpose in world commerce.
The only true break in the barrier islands along the state’s shoreline is
Map Skill: What are the three
Cape Fear, where the Cape Fear River flows directly into the sea. Other-
capes identified on the map?
wise, all the other rivers in the eastern half of the state flow into the sounds
behind the islands.
The Sounds
North Carolina has five major sounds. Almost half of the Tidewater
area is made up of these mixed bodies of water that are just behind the
barrier islands. The largest ones are Currituck Sound, in the north, fol-
lowed, as one goes south, by Albemarle Sound, Pamlico Sound, Core
Sound, and Bogue Sound. Pamlico is the deepest and largest, at least
twenty feet deep much of the year.
Each of the major sounds is fed fresh water by a river coming from
the Coastal Plain. Near the mouths of these rivers are located some of
the oldest towns in North Carolina. These towns were trading centers
where goods could be transferred from river flatboats onto the schoo-

ners that would take goods into the ocean. The town of
Washington, for example, sits just upstream from the
mouth of the Pamlico River, which feeds into the Pamlico
Sound. The Trent and the Neuse rivers come together at
New Bern and also feed into the Pamlico. In addition to
the sound towns are small fishing villages like Wanchese,
Englehard, Atlantic, and Oriental, all of which front onto
Pamlico Sound. The southernmost fishing villages are
Southport and Calabash.
Sedimentation (the depositing of clay or silt or gravel)
through time has kept the sounds from being deep
enough for large oceangoing vessels. Thus, towns located
where rivers run into the sounds, like Edenton, Bath, or
New Bern, never grew into ports the size of Savannah,
Georgia, or Norfolk, Virginia. The direct outlet to the sea
enjoyed by the city of Wilmington, in the southeast cor-
ner of the state, is why that seaport was North Carolina’s
largest town through most of the state’s history.
A large portion of the land in the Tidewater is
wetland most of the year, meaning that the soil is soaked
or flooded with water. All along its shores are salt
marshes where shellfish breed and live. These mucky
estuaries serve as incubators for a variety of sea life,
such as shrimp.
Above: The Bodie Island

Lighthouse was one of several on
the Outer Banks that helped ships
from becoming victims of the
“Graveyard of the Atlantic.” Left:
The fishing village of Oriental is
a popular destination for sailboat
enthusiasts.
The first lighthouse along

the North Carolina
coast was erected in 1793
on Bald Head Island.
Bald Head Island is
located at the mouth of
the Cape Fear River.

Swamps and Lakes
The most common type of wetland away from the estuaries are pocosins.
The term is an old Indian name for a particular type of swamp. It means
“a swamp on a hill,” made up of peat that fills with water when the water
table is high. Pocosins are found from the Albemarle Sound all the way to
the Cape Fear. They are distinguished by their vegetation, most often hav-
Below: The Green Swamp is one of ing a mix of laurel, bay, and scrub oak trees as their foliage. Alligator Po-
the largest in the state and is home cosin makes up the bulk of the land between the Albemarle and Pamlico
to unique vegetation like the Venus sounds. Big Pocosin is located near the town of Washington.
Fly Trap. Bottom: Lake Waccamaw, Another Tidewater habitat is the savanna, where tall grass mixes with
one of the largest in the state, scattered longleaf and other types of pine. Parts of the Green Swamp, the
covers almost 9,000 acres. most extensive wetland at the southern end of the Tidewater, become
savannas in the drier times of the
year. The Green Swamp is the
habitat for one of North Carolina’s
unique plants, the Venus Fly Trap,
a type of trumpet plant that catches
a variety of bugs with its hair-lined
“pitchers.” The vital parts of the
bugs are gradually absorbed into
the plants for nourishment.
Most of the natural lakes in
North Carolina are in the Tidewa-
ter. Lake Mattamuskeet, the larg-
est, is fifteen miles across at its
longest, but averages only about
six feet in depth. It is a major land-

ing point for migratory birds along the Atlantic coast and is today a wild- Map 3
life refuge. Not far from Mattamuskeet are Pungo and Phelps lakes, smaller
but similar in appearance. On the edge of the southern part of the Tide- North Carolina’s
water, adjacent to the Green Swamp, is Lake Waccamaw. Its longest stretch Rivers and Lakes
is five miles, but, like the others, it is very shallow.
Through time, the Tidewater has been one of the least populated Map Skill: What is the
portions of the state. Many of the early families either fished or supplied westernmost river on the map?
goods to the fishing trade. Some families today can trace their ancestry
all the way back to the 1600s. Some residents of Ocracoke, one of the
Outer Banks islands, still speak with an accent that sounds like their
distant ancestors. This “hoi toide” brogue uses words similar to the En-
glish spoken in the days of William Shakespeare. For example, Ocracokers
might “call over the mail” instead of get the mail. They might say they
“had a gutful of food” when they were full from a meal. If they got nau-
seous they would become “quamished in my gut.” If they met someone
from another region of North Carolina, like the Coastal Plain, they would
call that person not an outsider, but “a dingbatter.”
It’s Your Turn

1. What are the Outer Banks?
2. What ocean current flows off the eastern coast of North Carolina?
3. What is a wetland?
4. What is the largest natural lake in North Carolina?

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The Coastal Plain

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• the features of the Coastal Plain region
• types of traditional communities in the Coastal Plain
• the Carolina bays and the Sandhills
• vocabulary terms crossroads hamlets, tobacco
towns, Carolina bays
The richest soil in the state is to be found

in many areas of the Coastal Plain. The
region takes up about a third of the area of
North Carolina. It slants from the northeast
to the southwest, going all the way from
the Virginia border to the South Carolina line. The Plain averages about
a hundred miles in width. It has two central characteristics: (1) its flat-

ness and (2) its soil, both of which contribute to its role as the chief farming
region of the state.
The rivers of the Coastal Plain generally flow southeasterly. Most flow
into the sounds of the Tidewater region. The Roanoke, Tar, and Neuse
are the major rivers that do so. The Cape Fear River, which rises in the Opposite page, above: The Neuse
Piedmont, is the longest river entirely in North Carolina. The river flows River at Smithfield. Below:
past Fayetteville and Elizabethtown before it reaches Wilmington and Ballard’s Crossroads is a typical
the Atlantic Ocean. gathering place on the Coastal
Great stretches of the Coastal Plain seem to go on forever, since in Plain. Bottom: Cotton has recently
many areas large fields, sometimes several miles across, have been cleared made a rebound as a moneymaker
for farming. Through most of the region’s history, farms were scattered for farmers on the Coastal
out across the landscape a half mile or more apart. This has made the Plain. This field is near Jackson
area seem the most rural in the state. Traditionally, its residents have lived in Northampton County.
in two types of communities, the
rural crossroads and the small to-
bacco town.
Crossroads hamlets dot the
region. Often they have had a store
or two, or a school or church, that
provide goods and services to the
nearby farmers, who have neither
the time nor the money to go to
town frequently. These commu-
nity centers are generally named
for local residents, like Ballard’s
Crossroads near Farmville or Hill’s
Crossroads near Wallace.
Section 2: The Coastal Plain Region 13

Tobacco Towns
Tobacco towns have been a
part of the Coastal Plain since it
was first settled in colonial days.
In the twentieth century, the popu-
larity of cigarette smoking caused
these towns to grow. People in the
towns focused their activities
around the raising of tobacco.
Rocky Mount, Greenville, Wilson,
and Goldsboro provided marketing
outlets for the largest tobacco-
growing region in the world. Each
of these towns had more than a
half dozen tobacco warehouses—
Top: Railroads still run down the large cavernous sheds where harvested tobacco was stored until pur-
middle of Main Street in Rocky chased by cigarette companies. Everyone from bankers to farm equipment
Mount, a famed tobacco town of dealers scheduled their business around the tobacco harvest. On the
the twentieth century. Above: special market day, an auctioneer sang out the bids as he and the buyers
Bright-leaf tobacco has a distinc- went up and down the rows of tobacco stacks. At the height of tobacco
tive golden hue. Opposite page, production in the mid-1900s, almost every town in the Coastal Plain, from
below: Singletary Lake State Park Fairmont on the South Carolina border to Henderson near Virginia, had
is located around a Carolina bay. at least one warehouse.
The traditional tobacco barn, a tall, thin square of logs or planks, was
to be seen everywhere on the Coastal Plain. This tobacco was flue-cured,
dried for the market with low levels of heat that made it mild enough for

cigarette smoking. Recently, however, computer-controlled “barns” made
of insulated metal and plastic are used for drying. The old tobacco barn is
becoming as much a thing of the past as the log cabin. Recent hurricanes
have damaged thousands of them; only a few have been repaired. In ad-
dition, every year fewer and fewer Coastal Plain residents grow tobacco.
The longleaf pine was
Two factors are the cause of that decline: (1) health risks associated with
so named because its
smoking and (2) the cutoff of government payments that guaranteed farmers
needle can be as long
they would eventually be able to sell their leaf at a profit.
as fifteen inches.
Before there were tobacco fields, the longleaf pine was the most com-
mon sight on the Coastal Plain. Geographers think that more than ten
million acres of pine forest covered the region. The tree gradually disap-
peared from the landscape. At first it was cut down for lumber and for
making tar; later the land was cleared for growing tobacco and other crops.
In the twenty-first century, better management of resources has stabi-
lized the tree. Today it is mostly found in the southern part of the Coastal
Plain, particularly in the Bladen Lakes State Forest near the Cape Fear
River. Because of its historical importance to North Carolina, the longleaf
pine is the state tree. The tree that often grows in the midst of pine for-
ests, the dogwood, provides the blossom that is the state flower.
Carolina Bays
The longleaf pine grows around some of the biggest curiosities in the
state. In the southern part of the Coastal Plain are hundreds of elongated
depressions in the ground called Carolina bays. They range in size from a
half mile to two miles long and about a mile wide. No one can figure out
exactly why they are there or how they were created. Some, like White
Lake or Singletary Lake, are filled with water. Others resemble the surface

of pocosins—mucky part of the year, dry the other. Quite a few have been
drained and plowed up to make rich farmland.
Scientists still argue about their origin. For a long time, it was argued
that an ancient shower of meteors fell from outer space and made the
Below: The sandy soil of the Sand- holes. This idea came from the fact that the bays are all lined up, as if
hills lies between the sandy loam some giant flung water into the sand of a huge beach. The problem with
of the Coastal Plain and the clay of that idea is that no one has found evidence of meteorites—what’s left
the Piedmont. Bottom: Vast longleaf after the meteor explodes. The other idea is that the bays are sink holes.
pine forests once covered the That is, they are areas of ground that are above bodies of water and thus
Coastal Plain. These woods are at sink down when the water table changes. But no one has proven that
Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature idea, so it is still an open question. What is unquestionable is that they
Preserve near Southern Pines. provide some of the richest soil and best animal habitats in the state.
The Sandhills
To the northwest of the Carolina bays are the
Sandhills. These concentrations of rolling sand
ridges are left over from an ancient change in the
shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean. They have, by far,
the poorest soils in the state, since the sand allows
all the topsoil nutrients to drain away. Where they
are the most concentrated, the Sandhills shine
whiter than the whitest beach on a summer day.
They were put to two good uses during the twen-
tieth century: (1) golf courses in places like Pine-
hurst, where the World Golf Hall of Fame is located;

and (2) Fort Bragg, the huge military installation near Fayetteville, origi- Above: Golfers from around
nally designed to be a training ground for artillery. It was thought during the world come to Pinehurst. The
the world wars that the missiles would land without much damage in Golf Hall of Fame was originally
the deep sand. Today, Fort Bragg is home to one of the most important located in the village.
units in the United States Army, the 82nd Airborne Division.
The Coastal Plain has long attracted people of different ethnic back-
grounds who came to take advantage of its dark soil and other resources.
Many white residents are descendants of colonial settlers from Virginia
or South Carolina. The first concentration of African American slaves was
in the area along the Cape Fear River. When tobacco became important,
African Americans from other parts of the state moved into the region.
Many recent migrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America have
moved to the Coastal Plain to work the land. The most distinctive people
of the Coastal Plain are the Lumbee of Robeson County. They form the
largest population of Native Americans in the state.
It’s Your Turn

1. What are the two types of traditional communities in the Coastal
Plain?
2. What are the Carolina bays?
3. Where are the poorest soils in the state?

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The Piedmont Region

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• the features of the Piedmont region
• the significance of the fall line
• vocabulary terms fall line, headwaters, sectionalism,
mill village, NASCAR, monadnock
North Carolina’s Piedmont region is a

place almost anyone can recognize imme-
diately, for it has an unforgettable feature—
its red clay. These iron-rich clods show up
wherever a field is plowed or a lawn re-
seeded, and their stain is hardly ever removed from soiled laundry. One
finds this distinctive color from Oxford near the Virginia line to Shelby
near South Carolina, and in almost all places in between. The red clay is
actually the subsoil in most places, meaning that, at one time, trees and
forests covered it with black woods dirt. The widespread timbering and
cropping of the region made it bleed red in the rain as early as the 1800s.

To control the erosion of red clay,
state officials planted millions of kudzu
plants in the 1930s, hoping the fast-
Kudzu was brought to the growing vine would save the soil. In-
United States in 1876 for stead, the big-leafed kudzu—a native
the Centennial Industrial plant of Asia—turned out to be the
Exposition in Philadelphia. monster that almost ate North Carolina.
It was on display at the On a hot, wet day it can grow several
Japanese pavilion. inches. Its tendrils will reach anywhere,
all the way up power poles and over the
tops of abandoned buildings. By the late
twentieth century, kudzu was common
as a weed throughout the Piedmont.
Opposite page, above: The rich
The Fall Line clay soil of the Piedmont nourishes
The Piedmont’s red clay erodes so a variety of crops. Opposite page,
easily because the region is hilly. The below: The Pee Dee River, seen
landscape is pocked with hills and here near Albemarle, is one of the
hollows that twist and curve in all di- major rivers of the Piedmont.
rections. Technically, most of the Pied- Below: The Catawba River flows
mont—which in Latin means “foot of south into South Carolina just west
the mountains”—is a plateau, a step up from the Coastal Plain, a step of Charlotte.
below the Blue Ridge. In fact, the line that divides the
Piedmont from the Coastal Plain is called the fall line.
This is the place where rivers flowing out of the Pied-
mont, like the Tar or the Neuse, actually go down their
last hill. At these points, the rivers usually become flat-
ter and smoother, allowing boating. The fall line extends
from the north near Roanoke Rapids southwest past Ra-
leigh and Fayetteville. A state park near Raleigh is called
Falls of the Neuse. Historians generally use the fall line
to divide North Carolina into east and west sections.
Similarly, the western side of the Piedmont, often called
the foothills, is bounded by the ridge line, where the
Blue Ridge Mountains rise up on the horizon.
The two principal rivers of the Piedmont region are
the Yadkin-Pee Dee and the Catawba. These rivers do
not run to the fall line. These rivers have their head-
waters (the springs from which they first flow) on the
side of the Blue Ridge and head east until being turned
sharply south when their currents encounter very hard
rock layers. After the rivers bend—the Catawba west
of Statesville, the Yadkin west of Winston-Salem—the
two parallel one another into South Carolina, where
they flow into the Atlantic north of Charleston. One
of the key reasons sectionalism (excessive concern
for local interests and customs) developed in the state
Section 3: The Piedmont Region 19

was the lack of connection between the rivers of the
Piedmont and the Coastal Plain.
More than half the Piedmont is covered in forests.
Where there are extensive pine trees, it usually means
that they were planted years ago for erosion control
on an abandoned farm. Biological succession—where
coniferous trees like pines give way to hardwoods like
oak or hickory—occurs all over the region.
Farms and Factories

Farming has been as much a tradition in the Pied-
mont as the Coastal Plain. However, except for cer-
tain rich areas with unusually rich brown soils, like
the area around the Lowe’s Motor Speedway near
Charlotte, farming has always been a struggle in the
Piedmont. Early on, farmers depended upon livestock
to make their living; since the end of World War II,
they have returned to dairying. This too has been in
decline in recent times. Only in western Iredell County
and eastern Alamance County are a significant num-
Top: Farming in the Piedmont ber of dairies left in the region.
has not always been easy. This The decline in farming was countered by the building of factories, as
abandoned farm is in Moore people made a living processing and manufacturing raw materials
County. Above: These dairy cows produced elsewhere in the state. In the area stretching from Kannapolis
on a Piedmont farm are going in to Gastonia, textile mills began to make cloth of all types for an inter-
for milking. national market. Durham, Winston-Salem, and Reidsville were home to

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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ C a r o l i n a
CAROLINA CURIOSITIES
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The Mysterious Devil’s Tramping Ground
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Most North Carolinians know that Wake Forest Univer- Scientists have another idea. Recently, a soil specialist
sity students can be “demon” deacons and that Duke Uni- from out of state took samples of dirt from the track of the
versity students paint themselves blue because they are circle, from the center of the circle, and from the nearby
“devils.” These athletic nicknames are one of the funnier woods. He then put seeds in each sample and carefully
parts of our state culture. So too is the folk belief that the watered them. The seeds in the soil from the center of
Devil himself shows up in the circle and from the woods
North Carolina every night to sprouted. The seeds put in the
think about his wicked plans. “doughnut” soil—that is, the dirt
The Devil’s Tramping Ground—an actual place south from the place where the Devil supposedly paces—did not.
of Siler City—is world famous. People have been going Tests then showed that the doughnut soil is totally lacking
there for more than a century, ever since a Wilmington in carbon, a necessary element for plant growth.
newspaper first published a story
about it in 1882.
The story goes like this: Suppos-
edly, Satan paces all night just about
every night around a strange circle of
dirt in Chatham County. Mysteriously,
nothing will grow in a near-perfect
circle that is about forty feet in diam-
eter. Folks in the neighborhood say that
objects that fall into the circle during
the day, like sticks or rocks or even
heavy logs, are gone by the next morn-
ing. Hunters swear that their dogs will
not cross over the space, and that they
yip and howl if they are taken near it.
People who have stayed there during the night have often Above: Leaves often cover the “devil’s path,” despite
had strange dreams. More than one group of brave col- legends to the contrary.
lege students has abandoned its camp during the night.
No one, however, has ever claimed to have seen the Devil. So, the mystery has been solved . . . or has it? Scien-
There are other explanations for the place. One old tra- tists still scratch their heads over the fact that the soil
dition says that an Indian chief was killed on the spot, and changes completely in its fertility just an inch from the
his blood tainted the soil forever. More recently, advocates edge of the path. And, there is still the question: Why such
of Unidentified Flying Objects say that a space ship must a near-perfect circle? Why is this the only place where it
have landed there and scorched away the grass. happens? Why is it not found anywhere else?

the leading cigarette makers in the
world in the early twentieth century.
High Point, Lenoir, and Hickory built
chair factories, using hardwood
from nearby forests. A traveler in the
Piedmont in this period would ex-
pect to see a factory in every town.
Textiles, tobacco, and furniture
were regarded as the three principal
industries in the state. Many of the
workers in these factories lived on the
edges of town in clusters of housing
called mill villages, like the Proxim-
ity neighborhood in Greensboro. The
company owned the houses, pro-
vided stores and schools, and gener-
Top: This photograph of a loom ally influenced the lives of workers both inside and outside the factory.
was taken around 1980 at the All three principal industries went into sharp decline in the 1990s, as
Fieldcrest-Cannon Mill in foreign competition cut into their shares of the market. Most notably,
Kannapolis. Above: Cooleemee textile factories have been closed in recent years in one Piedmont town
has retained much of its textile after another. Fieldcrest-Cannon Company of Kannapolis was the larg-
heritage. These are two of over est closure, in 2003, when more than 5,000 people lost their jobs in one
three hundred former mill houses day. In contrast, Phillip Morris Tobacco Company continued to do well
that have been preserved. with a cigarette factory in Concord, marketing a lot of its product to the
factory workers in Asia that were now making textiles and furniture.

Banking and Racing
Most Piedmont cities have worked hard to find other economic out-
lets. Over the past two decades, Charlotte has become a center of in-
ternational banking, with both Bank of America and Wachovia
headquartered there. Charlotte has also become the support center for More banking activity is
stock car racing. Companies that build and maintain cars on the concentrated in Charlotte
NASCAR circuit are concentrated in the triangle from Charlotte to Con- than anywhere else in the
cord to Mooresville. NASCAR is an acronym (an abbreviation that it- United States, except for
self seems to be a word) meaning National Association of Stock Car New York City.
Automobile Racing. In the spring of 2007, ground was broken for the
NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
In Winston-Salem and Durham, community leaders have attempted
to turn around the decline of industrial jobs with the growth of medi-
cal services. Wake Forest University in Winston and Duke University
in Durham both have world-class medical schools that staff regional
hospitals.
Smaller towns have also turned to innovative businesses. Salisbury is
headquarters for the grocery chain Food Lion, the largest private employer
in the state. The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area continued to develop Below: The start of the 2004
ways to use their resident universities. Since the 1960s, the Research Coca-Cola 600 at the Lowe’s Motor
Triangle Park, located in a finger of the Sandhills between the three Speedway in Concord. The
cities, has been a leader in technology innovation, particularly in phar- Charlotte area is home to most
maceuticals and computers. NASCAR teams.

The Uwharries
The most distinctive natural land-
marks of the Piedmont are its monad-
nocks. This hard-to-pronounce word
refers to a geological condition where
a point of land stands out because all
of the land around it has been eroded.
The most famous monadnock is Pilot
Mountain north of Winston-Salem.
This handsome spire has a distinctive
cap of granite that makes it recogniz-
Top: The monadnock Pilot able from as far as forty miles away. It has served as a landmark for North
Mountain rises above the sur- Carolinians for centuries, from the first Indian paths to the laying of
rounding farmland. Pilot Mountain interstates.
was named a National Natural One important cluster of monadnocks is often overlooked by North
Landmark in 1976. Above: Carolinians, but its location influenced the shaping of the state almost as
Salisbury, a city in the Uwharries, much as did the barrier islands. The Uwharrie Mountains are located
is a national trendsetter in the south of Greensboro and east of Salisbury. Although most scientists be-
restoration of its Main Street. lieve that the Uwharries are older than the Appalachian Mountains, they
do not look the part. They resemble miniature mountains from a dis-
tance, their elevations seldom reaching more than 2,000 feet. The best-
known Uwharrie “peak” is Morrow Mountain near Albemarle.
Because of their slopes and because of the slate found in their soils,
the Uwharries were not as thickly settled as other areas in the Piedmont.

This is why, in large measure, there is the Piedmont Crescent, the curved Below: This view of the Uwharrie
necklace of small towns, one after another—Burlington, Greensboro, High horizon draws thousands each year
Point, Lexington, Salisbury, and Concord—that stretch from Raleigh to to Morrow Mountain State Park
Charlotte. near Albemarle. The area shown
First the buffalo, then the Indians followed a trail that became known was home to the some of the
as the Trading Path. Travelers on it from the coastal areas of Virginia ancient inhabitants of the region.
kept the Uwharrie “peaks” like Occaneechi, near today’s Hillsborough,
and Caraway Mountain, near Asheboro, to their right as they headed
south toward the Catawba and Cherokee Indian towns in South Caro-
lina. White settlers gradually moved the network of trails northward,
since the soil was more fertile as one got away from the Uwharries.
When the first railroad was built in the Piedmont, it was routed around
the Uwharries to the north and west, to save money on grading and to
bring it closer to the center of farming. Later highways, then interstates,
followed the same route.
It’s Your Turn

1. What is the most unforgettable feature of the Piedmont region?
2. What divides North Carolina into east and west?
3. What were the three principal industries in the Piedmont region?

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CAROLINA PLACES
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Mayberry
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Perhaps the best-known place in North Carolina is High School, Griffith hit the big-time with a monologue titled
not actually in the state, but on television. “Mayberry, North “What It Was . . . Was Football.” That was based upon the
Carolina” became famous because of “The Andy Griffith idea of a country boy coming to Chapel Hill for the first time.
Show,” a 1960s comedy series. Since that time, the show In the 1950s, Griffith did comedy in clubs and then began
has been rerun just about every day for a half century, cour- to get acting jobs. His next break was playing a naive moun-
tesy of cable television.
Mayberry was “founded” by North Carolina native Andy Below: There really was a Floyd’s Barber Shop on Main
Griffith, who grew up in Mt. Airy in Surry County. He at- Street in Mt. Airy. It is the inspiration for the same
tended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where shop on the television show. The real Snappy Lunch still
he became interested in acting. Griffith also tried his hand serves up its famous pork chop sandwiches almost
at stand-up comedy. After teaching for a year at Goldsboro every day.

tain boy in the movie No Time
For Sergeants. By 1960, Griffith
had earned enough fame to
have his own television show.
In the show, Griffith portrayed
Andy Taylor, the town sheriff.
Griffith and a group of tele-
vision writers, including Duke
University graduate Harvey
Bullock, created a mythical
town full of characters that any
North Carolinian would recog-
nize as real. Otis Campbell, the
Scots-Irishman who drank too
much but had a heart of gold;
Barney Fife, whose supersti-
tious habits followed the tra-
ditions of Piedmont Germans;
Above: Mt. Airy has preserved Andy Griffith’s boyhood and Gomer Pyle, whose parents could have worked in the
home. Below: Three of the most popular characters cotton mill villages; all rang true to viewers. One character
in the show were played by Andy Griffith (Sheriff Andy in the show, Emmett Clark, was named for Griffith’s child-
Taylor), Don Knotts (Deputy Barney Fife), and Ron hood best friend.
Howard (the son Opie Taylor). Part of the show’s popularity was its sense of kindness
toward all people, regardless of who they were. Mayberry
was a place full of odd people who often did foolish and silly
things, but no one ever hated them for their behavior or
their weaknesses. Usually, a lesson was learned and a value
taught, as in the episode when Opie, the son of the sheriff,
killed a bird with his slingshot. Opie had to learn to take
care of the orphaned baby birds and then let them fly away.
The show even slyly called attention to race relations in the
South. The show had no black characters, but in many epi-
sodes black “residents” were on the streets.
The closest real town to Mayberry in North Carolina is
Mt. Airy, which has proudly claimed its heritage as an in-
spiration for Andy Griffith’s career. Visitors to Mt. Airy can
see a mock-up jail, a barber shop, and even the “Snappy
Lunch,” a diner actually depicted in the show. Most folks
who eat there have the Mayberry Special, a pork chop sand-
wich. Even into the twenty-first century, Mt. Airy residents
continue to visit their downtown, walking, talking, visiting,
and even going to the movies on a weekday night. Mt. Airy
was honored in 2003 with a statue of “Andy and Opie” given
to the town by the cable channel TV Land.
Griffith himself went on to other television and movie
roles. He came back to North Carolina when he retired,
building a home in Manteo.

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The Mountains
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Opposite page, above: The Blue • the features of the Mountains region
Ridge Parkway, begun during the • vocabulary terms elevation, bald, cove
New Deal era of the 1930s, takes
tourists to most of the famous sites
in the Mountains region. It has a Travelers from the east see North Carolina’s
45 mile-per-hour speed limit. mountains long before they cross into
Below: The views of the nearby them. The mountains begin at the Blue
mountains from parkway overlooks Ridge, which sometimes towers from than
can be spectacular. 1,000 feet over the nearby Piedmont hills.

The Blue Ridge forms the eastern boundary of the Appalachian Moun-
tains, some of the oldest in the world. Running along the ridge top is the
Blue Ridge Parkway, a national highway that has some of the best views
in the United States. The Blue Ridge divides the Piedmont from the Moun-
tains region in the state. To the east are the foothills, a series of progres-
sively higher hills, and to the west are different ranges of mountains that
make up the western third of the state. The Continental Divide runs along
the Blue Ridge. Streams flowing down its eastern slopes eventually be-
came part of the Atlantic Ocean. Streams on the west side send water
into the tributaries of the Mississippi River.
The Blue Ridge

The Blue Ridge gets its name from the fact that, at a distance, the mist
evaporating off its slopes shimmers an aqua blue. The Blue Ridge runs
from New Jersey into the Deep South. In North Carolina’s western area,
the Blue Ridge curves westward before nipping the very western edge of
South Carolina.
Like the barrier islands, the Blue Ridge is really just one long land-
form, with peaks of various heights and gaps that, like inlets, both al-
lowed and discouraged travel back and forth. For years, places west of
the Blue Ridge were even more isolated than the barrier islands. Early
settlers to the state had to cross lower points of elevation like Deep Gap
Section 4: The Mountains Region 29

in Watauga County (to the east of the town of Boone today) to venture
into the mountains.
Until the building of railroads in the late 1800s, travel over the Blue
Ridge was expensive and laborious. One of the greatest feats in state
history was the long effort in the 1870s to grade and tunnel through the
Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap. More than 100 men died in the effort.
The long wind of Interstate 40 up and down the Blue Ridge from Old
Fort to Black Mountain parallels that route.
The Appalachians
The Appalachian range runs from New York to Alabama but spreads
out the most and has its highest peaks in North Carolina. Forty-three
mountaintops in the state are more than 6,000 feet above sea level. The
highest elevation (height above sea level) east of the Rocky Mountains
is Mt. Mitchell at 6,684 feet, although a half dozen other peaks are just
about as tall.
There are more than a dozen different mountain ranges within North
Carolina. Among the more notable are the Black Mountains, located just
to the west of the Blue Ridge. The Black Mountains get their name from
Below: This view from Craggy the dark shadows the mountains cast when summer thunderstorms
Gardens on the Blue Ridge threaten. Mt. Mitchell is the highest point of the Black Mountains.
Parkway shows the dark shadows Even more notable are the world-famous Great Smoky Mountains.
on the mountainsides that gave the They get their name from the evaporation of resin-filled dew off the
Black Mountains their name. needles of spruce and fir trees. When the mist rises, the resin makes

the mist look like smoke. The Smokies have one of the greatest variety Above: The bluish haze that gives
of plants found anywhere in the world outside of the rain forest. More the Great Smoky Mountains their
than four thousand different species have been identified. Two of the name can be seen from the Blue
highest mountains in the state, Clingman’s Dome and Mt. Guyot, are Ridge Parkway.
located in the Smokies.
South of the Smokies are the Balsams, home to a large number of the
most mysterious places in the mountains, the balds. Balds are places,
usually above 6,000 feet in elevation, where few trees ever grow. The ones
that do take root never rise far above the ground. The bald habitat includes
many of the flowers and shrubs found throughout the mountains, includ-
Geologists believe
ing the rhododendron and the mountain laurel. No one has ever explained
the New River is actually
why trees fail to grow on the balds. Some scientists believe it has some-
very old; in fact, it may
thing to do with the rocky soil. Others say the cold winds keep the plants
be the oldest river in the
from thriving. North Carolinians once believed that the Cherokee kept live-
United States.
stock on the mountain tops, which in turn kept plants from growing. But
the Cherokee are long gone from parts of the mountains, and the balds
have stayed the same. One of the best-known balds is Wayah Bald, just off
the Blue Ridge Parkway. Wayah is a Cherokee word for “wolf.”
Mountain Streams and Rocks

The Mountains, like the rest of the state, has interesting waterways.
Where rivers on the Coastal Plain run east, and the Piedmont rivers turn
south, mountain rivers run north and west. The New River starts just
west of the Blue Ridge and flows straight north out of the northwestern
corner of the state. Also flowing north is the French Broad River, which
starts in the Balsams and meanders its way across a broad valley between

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CAROLINA CELEBRITIES
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Dr. Elisha Mitchell
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Most North Carolinians know that the thunderstorm. His companions found him
highest point in the state, and the high- drowned in a pool at the bottom of a wa-
est in the eastern half of the United States, terfall. Apparently, he had slipped on wet
is Mt. Mitchell. Some state residents re- rocks and fallen to his death.
member that the mountain is 6,684 feet Professor Mitchell was buried at the top
above sea level. Often, North Carolinians of Black Mountain in 1858. Soon after,
do not know just how hard it was to figure North Carolinians began to call the peak
out that number, and how Elisha Mitchell, “Mt. Mitchell.” In 1882, government sci-
for whom the mountain was named, liter- entists used better instruments to prove
ally gave his life in the effort. that Mt. Mitchell was the highest peak in
In 1817, Mitchell came to the Univer- the eastern United States. In the early
sity in Chapel Hill to be its mathematics and 1900s, North Carolina made the mountain
natural philosophy professor. At that time, a state park. It also remains a place where
“natural philosophy” meant anything con- education never ends, as Professor Mitchell
nected to science, so Mitchell had to teach a wide range of would have liked. Scientists are currently studying its trees
subjects. He also conducted religious services on Sundays (he to learn the effects of acid rain on the environment.
was also a Presbyterian minister) and during the week kept
the books and groomed the grounds of the University.
Mitchell also worked to connect the two sections of the
state—east and west. In 1846, Mitchell surveyed a route
that would connect Raleigh to Asheville. Although the road
was not immediately built, North Carolinians today enjoy
its more modern version: Interstate 40.
While in the west in the 1840s, Mitchell put his math
and geology skills to work studying the Black Mountains.
He soon concluded that the highest part, then known as “the
Black Mountain,” was higher than Mt. Washington in New
Hampshire. Three times he made measurements with sur-
veying instruments and calculations by hand. He believed
the peak was 6,708 feet above sea level.
Not every North Carolinian believed Mitchell. Residents Top: Dr. Elisha Mitchell. Above: These dead trees on
around Asheville believed that the Great Smokies might the peak of Mt. Mitchell may be due to beetles.
be higher. Like a good scientist, Mitchell went back to the Opposite page: Oscar M. Lewis’s lithograph of the falls
Black Mountain to recheck his results. In June 1857, he was where Dr. Mitchell fell to his death shows his ghost
alone on a lower slope of a mountain and was caught in a standing nearby.

the Black and Balsam Mountains.
Asheville, the largest city in the
Mountains, is located in this basin.
The tributaries of the Tennessee
River, in particular the Little Tennes-
see and the Nantahala, form a river
system that flows all the way to the
Mississippi River. The long-time
inhabitants of the mountains,
the Cherokee, built most of their
villages along the Tennessee River
tributaries.
More than one hundred lakes are
to be found in the Mountains, but
almost all of them are manmade.
Lake Lure, constructed in the 1920s,
is considered to be one of the most
beautiful lakes in the world. It has
been the setting for a number of
motion pictures. Fontana Lake is
one of the deepest lakes in America,
having been built in steep mountain
valleys during the 1930s in an effort
to produce cheaper electric power.
Fontana has the highest dam in the
eastern United States.
The Mountains region is also full
of scenic wonders, natural forma-
tions that are interesting just to
see. Blowing Rock is a cliff so high
above the nearby hills that updrafts
of wind sometimes make rain and
Above: The Oconaluftee River

flows through the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. Right:
Beautiful Lake Lure is ringed by
mountains, providing a favorite
destination for many.

HISTORY BY THE HIGHWAY
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Asa Gray and Andre Michaux
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From early days, North Carolina

has been renowned for the variety
of its plants. Some of the pioneers
of botany have visited the state,
particularly the mountains in the
Grandfather Mountain area. Andre
Michaux came to locate plants to
take back to his native France as
proof of the greatness of the new
United States. Asa Gray, the first
Harvard College botanist, followed
in his footsteps a half century later.
Below: Grandfather Mountain, showing a “face” that gave it its name.

snow reverse course. Chimney Rock, a towering gran-
ite spire above Hickory Nut Gorge in the southern
mountains, has been a great attraction for almost a
century. Grandfather Mountain, in the northwestern
corner, has habitats that attract thousands of tourists
each year. Sometimes the natural wonders are helped
by humans. There is an elevator deep inside Chimney
Rock to help tourists get to the top, and Grandfather
Mountain is noted for its “mile-high swinging bridge”
that connects its twin peaks. The Nantahala River
Gorge features some of the best rafting anywhere,
which is made possible by the daily discharge of wa-
ter from a power dam upstream.
The Mountains Economy

The Mountains region historically was never as
populated or developed as the other regions of the state.
The first settlers generally lived in coves, valleys where
streams cut out swathes wide enough for farming. In
coves like Valle Crucis, west of the town of Boone, little
communities had schools, churches, stores, and mills.
Yet, it was hard to get from one cove to the next, and
even harder to get goods in and out of the mountains.
Early on, farmers grazed livestock on lush mountain
grass and then drove the cattle to coastal markets each
fall. Because the mountains had a variety of plants,
mountain families made money selling “roots, barks,
Above: Chimney Rock sticks out berries, and herbs,” plants with medicinal properties. More than two
over the Hickory Nut Gorge south thousand “yarbs,” as they were called, could be found. Ginseng, used as
of Asheville. It has recently become a spring tonic in China, was the best seller.
a state-owned tourist site. In more recent times, tourism has become the largest part of the Moun-
tains economy, with an increasing part given to people who actually retire
to the region. Both retirement and vacation homes seem to be sprouting
up everywhere. The most distinctive recent economic development has
been the Christmas tree industry. This has been concentrated in Ashe and
adjoining counties in the northwest corner of the state. The leading seller
has been Fraser firs. Some tree farms even allow customers to cut their
own and take them directly home during the holidays.
It’s Your Turn

1. What is the significance of the Continental Divide?
2. What is the highest point in the state?
3. What are balds?

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North Carolina’s
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Weather and Climate

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• the difference between weather and climate
• average temperatures and precipitation in the state
• types of severe weather
• vocabulary terms weather, climate, westerlies,
humidity, precipitation, tornado, hurricane
Below: Thundershowers are a
frequent occurrence each summer
North Carolinians live in different regions, but they all breathe the same day in the Mountains region. Moist
air. Or, as scientists describe it, they have a common atmosphere. Scien- air coming from the west rises when
tists refer to short-term atmospheric conditions as weather and to long- it hits the Blue Ridge and often
term conditions as climate. In general, everywhere in North Carolina has condenses into rain as it cools. The
a temperate climate, which means there are no extremes in temperature rapid change in temperature can
and precipitation. There is, however, a lot of variation in the weather. produce long zigzags of lightning.
Section 5: North Carolina’s Weather and Climate 37

“It’s Not the Heat; It’s the Humidity”
Map 4 North Carolina’s temperatures run about the same from Jockey’s
Ridge to Blue Ridge. In most places in the state, many winter days get
Average January decently warm in the afternoon, and many summer days start out okay
Temperatures in the morning. This is because North Carolina receives westerly winds
most days. These westerlies bring warmer air in the winter and cooler
Map Skill: What is the air in the summer. For example, the average temperature each year at
average January temperature Wilmington is only eight degrees higher than the average in Asheville.
of Raleigh? This is true whether it is January or July.
More extreme temperatures
tend to occur in particular places.
Fayetteville and the surrounding
Elizabeth City Sandhills tend to have more days
Winston-Salem
with a temperature above 90 de-
Raleigh
Asheville grees than any other place in the
Charlotte
state. On the highest mountain
peaks, like Mt. Mitchell and Grand-
father Mountain, the thermometer
Degrees Degrees is most likely to dip well below
Fahrenheit Celsius Wilmington
Above 44 Above 7 zero. The most extreme night in
40–44 4–7 state history was on January 21,
36–40 2–4
Below 36 Below 2
1985, when Grandfather Mountain
recorded –32˚F (Fahrenheit) and
Mt. Mitchell –34˚F. That same
night, the whole state was below
Elizabeth City zero, except for Cape Hatteras,
Winston-Salem
which was the “hottest” place at
Raleigh
Asheville
ap 4 Average January Temperatures 6˚ above zero.
rd proof Charlotte
The temperature does not feel
very temperate on hot, humid
days. Humidity is a measure of
Degrees Degrees the amount of moisture in the air.
Fahrenheit Celsius Wilmington
Above 80 Above 27 In most places of the state, the
78–80 26–27 humidity is often above 50 per-
76–78 24–26
Below 76 Below 24
cent. This makes most state resi-
dents less comfortable, regardless
of what the temperature is or
where they are. For example, Cape
Map 5 Hatteras and Charlotte each have the highest average humidity across
Average July the state, 65 percent.
Temperatures Different Storms in Different Places

The rate of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail) varies considerably
Map Skill: What is the from place to place across the state. The highest levels of rain occur in
average July temperature of the southwest mountains, because the westerlies bring summer storms
Wilmington? from the Great Plains. Because there is so much precipitation in the
mountains, the Piedmont is the driest part of the state. This is because

most of the rain in the Piedmont comes from clouds that first have to
cross the mountains, where they drop most of their moisture.
Anywhere in North Carolina can get snow, but the mountains get the
Map 6
bulk of it. The northwestern mountains get the highest levels of snow- Average Annual
fall, because they are the first lines of high peaks that polar air reaches. Precipitation
Although there are very high peaks in the Smoky Mountains, they get
less snow on average. There is also less snow east of the Blue Ridge, Map Skill: About how much
because the heavy snow clouds have already dumped their moisture, precipitation does Asheville
just like the rain clouds. Sometimes, everywhere in western North Caro- receive each year?
lina that is at least 1,000 feet above
sea level gets some snow, but it
rains at lower levels. On days like
that, Hickory or Rutherfordton will Elizabeth City
Winston-Salem
see flakes, but Asheboro and
Raleigh
Albemarle will see drops. Asheville
Some of the worst weather in
Charlotte
the state occurs when the tempera-
ture is just around freezing, and
the rain turns to ice. These ice Inches Centimeters Wilmington
storms happen most often in the More than 52 More than 132
Piedmont. Sometimes the ice will 48–52 122–132
44–48 112–122
be as thick as an inch around tree Below 44 Less than 112
limbs and power lines, breaking
both of them. Even more danger-
ous are smaller storms that lay thin
layers of ice on roads and streets. Motorists at night often cannot tell where
this “black ice” is, and frequent wrecks occur.
When moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico collides with drier,
colder air from the polar regions, blizzards result. In 1993, “the storm of
the century” in the state dumped fifteen inches of snow on the Coastal
Summer is the wettest
Plain, while the mountain areas got a lot less.
season, and July is the
The whole state experiences thunderstorms during the summer. Some
wettest month.
of these intense bursts of heavy rain showers pour down on just one or
two places in a region. Other times, a whole front of storms—where the
downpour is usually in a line that runs north to south—sweep across
the state. These fronts most often come from the west and bring hail (rain
that freezes high up in the atmosphere).
Sometimes tornadoes come with the storm fronts. (Tornadoes are
funnel-shaped storms whose rotating winds can reach as much as 250
miles an hour or more.) Compared to the Great Plains states, North
Carolina does not have frequent tornadoes. When tornadoes do occur,
they tend to hit the Sandhills and certain counties in the southern half
of the Coastal Plain. Duplin and Onslow counties have had more tor-
nadoes touch down than any other place in the state in the last fifty
years. The worst tornado in state history hit March 25, 1985. It touched
down in at least fifteen eastern counties. Forty people died, and 400
more were injured.

Figure 1 Enhanced Fujita Scale for Tornadoes
Category Wind Speeds (mph) Potential Damage
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EF0 65–85 Light damage
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EF1 86–110 Moderate damage
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EF2 111–135 Considerable damage
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EF3 136–165 Severe damage
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EF4 166–200 Devastating damage
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EF5 Over 200 Incredible damage
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North Carolinians are far more likely to die

from being struck by lightning than from tor-
nadoes. Our state ranks third in the nation in
the number of citizens killed by lightning, just
behind Texas and Florida.
The Path of Hurricanes

Hurricanes are tropical storms that bring
high winds and heavy rains. North Carolina’s
hurricanes most often develop over the Atlan-
tic Ocean, where they pick up enough mois-
ture to create a huge vortex (rotation) of water
high in the atmosphere. The rain rotates very
rapidly around a center known as “the eye.”
If the “wall” at the edge of the eye is strong
enough to hold together, the force of the wind
and rain can do very heavy damage when the
storm hits land.
Hurricanes generally damage North Caro-
lina in three ways. First, the wind and rain
create a “storm surge” that brings a huge tide
onto the beach, wiping out the sand, plants,
and manmade structures in its path. A hurri-
cane that hit the Outer Banks in 1845 actu-
Map 7 ally cut two inlets, Hatteras and Oregon, in the sand. Second, the swirling
winds can do great damage. This occurred in 1954 when Hurricane
Hurricane Paths Hazel’s winds pounded the state’s Coastal Plain for thirty-six hours. In
some places, the winds exceeded 150 miles an hour, enough to tear up
Map Skill: What area seems houses in less than a minute. Third, hurricanes usually slow up and
to be the most active for weaken over land, since they can no longer suck up water from the ocean.
hurricanes? They end up dumping their water onto the state, causing widespread
flooding. This was the case in 1999, when Hurricane Floyd caused un-

Figure 2 Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
Scale Number or Class 1 2 3 4 5
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wind Speeds (mph) 74–95 96–110 111–130 131–155 Over 155
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Storm Surge (in Feet) 4.0-4.9 5.0-7.9 8.0-11.9 12.0-18.0 Over 18.0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Expected Damage Minimal Moderate Extensive Extreme Catastrophic
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
precedented flooding on the rivers

of the Coastal Plain. Princeton, a
small suburb of Tarboro on the Tar
River, was destroyed by the flood.
Hurricanes can also enter the
state from other states, most often
coming from the south. Hurricane
Hugo did major damage in 1989
after almost wiping out the South
Carolina coast. Electric power was
off in the Charlotte area for weeks.
Even the mountains can be af-
fected by these tropical storms.
Two groups of clouds converged
near Grandfather Mountain to
cause the “1916 Flood,” which swept away houses and bridges all along Above: Hurricane Floyd flooded
the Catawba River. Witnesses saw a six-foot-high wave go downriver near much of the Coastal Plains.
where the Interstate 40 bridge crosses the river today. Thousands of residents lost their
The frequency of hurricanes comes and goes in cycles. There were cars, animals, and houses.
twice as many major hurricanes in the 1950s as in the 1960s. No signifi-
cant storms came along in the 1970s, but the frequency of the storms
coming to North Carolina increased dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s.
Although North Carolinians cannot predict which part of their state
will be hit when a hurricane develops, they can plan for the likelihood of
a storm. Most develop during the hurricane “season” that starts in June,
peaks in September, and lasts until the end of November. North Carolin-
The U.S. National Weather
ians then worry about other types of storms as the weather cools.
Service started naming
hurricanes in 1953,
using women’s names.
In 1979, it began
It’s Your Turn including men’s names.
1. What is the difference between weather and climate?

2. What are the four types of precipitation?
3. Which is a “tropical” storm—a tornado or a hurricane?

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CHAPTER REVIEW
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Summary 6. estuary
• The four main regions of North Carolina are the 7. fall line
Tidewater, the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the 8. Gulf Stream
Mountains.
9. headwaters
• Features of the Tidewater region include the barrier
islands, the sounds, the pocosins, and the savanna. 10. hurricane
Most of North Carolina’s natural lakes are in the 11. inlet
Tidewater region. 12. monadnock
• The Coastal Plain region takes up about one-third 13. pocosin
of the total area of North Carolina. Its two central
14. region
characteristics are its flatness and its soil. Cross-
roads hamlets and tobacco towns have been a 15. savanna
major part of the Coastal Plain since its settlement. 16. sectionalism
• The fall line divides the Piedmont region from the 17. sound
Coastal Plain region.
18. tornado
• The Piedmont region’s distinctive feature is its red
clay. The most distinctive natural landmarks of the
Piedmont are its monadnocks. More than half of Understanding the Facts
the Piedmont is covered in forests. 1. What distinguishes the Tidewater from the other
• The Mountains region includes the Blue Ridge and regions of North Carolina?
the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian 2. Why has Cape Hatteras been known as the
Mountain range runs from New York to Alabama “graveyard of the Atlantic”?
but has its highest peaks in North Carolina.
3. Where is the richest soil in North Carolina found?
• The Mountains region has historically never been as
populated or developed as North Carolina’s other 4. What were two main uses of the Sandhills devel-
regions. oped in the twentieth century?
• North Carolina has a temperate climate and 5. Why did state officials plant millions of kudzu
sometimes experiences tornadoes and hurricanes. plants in the 1930s?
6. Why were the Uwharrie Mountains not as settled as
Reviewing People, Places, and Terms other areas in the Piedmont?
Define, identify, or explain the importance of the 7. Why do trees fail to grow on balds?
following. 8. Which North Carolina river may be the oldest river
1. bald in the United States?
2. barrier island 9. What type of climate does North Carolina have?
3. Carolina bays 10. Name three hurricanes that hit North Carolina and
4. cove caused extensive damage.
5. elevation

Developing Critical Thinking 2. It is your job to convince a family that North
1. Why do you think the Wright Brothers chose Kitty Carolina’s climate is the best anywhere. This family
Hawk to make their first flight? What was there has heard of tornadoes and hurricanes and is
about the land that was helpful to them? What fearful of moving to North Carolina. Prepare a
might have caused problems for them? sound argument for North Carolina’s climate.
2. Tobacco towns have been a part of North Carolina
since the colonial days. How do you think the Exploring Technology
residents of these towns have had to adapt since 1. In this chapter, you learned that the longleaf pine is
the health risks associated with smoking were the state tree of North Carolina. Go to web site
discovered? www.unctv.org/exploringNC/longleaf.html
to find answers to the following activities.
Writing Across the Curriculum a. List the reasons why this tree has decreased
1. You have read about two possible explanations for from once covering 94 million acres to now
the presence of Carolina bays. How do you think covering less than 3 percent of its original
they were formed? Write a paragraph describing range.
your own ideas about the origin of these mysteri- b. Describe what the web site means by the “lack
ous depressions. of fire” that caused the trees to decrease. Once
you have written down your ideas about the
lack of fire, go to web site
www.longleafalliance.org/teachers/
teacherkit/burning.htm to find out the reason
fire is important to the longleaf pine tree.
2. Go to web site www.underworldtales.com/
devil.htm to read a spooky story about the Devil’s
Stomping Ground. After reading the story, write a
fictional paragraph about an eighth grader’s
experience trying to spend the night on this spot.
Encountering Diversity
2. Study this picture of the Venus Fly Trap, a carnivo-
1. What terms defined in Chapter 1 give you a
rous plant found in North Carolina’s Green Swamp.
glimpse of the diversity of early North Carolina
By looking at the plant, can you guess how the
settlers?
plant traps and eats its food? Using information you
have learned in science as well as your observation 2. Describe the types of residents who you think
of the picture, write a paragraph about the plant, might have lived in the two different communities
describing your ideas about how it traps and in the Coastal Plain: the crossroads hamlets and
digests its food. the small tobacco towns. Describe the ways the two
communities were able to help each other. Also
describe possible social conflicts between the two
Applying Your Skills groups of people.
1. North Carolina consists of 49,412 square miles of
land and 3,570 square miles of water. As you
learned, the Coastal Plain region takes up about a
third of the state’s area. Using your math skills,
calculate an approximate amount of square miles
of land for the Coastal Plain region.
Chapter Review 43

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2 North Carolina: Land of Contrasts

Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land 3

4 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Target Reading Skill 5

The Tidewater Region

As you read, look for:

Water, water, everywhere! That describes

6 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 1: The Tidewater Region 7

8 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Above: The Bodie Island

The first lighthouse along

Section 1: The Tidewater Region 9

10 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

It’s Your Turn

Section 1: The Tidewater Region 11

The Coastal Plain

As you read, look for:

The richest soil in the state is to be found

12 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 2: The Coastal Plain Region 13

14 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 2: The Coastal Plain Region 15

16 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

It’s Your Turn

Section 2: The Coastal Plain Region 17

The Piedmont Region

As you read, look for:

North Carolina’s Piedmont region is a

18 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 3: The Piedmont Region 19

Farms and Factories

20 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 3: The Piedmont Region 21

22 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 3: The Piedmont Region 23

24 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

It’s Your Turn

Section 3: The Piedmont Region 25

26 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Section 3: The Piedmont Region 27

As you read, look for:

28 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

The Blue Ridge

Section 4: The Mountains Region 29

30 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Mountain Streams and Rocks

Section 4: The Mountains Region 31

32 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Above: The Oconaluftee River

34 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

From early days, North Carolina

Below: Grandfather Mountain, showing a “face” that gave it its name.

Section 4: The Mountains Region 35

The Mountains Economy

It’s Your Turn

36 Chapter 1: The Lay of the Land

Weather and Climate

As you read, look for:

Section 5: North Carolina’s Weather and Climate 37

Temperatures Different Storms in Different Places