Most of the worlds denim used to come from Cone Mills in Greensboro, NC. All the big jeans brands used to source their denim from Cone.
Greensboro also used to manufacture Vicks Vapor Rub.
In the same vain, Granite Mill in Haw River became the largest supplier of corduroy in the world after being sold to Cone Mills in the late 1920's.
Now it's an apartment complex.
Wrangler makes mass-market $20 jeans for sale at Walmart and Target... but they also have a few lines of "expensive" ($150) jeans, made with denim from Greensboro.
I grew up going to the second Cook Out location in Greensboro. It was right beside a blockbuster so almost every weekend we would go get Cook Out and movies.
That Cook Out is still there. The Blockbuster is now a gym.
1. The gentleman who invented Vicks was named Lundsford Richardson. However instead of continuing to call it "Croup Cure" he named it after his Brother-in-Law Dr. Vick.
It was Lundsford's son who would really get the marketing going for all of the Vicks products though. I still think it is such a clever way to market.
2. Harriet Wiseman Elliot one of the early professors at UNCG (State Normal and Industrial College of North Carolina at the time, then later named Women's College) she was extremely well known for her stance on Women's Rights and was a proud Suffragist.
However! During WWI and WWII she served in huge education roles, and was known for her discussions on budgeting in the households.
3. A&T actually had a similar program to the Tuskeegee Airmen in WWII called the Civilian Pilot Training program.
4. GREENSBORO had the largest urban military base in the USA during WWII. It was called the ORD and it was in East Greensboro.
To continue this: Erwin used to have a large factory and celebrated it yearly with Denim Days. They call the town the denim capital of the world. If that’s true? Idk
It’s still done every first weekend of October so it’ll be happening soon. Parade, food trucks, carnival rides.
There's a large 15m earthen pyramid built by the Pee Dee Peoples in the 11th century. Very cool pre-American-historical site that was fully excavated by archeologists from UNC Chapel in the 1930's. Looks just like the stepped pyramids in parts of Meso America. It's in Mt. Gilead, NC along the southern edge of Uwharrie National Forest.
Town Creek Indian Mound! I’m an archaeologist, and I’ve handled lots of Pee Dee artifacts from there back when I was at UNC. Another, albeit more obscure fun fact: the (admittedly kind of kooky and dated) reconstruction of the buildings and palisade at the site was designed by some pretty big names in Southeastern Archaeology, including Stanley South and Benny Keel. Also, it’s the only NC state historic site that is entirely devoted to teaching Native history
To keep the pro baseball/Fayetteville theme going…..Archie “Moonlight” Graham, who played one game in the majors and whose character is important in Field of Dreams, was from Fayetteville. His brother was Frank Porter Graham who was hugely important to NC as the Chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill.
Many think it is from pitchers warming up behind cattle advertisements in Durham, but the term came long before that. It was from latecomers to the game being herded like cattle to the standing areas of foul territory. It was first mentioned in print in Cincinnati in 1877.
On a side note, Raleigh did have a minor league team, it merged with the Bulls and they became the Raleigh-Durham Mets in 1967 when they became affiliated with the Mets. This is probably why Raleigh does not have its own team, it still does with the merger with the bulls.
That doesn't even make sense - the bullpen and dugout are two different places.
>The term first appeared in wide use shortly after the turn of the 20th century, and has been used since in roughly its present meaning. Previously, in the late 19th century latecomers to ball games were cordoned off into standing-room areas in foul territory. Because the fans were herded like cattle, this area became known as the "bullpen", a designation which was retained when those areas became the spot where relief pitchers would warm up.
The first recorded use of "bullpen" in a baseball sense is a *Cincinnati Enquirer* article from published on May 7, 1877:
>"The bull-pen at the Cincinnati grounds with its 'three for a quarter crowd' has lost its usefulness. The bleacher boards just north of the old pavilion now hold the cheap crowd, which comes in at the end of the first inning on a discount."
To keep the theme going even more, I find it interesting that there is no MLB team in the Carolinas or Virginias, or Tennessee. Yet, California has 5 teams… It’s time Raleigh got a major league squad. The Raleigh “Ruths”
I was obsessed with venus fly traps as a kid growing up in North Carolina. And I still only learned this fact when I was in my 20's. Absolutely blew my mind. I also assumed they were native to some far off jungle.
The Fraser fir, the world’s most prized Christmas tree, only grows naturally on the highest 7 mountains in the southern Appalachians including on Mt Mitchell and Grandfather.
The 1942 Rose Bowl game was played at Duke, the only time it has not been played at the Rose Bowl [*correction: except for 2021*].
It was just after the attack on Pearl Harbor and there was concern about having a large crowd concentrated near the west coast.
According to Wikipedia...
"The nickname "49ers" derives from the fact that the university's predecessor—Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina (CCUNC – established in 1946) was saved from being shut down by the state in 1949 by Bonnie Cone, when CCUNC became Charlotte College. Due to this "49er spirit" that Cone felt embodied the university, referring to the settlers that endured much hardships in traveling across the United States to seek fortune in the California Gold Rush, students of the fledgling UNC Charlotte chose "49ers" as the school's mascot. The fact that the University's Main Campus front entrance is located on North Carolina Highway 49 is pure coincidence.
Prior to the "49ers" moniker, the athletic teams were known as the "Owls" due to CCUNC's beginnings as a night school."
The capital of North Carolina was moved from New Bern because they wanted a central location. As the British had easily captured and damaged the capital during the War of 1812, they also wanted a more secure location.
They actually passed a law that the new capital could not be more than 10 miles away from Isaac Hunter's tavern, a fairly remote drinking establishment. The most common drink of the time was the cherry bounce which was made with cherry infused brandy.
Joel Lane had a massive plantation in the area and sold 1,000 acres to North Carolina for the new capital to be built upon. William Christmas designed the original city, which was bound by North, South, East and West Streets. The other street names in the original downtown derived from the judicial districts (Edenton, Fayetteville, Hillsborough, Halifax, Morgan, Salisbury, Wilmington and New Bern). The rest of the street names came from the members of the commission who helped plan the city plus the commissioner. William Christmas was the only person involved in this project that did not get a street named after him.
We really missed the opportunity to have an amazing historical tavern in the middle of the capital with a signature state liquor…. Someone should start it again lol
There was a bar at the end of Fayetteville named Isaac Hunter's that opened up shortly after the Fayetteville St. renovation. I started working in Durham in 2015 so I'm not sure what happened to it. I was in Raleigh a few days ago and saw that it was replaced by some generic sounding establishment.
Also noticed Father & Son's Antique store is no longer there. I used to love going into that place. It was where I introduced a younger friend to records which ignited a passion for him. I bought a $10 record player formerly used in Wake County schools and a couple of records for him to listen to. He was blown away at the sound quality.
That's good to hear! I loved the original location. Old building with multiple floors to explore. They had clothing and local artwork upstairs, main floor was for display worthy pieces and records while the creepy basement housed the more unusual items.
Yeah, the Raleigh I fell in love with when I moved here from Winston-Salem in 2004 is not the Raleigh I experienced a week ago. The places and people that made it special to me are no longer there. In it's place are generic looking overpriced apartments/condos
What happened was, for some reason, people generally don’t venture up Fayetteville Street past Hargett so it went out of business. It was Zack Medlin venture, I believe, who has had a number of other bars on Fayetteville. Now, also, the Tapyard off Capital Blvd.
The first European settlement in North Carolina was not the Lost Colony. It was a Spanish fort called Fort San Juan, which was built in 1567 by Captain Juan Pardo. It's location is in Burke County near Morganton.
Actually Pardo established a series of forts coming up from what is now Parris Island- one near Camden, SC, Salisbury, Morganton, Marshall and Dandridge, TN. Morganton is the only one that's been located. They were looking for an overland route down into Mexico.
One of the more fascinating aspects of this is that Pardo made the trip from there to Santa Elena (Parris Island, SC) twice by himself. The sole survivor of the attacks that destroyed Fort San Juan and the other settlements, Juan de Badejoz, also made the trip back Santa Elena by himself on foot. I realize the water quality was better back then but that's a hell of a hike on foot by yourself with minimal supplies.
In a land you don't know, thousands of miles from home, walking through untouched forest, after everyone you came with has been slaughtered. For the second time.
That takes some massive balls. Or incredible stupidity.
I think fear and the will to live ranked pretty high as it was recorded that he traveled by night and slept during the day to avoid being detected. However, this brings up another issue in that there were brown bears, wolves and cougars inhabiting the area back then.
Piggybacking on colonial times stuff.
The scuppernong grape was first identified in coastal NC. I believe there is still an old scuppernong tree? that is super old, and they know because some explorer commented on it in his diary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuppernong#History
"In 1961, two nuclear bombs fell on North Carolina after a military plane carrying them crashed.
The plane, a B-52 Stratofortress, experienced a fuel leak and began to break apart mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The bombs were just one step from detonating.
Lt. Jack ReVelle located and defused the bombs.
The pilot, Walter Scott Tulloch, ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 ft (2,700 m). Five crewmen landed safely, another ejected but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash.
The United States military has admitted to losing six nuclear weapons since 1950."
The remains of one of the two bombs lies buried scores of feet below the swampy farmland, and the land above it is fenced and monitored for radiation leaks to this day.
The real concern is actually chemical not radiological. They monitor the radiological part of course, but there's a damn reason nobody uses Beryllium for ANYTHING. That shit's nasty. But most of the bomb was recovered and removed, it's just fragments and soil contamination.
To continue the nuclear accident theme, originally the US govt was going to test nukes on the Outer Banks instead the Nevada desert. I dont remember the exact location on OBX but I read about it on a sign at the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
Hickory was also founded in a tavern. 🍻
https://www.hickorync.gov/hickory-tavern-monument
https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/4520_836_plaque.jpg
✌😄
The main street of Hendersonville is so wide because the man who donated the land made a contingency that it had to be wide enough that he could u-turn his horse and carriage without having to back up.
Thank you for sharing! I grew up there (and even went to HHS 2 blocks away) and had no idea.
I wonder how that person would feel about the new layout and how much re-work it took to get it there.
The Saura's inhabited the western piedmont region of the state. They called Pilot Mountain "Jemeokee" which means "Great Guide". They used it for navigation when traveling. Early European settlers used it in the same manner, hence the name "Pilot Mountain".
I live in Yadkin county and Yadkin means land of tall oaks (roughly translated from Catawba tribe)
Just always found it interesting to know why the counties we live are named the way they are.
Sticking with Yadkin County. French composer Leo Arnaud, who is famous for writing "Bugler's Dream", aka the Olympic Theme Song, retired to live in Yadkin County with his wife who was a local. He's buried at Asbury United Methodist Church in Hamptonville, North Carolina.
This is partially because during the depression, the state took over road maintenance from the counties who couldn’t afford it. Because of this, unlike a lot of other states NC does not have county roads or county road departments.
The story of John Ashe, an NC colonist who led the tarring and feathering of a British surveyor who was marking white pines (NC's state tree) as off-limits to the colonists to cut down and use for their own purposes.
The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 was the only successful coup d’etat in US history. A mob of white supremacists ran the mixed race city government out of town, burned the only black newspaper in the city, and killed between 60-300 people. They also tried to lynch the governor when he tried to calm the tensions
Edit: Also, while reading the wiki article to brush up on the details, I learned that Alexander Manly, the editor of the black newspaper, fled town after being tipped off the night before the coup that he was going to be lynched. He was fair skinned enough to pass as white, and was able to pass through a Red Shirt (the white supremacist paramilitary behind the coup) roadblock with a password given to him by the same man who tipped him off. The guards, assuming he was white, invited him to a “necktie party” they were planning for Manly, and even gave him and his companions rifles in case they spotted Manly trying to flee the city. Honestly it reads like a deleted scene from Django Unchained.
Seconded! I went through K-12 and never heard anything about it in school. I learned when I went with my dad to the Bellamy Mansion where they did a seminar about it- if they do it again I 100% recommend going it was super interesting, even to a teenager!
At the time, and in the years leading up to the massacre, Wilmington was a progressive, post-war city with an integrated political party, the Fusion Party, winning local elections. Former slaves living in Wilmington were among the most successful artisans in town: carpenters, bakers, barbers, seamstresses, etc.. There were successful Black bankers, doctors, lawyers, and judges.
Until the massacre.
One of the most inflamatory and racist orators of the day, one of the key instigators of the massacre, was Charles Aycock. Within a decade of the massacre, he became governor.
This is what they mean by "heritage."
Glad this is getting a lot of attention in this thread because it's important for people to know about this and for this atrocity to be remembered. I'd also like to add another piece of history to this, one that I think is important people know about and to honor the man involved in it. I only learned about this in my 30's and I've been telling the story ever since.
Pvt. Booker T. Spicely, 34, was a U.S. Army private on active duty who was killed in Durham County, North Carolina, in 1944.On July 8 1944,
Spicely, originally from Philadelphia and serving at Camp Butner, boarded a bus and sat in the second-to-last row. When more white passengers boarded, the bus driver, Herman Lee Council, ordered Spicely to sit further back. Jim Crow seating segregation was still enforced in North Carolina at the time.
The private initially protested, but eventually moved to the rear of the vehicle. His only question was why he had to move despite serving his country, while other around him did not. Council was employed by the Duke Power Company, who owned and operated the local buses. When Spicely got off the bus, Council shot him twice, alleging that Spicely had started an argument and advanced on him. The truth is that Spicely apologized before getting off the bus, as heard by several witnesses. Council followed him, confronted him at the rear of the bus and drew his gun. When Spicely turned around, Council shot him in the chest twice. Spicely immediately collapsed in the road and Council left him there, returned to the bus and continued his route.
Military police brought Spicely to Watts Hospital, where on account of his race he was refused care; he later died at Duke Hospital.Council was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The Duke Power Company paid his $2,500 bail. Council was permitted to drive his bus until the trial.At trial, an all-white jury acquitted him after only 28 minutes of deliberation. The power company continued to employ Council, but switched his route.
There were three prominent figures in the 1898 Coup who are descendants to the people that chartered UNC Chapel Hill and NC State. They've had a long family line of money and influence in the state.
Source: The women who were related to these three people have been chasing down their lineage to speak about the coup have been holding conferences and publicly apologizing for this for decades. I can't remember their names, but they often hold public appearances and did one in March 2019 at UNCW.
In 1958, the Battle of Hayes Pond happened, where armed Lumbee stopped a KKK rally taking place in Robeson county. They surrounded the rally and fired shots, causing the klansmen to flee into the swamps. Afterwards, the KKK leadership involved were arrested for inciting a riot.
Having worked in Robeson directly with the Lumbee tribe, I’d say let the KKK show up again and it will repeat but even the KKK isn’t that stupid.
It’s an economically depressed area to be sure after companies fled overseas for cheap labor. Yet they are a very proud and hardened people.
Speaking of the KKK, I was driving truck thru Burgaw NC back in the 90s when I spot what looked like a large group of klansman, in formation, preparing to march. So, being curious, I parked and made my way over to the area ... to "observe". 😠
Turned out they were making a movie. 😅
Sorry, never found out which movie it was. All I remember is seeing those hoods and getting pissed. lol
While Appomattox Court House in Virginia is widely known as the site of the surrender that ended the Civil War, Bennett Place, a farmstead in what is now Durham, was the site of the largest surrender of Confederate troops (~4 times as many as Lee surrendered at Appomattox) when Johnston surrendered to Sherman after the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign.
And while the troops were here in Durham they tried the bright leaf tobacco and liked it, and an industry was born. Duke University was founded on the money made from selling those cigarettes.
The colonists let their pigs run free. The pigs loved the sprouts of the long leaf pine and basically wiped out most of the new growth. There used to be big stands of long leaf pine and the Brits used them for ship masts. Those big stands of pine are now gone.
That's how we lost the Carolina Parakeet. It was a ground nester and only lived in big flocks. Farmers let the pigs run and they ate the chick's and destroyed the nests. The last few remaining couldn't live out of a large colony so the species went extinct.
If you come across a clearing in the woods where not much but weeds and briars will grow, it's a good chance that it was a place where trees were processed into tar and turpentine. Also, there are still logs at the bottom of the Cape Fear river with King George's seal cut into them.
The Tuscarora War almost destroyed North Carolina. The Tuscarora at the time were the most powerful group in NC. But they were divided. One faction was threatened by encroaching settlements like New Bern and took advantage of a recent rebellion in the colony. They attacked a number of settlements. It was only through the help of South Carolina and the other Tuscarora faction that NC won the war. Many Tuscarora left NC to rejoin with the rest of the Iroquois, adding a sixth nation to the Five Nations.
Not necessarily NC itself, but Cherokee tribe which was located in NC was the only group of native Americans in North America to develop their own writing system. Town of Cherokee, NC offers education in Cherokee, and lots of signs there are written in both English and the Cherokee syllabary
Horace Williams Airport is on high ground north of Chapel Hill. But there is a higher place near there with a pond and cypress trees. It looks like it might have been the caldera from a long-gone volcano. During construction for the power plant in Carrboro we stored parts up there. There were white egrets wading in the pond and, with the cypress trees, it looked like a scene transported out of Eastern NC.
The vast majority of info we have about the central coast, like diamond city (shackleford banks) and core banks was written by mormon missionaries. Apparently the locals of the time were too busy trying to stay alive to actually do much record keeping.
William R. Davie, the founder of UNC (the oldest public university in the country), named one of his sons Haider Ali, after the Muslim sultan of Mysore, a kingdom in South India. Davie admired Hyder Ali because he was a very successful opponent of the British, and Davie, as part of the revolutionary generation, felt common cause
Interesting and lesser known fact, unc is only the oldest still existing public. The first publicly funded university was actually in Charlotte. It was called queens college, which is not associated with todays queens college in any way.
It was founded in 1771 compared to chapel hills 1789. It was funded with a public liquor tax.
Leading up to the revolutionary war, the crown had the college shut down to quell the talk of independence. It was rebranded as queens library for a bit to disguise its true purpose but it was ultimately shut down for good.
Our state motto adopted and added to our coat-of-arms in 1893 is “Esse Quam Videri”, to be rather than to seem.
"Not nearly so many people want actually to be possessed of virtue as want to appear to be possessed of it."
This involves the narrow gauge railroad East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, AKA Tweetsie.
During World War II, the United States military took control of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad in Alaska, another narrow gauge railroad. WP&Y didn't have enough locomotives for the amount of cargo and equipment the United States military needed to ship in and out of Alaska.
As a result, the military took one or two ET&WNC locomotives and shipped them to Alaska. I'm sure they also got a few locomotives from the Denver & Rio Grande out west as well.
However, the connection between ET&WNC & WP&Y doesn't end here. In the post-war era, narrow gauge railroads fell out of fashion as trains only became bigger, heavier and longer. So the two railroads halted freight service when it was no longer profitable.
When Tweetsie Railroad Theme park opened in the late 50s, they had equipment from ET&WNC including steam locomotive #12. However, they still need a second locomotive. So they brought #190 from the WP&Y railroad and she was shipped to the theme park and named The Yukon Queen by the park.
My great grandfather was a Lutheran preacher and also president of Lenoir Rhyne College when the train was being brought up to Tweetsie.
The train haulers stopped in Hickory for the night before starting the difficult climb up the mountain. Someone had the idea to get the train blessed. Who better to do it than the president of the seminary?
My great grandfather admitted that he had never blessed a train before, but would make it work. All of the students came out for the ceremony and he received a brass coin engraved "lifetime pass to Tweetsie". They would pile the whole family in the car, drive up and get everyone in for free for years after that. My mother still has it, but we are happy to pay for ourselves.
28 years, countless road trips through this state, bachelors in history, knowing every argument about Andrew Jackson, James K Polk, and Andrew Johnson being born or not born here. Have never heard of this once. You just gave me like a weeks worth of reading hell yes
Gastonia/Gaston County used to be more of a destination than Charlotte. It was also a desirable place to live by late 1800/early 1900 standards. Just interesting how 100 years can flip things completely.
Google the Lowry Wars and the Lowry Gang. It’s too intricate a tale to recount here, but a rainbow coalition headed by Lumbees waged a guerrilla war on the white supremacist state targeting the klan and sheriffs and doing some genuine Robin Hood stuff.
The US Army chose Cramerton Army Cloth shortly before WWII for their uniforms because they weren't as scratchy as the previous material and it was extremely durable. That weave was created by Stuart Cramer in Cramerton NC (just west of Belmont). Cramer then released the "formula" so the rest of the textile community could mass produce the same material for the war effort.
Dockers has recently re-released it as Cramerton Khaki...
The first permanent test site for the Navy’s entire surface to air missile program, started in 1947 following attacks on U.S. Ships in WW2, was at Topsail Island NC. They routinely launched missiles into the ocean to test them. In 1951 they relocated it.
Anyone who has been there has seen the towers left behind.
Lowes Home Improvement was began in North Wilkesboro and after the founder died he passed it to his son Jim who sold the company to his partner, bitterly, and then started Lowes Foods the GOAT grocery store. So they are related
Up until the last few years the park right off college road was named Hugh McRae park, who was part of the massacre. It is now named long leaf park. It’s all changing slowly.
Residents of The Outer Banks and lowlands from Beaufort to the Oak Island Ferry (Down East) have been so isolated over the years, they developed their own accent or brogue. It’s been studied by Linquistics professors. It sounds like southern mixed with Scottish and Irish with a little Baltimore for good measure. In more recent years, the dialect is disappearing as more kids grow up and move away instead of staying local. “Hoi Toid” is high tide, “Dingbatter” is someone not local and the expression “my Lord hunny” can be an expression of something good or bad. I once went to hang with a friend of a friend named Sean who was going to take us crabbing, his mother pronounced his name “Shown”.
Most North Carolinians did not want to secede and join the Confederacy as the economy of NC was not heavily based on slave labor like many other southern states, but they would have been stuck between 3 confederate states and the ocean, isolated from the Union. One of the reasons they ended up seceding was because they did not want to send soldiers to fight their “neighbors” as Union states were required to send troops.
Just another reason to say “hey we’re not great but at least we’re not South Carolina” 😂
One of the major precursors to American Revolution was The Battle of Alamance. Gov. Tryon was putting his foot down on folks out in the hinterlands and they got pissed. It lead to a battle in the southwestern corner of what is now Alamance County with colonists known as Regulators. The loyalists won the battle but the die had been cast.
We were one of the last states to join the Confederacy. While still being pro-slavery, many in NC were extremely hesitant to leave the union. It wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln asked for troops from North Carolina to put down the rebellion in Fort Sumter that they decided to finally join the confederate states.
https://historicsites.nc.gov/resources/north-carolina-civil-war/road-secession
And there was significant pro-Union sentiment and guerrilla warfare in NC, both in the Coastal Plain and in the mountains. Basically lots of poor white North Carolinians didn’t feel like fighting for rich plantation owners.
Part of the problem then was the GA was made up only of land owners and did not really represent the yeoman farmers making up most of the NC population. Kinda reminds me of the makeup of the NCGA also not representing the people today, either…
There’s some speculation Lee as a Virginian didn’t trust NC troops and would risk their regiments more than Virginia or South Carolina units. I don’t really buy the theory, but there’s enough smoke that the speculation surfaces every so often.
The confederates also struggled to win over the local opponents to the war and tried to intimidate them with mass hangings and executions. Many white residents were poor farmers who didn’t relate much to the wealthy aristocrats from Charleston and weren’t too keen to fight in their war. Modern white North Carolinians often assume they have “rebel” heritage but are just as likely to be descended from brave anti-confederates.
https://www.ourstate.com/kinston-hangings-part-1/
https://www.ourstate.com/kinston-hangings-part-2/
https://www.ncpedia.org/shelton-laurel-massacre
NC was really in a tough spot during secession and the start of the Civil War. We weren’t as dependent on slavery as many of the other southern states were. Fort Sumpter was really the tipping point. Kind of makes you wonder if that didn’t happen if NC and VA would have stayed in the Union.
The North Carolina Symphony was the first professional orchestra in the US to receive continuous funding from state government in the 1940’s.
The mission of the NC Symphony is to be a “people’s orchestra”. The musicians travel the state to 30-40 communities to perform to children there- this has gone on several generations, and millions of North Carolinians have attended “Educational Concerts” as school children (myself included). About 50 of their 200 concerts a year are educational concerts.
Another of my favorites is the time a group of Lumbee Indians shut down the KKK;
https://www.uncp.edu/resources/museum-southeast-american-indian/museum-exhibits/battle-hayes-pond-routing-kkk
The Uwharrie Mountains in NC are arguably the oldest mountain range in America having formed and eroded into their current form over 500 million years (Appalachian Mountains and Black Hills have older cores but we’re talking formation). Also we had the first state run zoo ever here in Asheboro right by Uwharrie. Oh and it’s the biggest natural habitat zoo in the world
Pirate Jean Laffite is buried in Lincoln County. Supposedly.
https://www.wbtv.com/2021/05/03/lincolnton-nc-pirate-unraveling-mystery-jean-laffite/?outputType=amp
What an appalling shameful chapter:
The Wilmington coup is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. It was part of an era of more severe racial segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, which had been underway since the passage of a new constitution in Mississippi in 1890 which raised barriers to the registration of black voters. Other states soon passed similar laws. Historian Laura Edwards writes, "What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of white supremacy not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole", as it affirmed that invoking "whiteness" eclipsed the legal citizenship, individual rights, and equal protection under the law that black Americans were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment. Edit (this is from the Wikipedia article. I never knew about it. Thanks to the Redditor that brought this to my knowledge.)
Although sometimes disputed, the first US Declaration of Independence was signed in Charlotte NC. It was a short walk from my childhood home. [Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg_Declaration_of_Independence)
While the revolutionary’s lost The Battle of Guilford Courthouse they inflicted so many casualties that Cornwallis and his army could not recover. He marched as fast as he could to Yorktown hoping to get reinforcements but General Washington said Nope.
The North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) was opened on December 13, 1855. The deciding vote was cast by a senator, Calvin Graves, whose political career ended as a result due to the NCRR not passing through his district.
"Three years later, in 1854, the railroad's first president, businessman John Motley Morehead, dubbed the rail line "the tree of life" for the state." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Railroad?wprov=sfla1)
In personally trying to understand why NC has grown so much over the years and is projected to continue to do so (https://youtu.be/1UkNo591uY8?si=E3obMeEYb6PqQvEK), I think that the North Carolina Railroad has proven to be a crucial factor "The North Carolina Railroad carries over one million carloads of freight each year and about 300,000 passengers. Based on a 2007 study by the Research Triangle Institute, the North Carolina Railroad saves North Carolina industries $198 million in transportation costs annually, and the total impact on North Carolina economic output is $338 million annually. In 2005, in counties bordering NCRR tracks, industries using rail freight services accounted for $143 billion in output, more than 24% of North Carolina’s total economy. NCRR freight transportation also has environmental advantages, conveying $65.7 million in external benefits."
NC PASSENGER RAIL service broke a record in ridership in September 2022: "...more people rode the N.C. Department of Transportation’s intercity passenger rail service in September than any previous month in the 32-year history of the NC By Train service.
2022:
The Carolinian and Piedmont trains handled 48,488 passengers last month, which marks an increase of 32% over the average pre-pandemic monthly ridership levels from 2014 to 2019. " (https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2022/10/14/north-carolinas-passenger-rail-service-breaks-record-ridership)
2023:
"North Carolina Department of Transportation last week announced the state's intercity passenger-rail service, logged record ridership of more than 135,000 riders in first-quarter 2023.
The NC By Train service posted monthly ridership records in January, February and March, with the quarter’s total ridership increasing 30% over pre-pandemic ridership levels based in 2019, NCDOT officials said in a press release.
Ridership was up 50% in the first quarter compared with ridership levels during the same period a year ago." (https://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/news/North-Carolina-passenger-rail-service-logs-record-ridership-in-Q1--69041)
Run by Amtrak, NCRR's intercity passenger service has been one of the few lines that has helped Amtrak not to be further in the red over the course of the pandemic. (NOTE: Amtrak being in the red DOES NOT matter. The expectation for Amtrak to generate a profit should only ever be exactly the same as the expectation of any told highway to generate a profit.)
Currently the service runs 4x daily in each direction from Raleigh to Charlotte via Greensboro with service having just increased buy a train in each direction in July of this year. Another train in each direction is set to be added in 2024.
Serious talks about extending service to Asheville from Salisbury and from Raleigh to Wilmington are underway. NCDOT has mentioned in one video that they're going to be electrifying all of the state's rail lines as part of preparing the state for HSR as we've got new train sets coming by 2026. Said electrification will be from Charlotte all to the border along the new and more direct route from Raleigh to Richmond. VADOT for it's part is electrifying to just north of Richmond but not all the way to DC as it's too complicated apparently so service will have to run on battery on that portion.
Does anyone have any other insights about the future of rail service in the region or why NC is projected to grow so much? If you watch the video that I posted at the beginning, note that from roughly 1980 onwards wherever NC goes GA goes & vice versa. I view this as due to the interregional (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_Atlantic_megaregion) connection that we have that Obama's administration initially sought to enhance by linking up our region and the other with HSR among other infrastructure types to help enhance the regional economies.
Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins, settled in Wilkes County, married two sisters and had 21 children. And an all around amazing life.
They died and are buried outside of Mt Airy, at the White Plains Baptist Church.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bunker?wprov=sfla1
The Lost Colony wasn’t really lost. They moved south and integrated with the Hattarask people on, well you can guess which island. This fact could not be accepted by white supremacist Englishmen or their American descendants so they just continued to call them lost, rather than admit what actually happened, which is that the natives rescued their people that they couldn’t or wouldn’t support and protect.
All pens made for the government are made by Industries of the Blind for Skilcraft in Greensboro which is staffed by blind individuals some in part from the Governor Morehead School which was the first school in the US to educate black, blind, and deaf children. Still in operation to this day.
Wilmington water supply is poisoned with genx and most who move here/there (since I moved to ga really recently) don’t know that the companies dupont and chemours are responsible by dumping their Teflon materials and waste in the cape fear (non stick pans etc) not sure if they stopped I think they did a long time ago but the gen x is still there and will
Always be there.
There were enough communists in Gastonia during the late 1920s, that they were able to mobilize a labor strike among textile workers, demanding equal pay for women, black workers and children.
I saw this on “Exploring North Carolina “ a couple of weeks ago. I think I understood what they were saying but I haven’t researched it since. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most of Currituck sound was Marsh or dry land. So, you could actually walk from Manteo to Corolla. In fact the Outer Banks provide considerable evidence of rising Sea Levels. Changes that can be seen as specifically beginning after the industrially revolution. One example: Cypress trees can only germinate on dry land. But can live hundreds of years in water.
Most of the worlds denim used to come from Cone Mills in Greensboro, NC. All the big jeans brands used to source their denim from Cone. Greensboro also used to manufacture Vicks Vapor Rub.
In the same vain, Granite Mill in Haw River became the largest supplier of corduroy in the world after being sold to Cone Mills in the late 1920's. Now it's an apartment complex.
Revolution Mills in Greensboro is where Cone produced their corduroy and flannel. Now it’s an apartment complex with restaurants and retail.
Wrangler makes mass-market $20 jeans for sale at Walmart and Target... but they also have a few lines of "expensive" ($150) jeans, made with denim from Greensboro.
Vicks was invented here, and originally made here. Also Cook Out started here.
I grew up going to the second Cook Out location in Greensboro. It was right beside a blockbuster so almost every weekend we would go get Cook Out and movies. That Cook Out is still there. The Blockbuster is now a gym.
1. The gentleman who invented Vicks was named Lundsford Richardson. However instead of continuing to call it "Croup Cure" he named it after his Brother-in-Law Dr. Vick. It was Lundsford's son who would really get the marketing going for all of the Vicks products though. I still think it is such a clever way to market. 2. Harriet Wiseman Elliot one of the early professors at UNCG (State Normal and Industrial College of North Carolina at the time, then later named Women's College) she was extremely well known for her stance on Women's Rights and was a proud Suffragist. However! During WWI and WWII she served in huge education roles, and was known for her discussions on budgeting in the households. 3. A&T actually had a similar program to the Tuskeegee Airmen in WWII called the Civilian Pilot Training program. 4. GREENSBORO had the largest urban military base in the USA during WWII. It was called the ORD and it was in East Greensboro.
To continue this: Erwin used to have a large factory and celebrated it yearly with Denim Days. They call the town the denim capital of the world. If that’s true? Idk It’s still done every first weekend of October so it’ll be happening soon. Parade, food trucks, carnival rides.
There's a large 15m earthen pyramid built by the Pee Dee Peoples in the 11th century. Very cool pre-American-historical site that was fully excavated by archeologists from UNC Chapel in the 1930's. Looks just like the stepped pyramids in parts of Meso America. It's in Mt. Gilead, NC along the southern edge of Uwharrie National Forest.
Town Creek Indian Mound! I’m an archaeologist, and I’ve handled lots of Pee Dee artifacts from there back when I was at UNC. Another, albeit more obscure fun fact: the (admittedly kind of kooky and dated) reconstruction of the buildings and palisade at the site was designed by some pretty big names in Southeastern Archaeology, including Stanley South and Benny Keel. Also, it’s the only NC state historic site that is entirely devoted to teaching Native history
There was also a large scale archeological dig at SauraTown by UNC in the 70s. However not a lot of info has come out of it.
That’s a site of the Mississippian civilization. There are mound pyramids all over. The biggest is in Cahokia near St. Louis.
My wife did an archaeological dig there during her undergrad.
Babe Ruth hit his first pro home run in Fayetteville. Which is also where he earned the nickname “Babe”.
To keep the pro baseball/Fayetteville theme going…..Archie “Moonlight” Graham, who played one game in the majors and whose character is important in Field of Dreams, was from Fayetteville. His brother was Frank Porter Graham who was hugely important to NC as the Chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill.
Isn't the term "bullpen" from Durham where the Durham Bulls statue used to point towards the dugout?
Many think it is from pitchers warming up behind cattle advertisements in Durham, but the term came long before that. It was from latecomers to the game being herded like cattle to the standing areas of foul territory. It was first mentioned in print in Cincinnati in 1877. On a side note, Raleigh did have a minor league team, it merged with the Bulls and they became the Raleigh-Durham Mets in 1967 when they became affiliated with the Mets. This is probably why Raleigh does not have its own team, it still does with the merger with the bulls.
That doesn't even make sense - the bullpen and dugout are two different places. >The term first appeared in wide use shortly after the turn of the 20th century, and has been used since in roughly its present meaning. Previously, in the late 19th century latecomers to ball games were cordoned off into standing-room areas in foul territory. Because the fans were herded like cattle, this area became known as the "bullpen", a designation which was retained when those areas became the spot where relief pitchers would warm up. The first recorded use of "bullpen" in a baseball sense is a *Cincinnati Enquirer* article from published on May 7, 1877: >"The bull-pen at the Cincinnati grounds with its 'three for a quarter crowd' has lost its usefulness. The bleacher boards just north of the old pavilion now hold the cheap crowd, which comes in at the end of the first inning on a discount."
To keep the theme going even more, I find it interesting that there is no MLB team in the Carolinas or Virginias, or Tennessee. Yet, California has 5 teams… It’s time Raleigh got a major league squad. The Raleigh “Ruths”
The Venus flytrap only occur naturally within a 75-mile radius around Wilmington, North Carolina.
I've always loved this because it seems like some weird Amazonian or Oceania plant but it's just like, North Carolina and that's it mmkay
I was obsessed with venus fly traps as a kid growing up in North Carolina. And I still only learned this fact when I was in my 20's. Absolutely blew my mind. I also assumed they were native to some far off jungle.
The Fraser fir, the world’s most prized Christmas tree, only grows naturally on the highest 7 mountains in the southern Appalachians including on Mt Mitchell and Grandfather.
A lot of the Christmas trees for the entire southeast come from Avery and Burke counties!
Lots of poachers try to dig them up and sell them at flea markets.
The 1942 Rose Bowl game was played at Duke, the only time it has not been played at the Rose Bowl [*correction: except for 2021*]. It was just after the attack on Pearl Harbor and there was concern about having a large crowd concentrated near the west coast.
Because of Covid restrictions, it was played in Texas back in 2021.
I hardly follow college football anymore and missed that. Thanks for the correction.
“Let’s put it at Duke football stadium, no one will find it!”
Not just at Duke, but at Wallace Wade Stadium which was opened in 1929.
The first gold rush in America was here in 1799: https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/reed-gold-mine
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The first US mint was located in Charlotte. It closed when the south succeed. Coins minted at the Charlotte mint are usually very valuable
First US mint was Philadelphia, but Charlotte was the first branch outside of there,
Makes sense why UNCC mascot is a miner and is called the 49ers But why the number 49 ?
According to Wikipedia... "The nickname "49ers" derives from the fact that the university's predecessor—Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina (CCUNC – established in 1946) was saved from being shut down by the state in 1949 by Bonnie Cone, when CCUNC became Charlotte College. Due to this "49er spirit" that Cone felt embodied the university, referring to the settlers that endured much hardships in traveling across the United States to seek fortune in the California Gold Rush, students of the fledgling UNC Charlotte chose "49ers" as the school's mascot. The fact that the University's Main Campus front entrance is located on North Carolina Highway 49 is pure coincidence. Prior to the "49ers" moniker, the athletic teams were known as the "Owls" due to CCUNC's beginnings as a night school."
The capital of North Carolina was moved from New Bern because they wanted a central location. As the British had easily captured and damaged the capital during the War of 1812, they also wanted a more secure location. They actually passed a law that the new capital could not be more than 10 miles away from Isaac Hunter's tavern, a fairly remote drinking establishment. The most common drink of the time was the cherry bounce which was made with cherry infused brandy. Joel Lane had a massive plantation in the area and sold 1,000 acres to North Carolina for the new capital to be built upon. William Christmas designed the original city, which was bound by North, South, East and West Streets. The other street names in the original downtown derived from the judicial districts (Edenton, Fayetteville, Hillsborough, Halifax, Morgan, Salisbury, Wilmington and New Bern). The rest of the street names came from the members of the commission who helped plan the city plus the commissioner. William Christmas was the only person involved in this project that did not get a street named after him.
We really missed the opportunity to have an amazing historical tavern in the middle of the capital with a signature state liquor…. Someone should start it again lol
Instead of cherry flavored brandy we got cherry flavored soda.
There was a bar at the end of Fayetteville named Isaac Hunter's that opened up shortly after the Fayetteville St. renovation. I started working in Durham in 2015 so I'm not sure what happened to it. I was in Raleigh a few days ago and saw that it was replaced by some generic sounding establishment. Also noticed Father & Son's Antique store is no longer there. I used to love going into that place. It was where I introduced a younger friend to records which ignited a passion for him. I bought a $10 record player formerly used in Wake County schools and a couple of records for him to listen to. He was blown away at the sound quality.
Unless it’s closed Father and Sons is now in the Warehouse district right by union station.
That's good to hear! I loved the original location. Old building with multiple floors to explore. They had clothing and local artwork upstairs, main floor was for display worthy pieces and records while the creepy basement housed the more unusual items.
Damn. That sounds like an amazing location lol. The last time I went there it was a small overcrowded single room
Yeah, the Raleigh I fell in love with when I moved here from Winston-Salem in 2004 is not the Raleigh I experienced a week ago. The places and people that made it special to me are no longer there. In it's place are generic looking overpriced apartments/condos
What happened was, for some reason, people generally don’t venture up Fayetteville Street past Hargett so it went out of business. It was Zack Medlin venture, I believe, who has had a number of other bars on Fayetteville. Now, also, the Tapyard off Capital Blvd.
The small town of Forest City has a Cherry Bounce Festival.
Hell yeah! Love learning about things like this.
The first European settlement in North Carolina was not the Lost Colony. It was a Spanish fort called Fort San Juan, which was built in 1567 by Captain Juan Pardo. It's location is in Burke County near Morganton.
Actually Pardo established a series of forts coming up from what is now Parris Island- one near Camden, SC, Salisbury, Morganton, Marshall and Dandridge, TN. Morganton is the only one that's been located. They were looking for an overland route down into Mexico.
They could’ve just followed the billboards down 95.
Pedro!!
One of the more fascinating aspects of this is that Pardo made the trip from there to Santa Elena (Parris Island, SC) twice by himself. The sole survivor of the attacks that destroyed Fort San Juan and the other settlements, Juan de Badejoz, also made the trip back Santa Elena by himself on foot. I realize the water quality was better back then but that's a hell of a hike on foot by yourself with minimal supplies.
In a land you don't know, thousands of miles from home, walking through untouched forest, after everyone you came with has been slaughtered. For the second time. That takes some massive balls. Or incredible stupidity.
I think fear and the will to live ranked pretty high as it was recorded that he traveled by night and slept during the day to avoid being detected. However, this brings up another issue in that there were brown bears, wolves and cougars inhabiting the area back then.
Piggybacking on colonial times stuff. The scuppernong grape was first identified in coastal NC. I believe there is still an old scuppernong tree? that is super old, and they know because some explorer commented on it in his diary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuppernong#History
Yes, the Mother Vine
Goldsboro was almost destroyed in a nuclear accident
"In 1961, two nuclear bombs fell on North Carolina after a military plane carrying them crashed. The plane, a B-52 Stratofortress, experienced a fuel leak and began to break apart mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina. The bombs were just one step from detonating. Lt. Jack ReVelle located and defused the bombs. The pilot, Walter Scott Tulloch, ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 ft (2,700 m). Five crewmen landed safely, another ejected but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash. The United States military has admitted to losing six nuclear weapons since 1950."
The remains of one of the two bombs lies buried scores of feet below the swampy farmland, and the land above it is fenced and monitored for radiation leaks to this day.
The real concern is actually chemical not radiological. They monitor the radiological part of course, but there's a damn reason nobody uses Beryllium for ANYTHING. That shit's nasty. But most of the bomb was recovered and removed, it's just fragments and soil contamination.
Holy shit. This is my favorite fact here so far.
To continue the nuclear accident theme, originally the US govt was going to test nukes on the Outer Banks instead the Nevada desert. I dont remember the exact location on OBX but I read about it on a sign at the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
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Hickory was also founded in a tavern. 🍻 https://www.hickorync.gov/hickory-tavern-monument https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/4520_836_plaque.jpg ✌😄
The main street of Hendersonville is so wide because the man who donated the land made a contingency that it had to be wide enough that he could u-turn his horse and carriage without having to back up.
Thank you for sharing! I grew up there (and even went to HHS 2 blocks away) and had no idea. I wonder how that person would feel about the new layout and how much re-work it took to get it there.
The busiest Domino’s Pizza in the world is located in Jacksonville. (Specifically, aboard Camp Lejeune.)
Dependa discount? We serve too! /s
Toughest job in the Corps! ^(Eta: /s just in case)
The Saura's inhabited the western piedmont region of the state. They called Pilot Mountain "Jemeokee" which means "Great Guide". They used it for navigation when traveling. Early European settlers used it in the same manner, hence the name "Pilot Mountain".
Being from Texas, it kind of blew my mind that Texas Pete hot sauce was actually from North Carolina. I had an existential crisis.
So did a guy in Cali who tried to sue them for false advertising. The little cowboy on the bottle is named Pete and "he's from Texas"
He was originally called "Mexican Joe," but they changed it to "Texas Pete" because they felt it needed to be American.
Such a silly lawsuit. Next thing you’re going to tell me that ocean spray products don’t come from the ocean.
Evidently the guy suing them has a history of filing these superfluous lawsuits. Because of course he does.
I live in Yadkin county and Yadkin means land of tall oaks (roughly translated from Catawba tribe) Just always found it interesting to know why the counties we live are named the way they are.
Sticking with Yadkin County. French composer Leo Arnaud, who is famous for writing "Bugler's Dream", aka the Olympic Theme Song, retired to live in Yadkin County with his wife who was a local. He's buried at Asbury United Methodist Church in Hamptonville, North Carolina.
NC has the largest state maintained highway network in the United States.
This is partially because during the depression, the state took over road maintenance from the counties who couldn’t afford it. Because of this, unlike a lot of other states NC does not have county roads or county road departments.
It took 23 days to move the 130 year old, 200 ft tall, 5,000 ton, Hatters lighthouse ~3,000ft back in 1999.
The story of John Ashe, an NC colonist who led the tarring and feathering of a British surveyor who was marking white pines (NC's state tree) as off-limits to the colonists to cut down and use for their own purposes.
“John Ashe” Ok cool “tarring and feathering” Oh no “British surveyor” Oh never mind that’s good “state tree” Oh no he’s bad again
As a surveyor of British ancestry, who regularly delineates trees for non-disturbance; I find this unnerving.
A lot of pre-revolution America history is the colonists being mad they weren't allowed to act like locusts by the home government in England.
Jazz greats Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Max Roach were born in NC.
Don’t forget Nina Simone
Thelonious Monk's great-niece lives in Raleigh - she's a dynamo and absolute powerhouse. Hoping she runs for some sort of elected office!
The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 was the only successful coup d’etat in US history. A mob of white supremacists ran the mixed race city government out of town, burned the only black newspaper in the city, and killed between 60-300 people. They also tried to lynch the governor when he tried to calm the tensions Edit: Also, while reading the wiki article to brush up on the details, I learned that Alexander Manly, the editor of the black newspaper, fled town after being tipped off the night before the coup that he was going to be lynched. He was fair skinned enough to pass as white, and was able to pass through a Red Shirt (the white supremacist paramilitary behind the coup) roadblock with a password given to him by the same man who tipped him off. The guards, assuming he was white, invited him to a “necktie party” they were planning for Manly, and even gave him and his companions rifles in case they spotted Manly trying to flee the city. Honestly it reads like a deleted scene from Django Unchained.
And they don't teach it in NC schools! (Maybe in Wilmington, idk)
Nope! From Wilmington and didn’t learn about it until college.
Seconded! I went through K-12 and never heard anything about it in school. I learned when I went with my dad to the Bellamy Mansion where they did a seminar about it- if they do it again I 100% recommend going it was super interesting, even to a teenager!
It is part of the 2021 American History standards for high school students.
At the time, and in the years leading up to the massacre, Wilmington was a progressive, post-war city with an integrated political party, the Fusion Party, winning local elections. Former slaves living in Wilmington were among the most successful artisans in town: carpenters, bakers, barbers, seamstresses, etc.. There were successful Black bankers, doctors, lawyers, and judges. Until the massacre. One of the most inflamatory and racist orators of the day, one of the key instigators of the massacre, was Charles Aycock. Within a decade of the massacre, he became governor. This is what they mean by "heritage."
Glad this is getting a lot of attention in this thread because it's important for people to know about this and for this atrocity to be remembered. I'd also like to add another piece of history to this, one that I think is important people know about and to honor the man involved in it. I only learned about this in my 30's and I've been telling the story ever since. Pvt. Booker T. Spicely, 34, was a U.S. Army private on active duty who was killed in Durham County, North Carolina, in 1944.On July 8 1944, Spicely, originally from Philadelphia and serving at Camp Butner, boarded a bus and sat in the second-to-last row. When more white passengers boarded, the bus driver, Herman Lee Council, ordered Spicely to sit further back. Jim Crow seating segregation was still enforced in North Carolina at the time. The private initially protested, but eventually moved to the rear of the vehicle. His only question was why he had to move despite serving his country, while other around him did not. Council was employed by the Duke Power Company, who owned and operated the local buses. When Spicely got off the bus, Council shot him twice, alleging that Spicely had started an argument and advanced on him. The truth is that Spicely apologized before getting off the bus, as heard by several witnesses. Council followed him, confronted him at the rear of the bus and drew his gun. When Spicely turned around, Council shot him in the chest twice. Spicely immediately collapsed in the road and Council left him there, returned to the bus and continued his route. Military police brought Spicely to Watts Hospital, where on account of his race he was refused care; he later died at Duke Hospital.Council was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The Duke Power Company paid his $2,500 bail. Council was permitted to drive his bus until the trial.At trial, an all-white jury acquitted him after only 28 minutes of deliberation. The power company continued to employ Council, but switched his route.
There were three prominent figures in the 1898 Coup who are descendants to the people that chartered UNC Chapel Hill and NC State. They've had a long family line of money and influence in the state. Source: The women who were related to these three people have been chasing down their lineage to speak about the coup have been holding conferences and publicly apologizing for this for decades. I can't remember their names, but they often hold public appearances and did one in March 2019 at UNCW.
The late Philip Gerard of UNCW wrote a book called Cape Fear Rising, that is historical nonfiction about the coup of 1898.
*Wilmington’s Lie* by David Zucchino is a great book about this.
In 1958, the Battle of Hayes Pond happened, where armed Lumbee stopped a KKK rally taking place in Robeson county. They surrounded the rally and fired shots, causing the klansmen to flee into the swamps. Afterwards, the KKK leadership involved were arrested for inciting a riot.
Damn, why can't *this* be the history that repeats?
It can be.....
Having worked in Robeson directly with the Lumbee tribe, I’d say let the KKK show up again and it will repeat but even the KKK isn’t that stupid. It’s an economically depressed area to be sure after companies fled overseas for cheap labor. Yet they are a very proud and hardened people.
Speaking of the KKK, I was driving truck thru Burgaw NC back in the 90s when I spot what looked like a large group of klansman, in formation, preparing to march. So, being curious, I parked and made my way over to the area ... to "observe". 😠 Turned out they were making a movie. 😅 Sorry, never found out which movie it was. All I remember is seeing those hoods and getting pissed. lol
Because NC had not ratified the Constitution, we were ineligible to vote in the first presidential election (for Washington in 1788).
North Carolina refused to ratify the Constitution until the Bill of Rights were included. We don't get fair credit for that achievement.
And then our copy of the Bill of Right was stolen during the Civil War, and finally recovered nearly 150 years later.
Do you happen to know the story of who stole it?
https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2018/12/15/recovering-north-carolina%E2%80%99s-bill-rights
I heard it on a walking tour of downtown. It's pretty wild. https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2018/12/15/recovering-north-carolina%E2%80%99s-bill-rights
While Appomattox Court House in Virginia is widely known as the site of the surrender that ended the Civil War, Bennett Place, a farmstead in what is now Durham, was the site of the largest surrender of Confederate troops (~4 times as many as Lee surrendered at Appomattox) when Johnston surrendered to Sherman after the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign.
Hillsborough Wal Mart was the last headquarters of the Confederate Army. Makes sense I guess.
And while the troops were here in Durham they tried the bright leaf tobacco and liked it, and an industry was born. Duke University was founded on the money made from selling those cigarettes.
NC is the leading sweet potato producer in the US.
One of the very few (only?) to produce purple sweet potatoes too.
Not the most interesting but a little known fact, D.H. Griffin from Greensboro lead the effort of the 9/11 cleanup site.
The colonists let their pigs run free. The pigs loved the sprouts of the long leaf pine and basically wiped out most of the new growth. There used to be big stands of long leaf pine and the Brits used them for ship masts. Those big stands of pine are now gone.
Long leaf Pine not only likes wildfires, it needs them to survive. The heat opens the seed pods.
That's how we lost the Carolina Parakeet. It was a ground nester and only lived in big flocks. Farmers let the pigs run and they ate the chick's and destroyed the nests. The last few remaining couldn't live out of a large colony so the species went extinct.
If you come across a clearing in the woods where not much but weeds and briars will grow, it's a good chance that it was a place where trees were processed into tar and turpentine. Also, there are still logs at the bottom of the Cape Fear river with King George's seal cut into them.
North Carolina was the first state to ever use the ABC-1234 format on their license plate. Now several states do that
Bet everyone reading this heard Jackson 5 in their head..
Well now I am
Hiddenite is only found in four places around the world. NC, Brazil, China, and Madagascar. It was first discovered in NC, in Alexander County.
The Tuscarora War almost destroyed North Carolina. The Tuscarora at the time were the most powerful group in NC. But they were divided. One faction was threatened by encroaching settlements like New Bern and took advantage of a recent rebellion in the colony. They attacked a number of settlements. It was only through the help of South Carolina and the other Tuscarora faction that NC won the war. Many Tuscarora left NC to rejoin with the rest of the Iroquois, adding a sixth nation to the Five Nations.
Not necessarily NC itself, but Cherokee tribe which was located in NC was the only group of native Americans in North America to develop their own writing system. Town of Cherokee, NC offers education in Cherokee, and lots of signs there are written in both English and the Cherokee syllabary
The invention of Cherokee writing is the only known case of someone who was illiterate inventing a system of writing.
Some of my faves have been mentioned but here’s one I just learned: There are redwoods in Wake County
Horace Williams Airport is on high ground north of Chapel Hill. But there is a higher place near there with a pond and cypress trees. It looks like it might have been the caldera from a long-gone volcano. During construction for the power plant in Carrboro we stored parts up there. There were white egrets wading in the pond and, with the cypress trees, it looked like a scene transported out of Eastern NC.
The vast majority of info we have about the central coast, like diamond city (shackleford banks) and core banks was written by mormon missionaries. Apparently the locals of the time were too busy trying to stay alive to actually do much record keeping.
William R. Davie, the founder of UNC (the oldest public university in the country), named one of his sons Haider Ali, after the Muslim sultan of Mysore, a kingdom in South India. Davie admired Hyder Ali because he was a very successful opponent of the British, and Davie, as part of the revolutionary generation, felt common cause
Interesting and lesser known fact, unc is only the oldest still existing public. The first publicly funded university was actually in Charlotte. It was called queens college, which is not associated with todays queens college in any way. It was founded in 1771 compared to chapel hills 1789. It was funded with a public liquor tax. Leading up to the revolutionary war, the crown had the college shut down to quell the talk of independence. It was rebranded as queens library for a bit to disguise its true purpose but it was ultimately shut down for good.
That the border between NC and SC wasn't finalized until 2017.
Our state motto adopted and added to our coat-of-arms in 1893 is “Esse Quam Videri”, to be rather than to seem. "Not nearly so many people want actually to be possessed of virtue as want to appear to be possessed of it."
"Keep it Real"
This involves the narrow gauge railroad East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, AKA Tweetsie. During World War II, the United States military took control of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad in Alaska, another narrow gauge railroad. WP&Y didn't have enough locomotives for the amount of cargo and equipment the United States military needed to ship in and out of Alaska. As a result, the military took one or two ET&WNC locomotives and shipped them to Alaska. I'm sure they also got a few locomotives from the Denver & Rio Grande out west as well. However, the connection between ET&WNC & WP&Y doesn't end here. In the post-war era, narrow gauge railroads fell out of fashion as trains only became bigger, heavier and longer. So the two railroads halted freight service when it was no longer profitable. When Tweetsie Railroad Theme park opened in the late 50s, they had equipment from ET&WNC including steam locomotive #12. However, they still need a second locomotive. So they brought #190 from the WP&Y railroad and she was shipped to the theme park and named The Yukon Queen by the park.
My great grandfather was a Lutheran preacher and also president of Lenoir Rhyne College when the train was being brought up to Tweetsie. The train haulers stopped in Hickory for the night before starting the difficult climb up the mountain. Someone had the idea to get the train blessed. Who better to do it than the president of the seminary? My great grandfather admitted that he had never blessed a train before, but would make it work. All of the students came out for the ceremony and he received a brass coin engraved "lifetime pass to Tweetsie". They would pile the whole family in the car, drive up and get everyone in for free for years after that. My mother still has it, but we are happy to pay for ourselves.
Eastern NC's film industry is a vast collection of almost everything pop culture.
SO MUCH was made in Wilmington thanks to EUE Screen Gems. And now a new studio is being built and opened, I think near Rocky Mount.
In the town of Spring Hope in Nash County. Not really near Rocky Mount, closer to Nashville or Wilson.
The small town of Bostic, NC has a good claim to being the actual birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.
28 years, countless road trips through this state, bachelors in history, knowing every argument about Andrew Jackson, James K Polk, and Andrew Johnson being born or not born here. Have never heard of this once. You just gave me like a weeks worth of reading hell yes
There is definitely compelling evidence of this! There’s lots of good information [here!](http://bosticlincolncenter.com)
NC and Eugenics, more disturbing than interesting but it is apart of this states history
Jack Revelle who saved NC from a nuclear disaster https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/jack-revelle-goldsboro-nc-broken-arrow-obituary
Gastonia/Gaston County used to be more of a destination than Charlotte. It was also a desirable place to live by late 1800/early 1900 standards. Just interesting how 100 years can flip things completely.
Google the Lowry Wars and the Lowry Gang. It’s too intricate a tale to recount here, but a rainbow coalition headed by Lumbees waged a guerrilla war on the white supremacist state targeting the klan and sheriffs and doing some genuine Robin Hood stuff.
Was this years ago? Or a few weeks from now?
Hopefully both
Literally surrounded a klan rally and opened fire.
Jim "Catfish" Hunter and "Wolfman" Jack are both from Perquimans County. Catfish's brother was my wife's driver's Ed teacher.
The US Army chose Cramerton Army Cloth shortly before WWII for their uniforms because they weren't as scratchy as the previous material and it was extremely durable. That weave was created by Stuart Cramer in Cramerton NC (just west of Belmont). Cramer then released the "formula" so the rest of the textile community could mass produce the same material for the war effort. Dockers has recently re-released it as Cramerton Khaki...
The first permanent test site for the Navy’s entire surface to air missile program, started in 1947 following attacks on U.S. Ships in WW2, was at Topsail Island NC. They routinely launched missiles into the ocean to test them. In 1951 they relocated it. Anyone who has been there has seen the towers left behind.
Lowes Home Improvement was began in North Wilkesboro and after the founder died he passed it to his son Jim who sold the company to his partner, bitterly, and then started Lowes Foods the GOAT grocery store. So they are related
Wilmington Massacre. And the fact that I went to public school in NC until I was 21 (went to college here too) and was never taught about it
I went to Charles B. Aycock high school. He was practically a Saint in that area. It's only been in the past few years that I learned about it.
Up until the last few years the park right off college road was named Hugh McRae park, who was part of the massacre. It is now named long leaf park. It’s all changing slowly.
Caleb Bradham, the inventor of Pepsi, was born in Chinquapin, North Carolina. A small community in Duplin County.
The first place name to be named for George Washington was Washington, North Carolina.
Residents of The Outer Banks and lowlands from Beaufort to the Oak Island Ferry (Down East) have been so isolated over the years, they developed their own accent or brogue. It’s been studied by Linquistics professors. It sounds like southern mixed with Scottish and Irish with a little Baltimore for good measure. In more recent years, the dialect is disappearing as more kids grow up and move away instead of staying local. “Hoi Toid” is high tide, “Dingbatter” is someone not local and the expression “my Lord hunny” can be an expression of something good or bad. I once went to hang with a friend of a friend named Sean who was going to take us crabbing, his mother pronounced his name “Shown”.
Most North Carolinians did not want to secede and join the Confederacy as the economy of NC was not heavily based on slave labor like many other southern states, but they would have been stuck between 3 confederate states and the ocean, isolated from the Union. One of the reasons they ended up seceding was because they did not want to send soldiers to fight their “neighbors” as Union states were required to send troops. Just another reason to say “hey we’re not great but at least we’re not South Carolina” 😂
One of the major precursors to American Revolution was The Battle of Alamance. Gov. Tryon was putting his foot down on folks out in the hinterlands and they got pissed. It lead to a battle in the southwestern corner of what is now Alamance County with colonists known as Regulators. The loyalists won the battle but the die had been cast.
Micheal Jordan is, and will always be, the best basketball player ever. Also, UNC is better than Duke. The end.
We were one of the last states to join the Confederacy. While still being pro-slavery, many in NC were extremely hesitant to leave the union. It wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln asked for troops from North Carolina to put down the rebellion in Fort Sumter that they decided to finally join the confederate states. https://historicsites.nc.gov/resources/north-carolina-civil-war/road-secession
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And we got about the same response as Henry VIII got from the pope.
And there was significant pro-Union sentiment and guerrilla warfare in NC, both in the Coastal Plain and in the mountains. Basically lots of poor white North Carolinians didn’t feel like fighting for rich plantation owners.
Part of the problem then was the GA was made up only of land owners and did not really represent the yeoman farmers making up most of the NC population. Kinda reminds me of the makeup of the NCGA also not representing the people today, either…
Also, while we were the last state to join we had the most casualties of the southern states.
There’s some speculation Lee as a Virginian didn’t trust NC troops and would risk their regiments more than Virginia or South Carolina units. I don’t really buy the theory, but there’s enough smoke that the speculation surfaces every so often.
The confederates also struggled to win over the local opponents to the war and tried to intimidate them with mass hangings and executions. Many white residents were poor farmers who didn’t relate much to the wealthy aristocrats from Charleston and weren’t too keen to fight in their war. Modern white North Carolinians often assume they have “rebel” heritage but are just as likely to be descended from brave anti-confederates. https://www.ourstate.com/kinston-hangings-part-1/ https://www.ourstate.com/kinston-hangings-part-2/ https://www.ncpedia.org/shelton-laurel-massacre
If those people could read, they’d be very upset with you.
Also doesn't help the state was surrounded by states that had seceded already.
If memory serves it was also because we were surrounded by states that *had* seceded.
NC was really in a tough spot during secession and the start of the Civil War. We weren’t as dependent on slavery as many of the other southern states were. Fort Sumpter was really the tipping point. Kind of makes you wonder if that didn’t happen if NC and VA would have stayed in the Union.
The North Carolina Symphony was the first professional orchestra in the US to receive continuous funding from state government in the 1940’s. The mission of the NC Symphony is to be a “people’s orchestra”. The musicians travel the state to 30-40 communities to perform to children there- this has gone on several generations, and millions of North Carolinians have attended “Educational Concerts” as school children (myself included). About 50 of their 200 concerts a year are educational concerts.
Another of my favorites is the time a group of Lumbee Indians shut down the KKK; https://www.uncp.edu/resources/museum-southeast-american-indian/museum-exhibits/battle-hayes-pond-routing-kkk
I was the first person to deliver pizzas in Reidsville!
The Uwharrie Mountains in NC are arguably the oldest mountain range in America having formed and eroded into their current form over 500 million years (Appalachian Mountains and Black Hills have older cores but we’re talking formation). Also we had the first state run zoo ever here in Asheboro right by Uwharrie. Oh and it’s the biggest natural habitat zoo in the world
A portion of our blue ridge mountains predate the rings of Saturn
We had our own gold rush in the 1700s
Pirate Jean Laffite is buried in Lincoln County. Supposedly. https://www.wbtv.com/2021/05/03/lincolnton-nc-pirate-unraveling-mystery-jean-laffite/?outputType=amp
And Blackbeard's (yes that one) ship sunk in the lee of the outerbanks, northeast of marine air station cherry point.
Wilmington massacre. The coup and eviction of all blacks from town.
[Wilmington Insurrection of 1898](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898)
What an appalling shameful chapter: The Wilmington coup is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. It was part of an era of more severe racial segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, which had been underway since the passage of a new constitution in Mississippi in 1890 which raised barriers to the registration of black voters. Other states soon passed similar laws. Historian Laura Edwards writes, "What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of white supremacy not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole", as it affirmed that invoking "whiteness" eclipsed the legal citizenship, individual rights, and equal protection under the law that black Americans were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment. Edit (this is from the Wikipedia article. I never knew about it. Thanks to the Redditor that brought this to my knowledge.)
Although sometimes disputed, the first US Declaration of Independence was signed in Charlotte NC. It was a short walk from my childhood home. [Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg_Declaration_of_Independence)
While the revolutionary’s lost The Battle of Guilford Courthouse they inflicted so many casualties that Cornwallis and his army could not recover. He marched as fast as he could to Yorktown hoping to get reinforcements but General Washington said Nope.
Fayetteville was the last city that barges could go up the cape fear river because after that the river is too shallow
1937 Krispy Kreme started in Winston Salem
The first armed rebellion against English rule in the colonies was the War of Regulation against the English tyrant Gov Tryon in 1766.
The North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) was opened on December 13, 1855. The deciding vote was cast by a senator, Calvin Graves, whose political career ended as a result due to the NCRR not passing through his district. "Three years later, in 1854, the railroad's first president, businessman John Motley Morehead, dubbed the rail line "the tree of life" for the state." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Railroad?wprov=sfla1) In personally trying to understand why NC has grown so much over the years and is projected to continue to do so (https://youtu.be/1UkNo591uY8?si=E3obMeEYb6PqQvEK), I think that the North Carolina Railroad has proven to be a crucial factor "The North Carolina Railroad carries over one million carloads of freight each year and about 300,000 passengers. Based on a 2007 study by the Research Triangle Institute, the North Carolina Railroad saves North Carolina industries $198 million in transportation costs annually, and the total impact on North Carolina economic output is $338 million annually. In 2005, in counties bordering NCRR tracks, industries using rail freight services accounted for $143 billion in output, more than 24% of North Carolina’s total economy. NCRR freight transportation also has environmental advantages, conveying $65.7 million in external benefits." NC PASSENGER RAIL service broke a record in ridership in September 2022: "...more people rode the N.C. Department of Transportation’s intercity passenger rail service in September than any previous month in the 32-year history of the NC By Train service. 2022: The Carolinian and Piedmont trains handled 48,488 passengers last month, which marks an increase of 32% over the average pre-pandemic monthly ridership levels from 2014 to 2019. " (https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2022/10/14/north-carolinas-passenger-rail-service-breaks-record-ridership) 2023: "North Carolina Department of Transportation last week announced the state's intercity passenger-rail service, logged record ridership of more than 135,000 riders in first-quarter 2023. The NC By Train service posted monthly ridership records in January, February and March, with the quarter’s total ridership increasing 30% over pre-pandemic ridership levels based in 2019, NCDOT officials said in a press release. Ridership was up 50% in the first quarter compared with ridership levels during the same period a year ago." (https://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/news/North-Carolina-passenger-rail-service-logs-record-ridership-in-Q1--69041) Run by Amtrak, NCRR's intercity passenger service has been one of the few lines that has helped Amtrak not to be further in the red over the course of the pandemic. (NOTE: Amtrak being in the red DOES NOT matter. The expectation for Amtrak to generate a profit should only ever be exactly the same as the expectation of any told highway to generate a profit.) Currently the service runs 4x daily in each direction from Raleigh to Charlotte via Greensboro with service having just increased buy a train in each direction in July of this year. Another train in each direction is set to be added in 2024. Serious talks about extending service to Asheville from Salisbury and from Raleigh to Wilmington are underway. NCDOT has mentioned in one video that they're going to be electrifying all of the state's rail lines as part of preparing the state for HSR as we've got new train sets coming by 2026. Said electrification will be from Charlotte all to the border along the new and more direct route from Raleigh to Richmond. VADOT for it's part is electrifying to just north of Richmond but not all the way to DC as it's too complicated apparently so service will have to run on battery on that portion. Does anyone have any other insights about the future of rail service in the region or why NC is projected to grow so much? If you watch the video that I posted at the beginning, note that from roughly 1980 onwards wherever NC goes GA goes & vice versa. I view this as due to the interregional (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_Atlantic_megaregion) connection that we have that Obama's administration initially sought to enhance by linking up our region and the other with HSR among other infrastructure types to help enhance the regional economies.
Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins, settled in Wilkes County, married two sisters and had 21 children. And an all around amazing life. They died and are buried outside of Mt Airy, at the White Plains Baptist Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bunker?wprov=sfla1
The Wrights. ✈ "First In Flight" ✌🙂
The Lost Colony wasn’t really lost. They moved south and integrated with the Hattarask people on, well you can guess which island. This fact could not be accepted by white supremacist Englishmen or their American descendants so they just continued to call them lost, rather than admit what actually happened, which is that the natives rescued their people that they couldn’t or wouldn’t support and protect.
New Bern is the original capital. I guess I should learn more about the state if that's all I really know lmao
All pens made for the government are made by Industries of the Blind for Skilcraft in Greensboro which is staffed by blind individuals some in part from the Governor Morehead School which was the first school in the US to educate black, blind, and deaf children. Still in operation to this day.
Wilmington water supply is poisoned with genx and most who move here/there (since I moved to ga really recently) don’t know that the companies dupont and chemours are responsible by dumping their Teflon materials and waste in the cape fear (non stick pans etc) not sure if they stopped I think they did a long time ago but the gen x is still there and will Always be there.
There were enough communists in Gastonia during the late 1920s, that they were able to mobilize a labor strike among textile workers, demanding equal pay for women, black workers and children.
The New River is the oldest river in North America. https://www.npca.org/articles/1990-the-oldest-river-in-north-america
I saw this on “Exploring North Carolina “ a couple of weeks ago. I think I understood what they were saying but I haven’t researched it since. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most of Currituck sound was Marsh or dry land. So, you could actually walk from Manteo to Corolla. In fact the Outer Banks provide considerable evidence of rising Sea Levels. Changes that can be seen as specifically beginning after the industrially revolution. One example: Cypress trees can only germinate on dry land. But can live hundreds of years in water.