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The three landforms of North Carolina make up the three major geographic regions of the state: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont. North Carolina extends across three major physiographic regions of the United States—the Coastal Plain (or tidewater area), the Piedmont, and.
 
 

North carolina map regions.North Carolina Map

 

The smaller settlements had none but developed close to the more prominent towns. This area became known as the homelands of the historic Cherokee people, who are believed to have migrated over time from the Great Lakes area.

In the — years preceding European contact, the Mississippian culture built large, complex cities and maintained far-flung regional trading networks.

Its largest city was Cahokia , which had numerous mounds for different purposes, a highly stratified society, and was located in present-day southwestern Illinois near the Mississippi River. The Native polities of the Mississippian culture fell apart and reformed as new groups, such as the Catawba , due to a series of destabilizing events known as the “Mississippian shatter zone”. As described by anthropologist Robbie Ethridge, the Mississippian shatter zone was an area of great instability, in what is now the American South, caused by the instability of Mississippian chiefdoms, high mortality from new Eurasian diseases, construction of a global capitalistic economy based on trading of Native American slaves, and the emergence of Native “militaristic slaving societies”.

Historically documented tribes in the North Carolina region include the Carolina Algonquian -speaking tribes of the coastal areas, such as the Chowanoke , Roanoke , Pamlico , Machapunga , Coree , and Cape Fear Indians , who were the first encountered by the English; the Iroquoian -speaking Meherrin , Cherokee , and Tuscarora of the interior; and Southeastern Siouan tribes, such as the Cheraw , Waxhaw , Saponi , Waccamaw , and Catawba of the Piedmont. In the late 16th century, the first Spanish explorers traveling inland recorded meeting Mississippian culture people at Joara , a regional chiefdom near what later developed as Morganton.

Records of Hernando de Soto attested to his meeting with them in In , Captain Juan Pardo led an expedition to claim the area for the Spanish colony and to establish another route to reach silver mines in Mexico.

Pardo made a winter base at Joara, which he renamed Cuenca. His expedition built Fort San Juan and left a contingent of 30 men there, while Pardo traveled further. His forces built and garrisoned five other forts. In the spring of , natives killed all but one of the Spanish soldiers and burned the six forts in the interior, including the one at Fort San Juan.

Although the Spanish never returned to the interior, this effort marked the first European attempt at colonization of the interior of what became the United States.

A 16th-century journal by Pardo’s scribe Bandera, and archaeological findings since at Joara, have confirmed the settlement. In , Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh , for whom the state capital is named, for land in present-day North Carolina then part of the territory of Virginia.

Raleigh established two colonies on the coast in the late s, but both failed. The fate of the ” Lost Colony ” of Roanoke Island remains one of the most widely debated mysteries of American history. As early as , settlers from the Virginia colony had moved into the area of Albemarle Sound.

He named it Carolina in honor of his father, Charles I. In owing to disputes over governance, the Carolina colony split into North Carolina and South Carolina. North Carolina would become a crown colony in Most of the English colonists had arrived as indentured servants , hiring themselves out as laborers for a fixed period to pay for their passage. In the early years the line between indentured servants and African slaves or laborers was fluid.

Some Africans were allowed to earn their freedom before slavery became a lifelong status. Most of the free colored families formed in North Carolina before the Revolution were descended from unions or marriages between free white women and enslaved or free African or African-American men.

Because the mothers were free, their children were born free. Many had migrated or were descendants of migrants from colonial Virginia. The economy’s growth and prosperity was based on slave labor, devoted primarily to the production of tobacco. In — , smallpox would cause high fatalities among the Native Americans, who had no immunity to the new disease it had become endemic over centuries in Europe.

John White returns to find the colony abandoned. Reconstructed royal governor’s mansion Tryon Palace in New Bern. After the Spanish in the 16th century, the first permanent European settlers of North Carolina were English colonists who migrated south from Virginia.

The latter had grown rapidly and land was less available. Nathaniel Batts was documented as one of the first of these Virginian migrants. A large revolt happened in the state in , known as Cary’s Rebellion. In , North Carolina became a separate colony. Except for the Earl Granville holdings, it became a royal colony seventeen years later. After the grounding her crew and supplies were transferred to smaller ships.

In November , after appealing to the governor of North Carolina, who promised safe-haven and a pardon, Blackbeard was killed in an ambush by troops from Virginia. National Register of Historic Places. The northern and southern parts of the original province separated in , with North Carolina becoming a royal colony in Originally settled by small farmers, sometimes having a few slaves, who were oriented toward subsistence agriculture , the colony lacked large cities or towns.

Pirates menaced the coastal settlements, but by the pirates had been captured and killed. Growth was strong in the middle of the 18th century, as the economy attracted Scots-Irish , Quaker , English and German immigrants.

A majority of the North Carolina colonists generally supported the American Revolution , although there were some Loyalists.

During colonial times, Edenton served as the state capital beginning in , followed by New Bern becoming the capital in Construction of Tryon Palace , which served as the residence and offices of the provincial governor William Tryon , began in and was completed in In , Raleigh was chosen as the site of the new capital, as its central location protected it from coastal attacks. Officially established in as both county seat and state capital, the city was named after Sir Walter Raleigh , sponsor of Roanoke , the “lost colony” on Roanoke Island.

North Carolina did not have any printer or print shops until , when the North Carolina Assembly commissioned James Davis from Williamsburg Virginia to act as their official printer. Before this time the laws and legal journals of North Carolina were handwritten and were largely kept in a disorganized manner, prompting them to hire Davis.

Davis settled in New Bern, became married and in was appointed by Benjamin Franklin as North Carolina’s first postmaster. He was also active in North Carolina’s politics, as a member of the Assembly and later as the Sheriff. Davis also founded and printed the North-Carolina Gazette , North Carolina’s first newspaper, printed in his printing house in New Bern. Differences in the settlement patterns of eastern and western North Carolina, or the Atlantic coastal plain and uplands, affected the political, economic, and social life of the state from the 18th until the 20th century.

Eastern North Carolina was settled chiefly by immigrants from rural England and Gaelic speakers from the Scottish Highlands.

The Piedmont upcountry and western mountain region of North Carolina was settled chiefly by Scots-Irish , English, and German Protestants, the so-called ” cohee “. Arriving during the mid-to-late 18th century, the Scots-Irish, people of Scottish descent who migrated to and then emigrated from what is today Northern Ireland, were the largest non-English immigrant group before the Revolution; English indentured servants were overwhelmingly the largest immigrant group before the Revolution.

During the American Revolutionary War , the English and Gaelic speaking Highland Scots of eastern North Carolina tended to remain loyal to the British Crown, because of longstanding business and personal connections with Great Britain. On April 12, , the colony became the first to instruct its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence from the British Crown, through the Halifax Resolves passed by the North Carolina Provincial Congress.

The date of this event is memorialized on the state flag and state seal. Throughout the Revolutionary War, fierce guerrilla warfare erupted between bands of pro-independence and pro-British colonists. In some cases the war was also an excuse to settle private grudges and rivalries.

North Carolina had around 7, men join the Continental Army under General George Washington ; and an additional 10, served in local militia units under such leaders as General Nathanael Greene. Many Carolinian frontiersmen had moved west over the mountains, into the Washington District later known as Tennessee , but in , following the Revolution, the state was persuaded to relinquish its claim to the western lands. It ceded them to the national government so the Northwest Territory could be organized and managed nationally.

A major American victory in the war took place at King’s Mountain along the North Carolina—South Carolina border; on October 7, , a force of 1, mountain men from western North Carolina including what is today the state of Tennessee and southwest Virginia overwhelmed a force of some 1, British troops led by Major Patrick Ferguson.

Most of the soldiers fighting for the British side in this battle were Carolinians who had remained loyal to the Crown they were called “Tories” or Loyalists. The American victory at King’s Mountain gave the advantage to colonists who favored American independence, and it prevented the British Army from recruiting new soldiers from the Tories. In the Battle of Cowan’s Ford , Cornwallis met resistance along the banks of the Catawba River at Cowan’s Ford on February 1, , in an attempt to engage General Morgan’s forces during a tactical withdrawal.

Although the British troops held the field at the end of the battle, their casualties at the hands of the numerically superior Continental Army were crippling. Following this ” Pyrrhic victory “, Cornwallis chose to move to the Virginia coastline to get reinforcements, and to allow the Royal Navy to protect his battered army. This decision would result in Cornwallis’ eventual defeat at Yorktown, Virginia , later in The Patriots’ victory there guaranteed American independence.

On November 21, , North Carolina became the twelfth state to ratify the U. After , cotton and tobacco became important export crops. The eastern half of the state, especially the Coastal Plain region, developed a slave society based on a plantation system and slave labor. Planters owning large estates wielded significant political and socio-economic power in antebellum North Carolina.

They placed their interests above those of the generally non-slave-holding “yeoman” farmers of North Carolina. In addition, 30, free people of color lived in the state. Most were descendants from free African Americans who had migrated along with neighbors from Virginia during the 18th century.

The majority were the descendants of unions in the working classes between white women, indentured servants or free, and African men, indentured, slave or free. After the American Revolution, Quakers and Mennonites worked to persuade slaveholders to free their slaves. Some were inspired by their efforts and the language of the Revolution to arrange for manumission of their slaves. The number of free people of color rose markedly in the first couple of decades after the Revolution.

By , nearly three percent of the free population consisted of free people of color, who numbered slightly more than 10, The western areas of North Carolina were mainly white families of European descent, especially Scotch-Irish , who operated small subsistence farms. In the early national period, the state became a center of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy , with a strong Whig presence, especially in the western part of the state.

After Nat Turner ‘s slave uprising in , North Carolina and other southern states reduced the rights of free blacks. In , the legislature withdrew their right to vote. In mid-century, the state’s rural and commercial areas were connected by the construction of a mi km wooden plank road, known as a “farmer’s railroad”, from Fayetteville in the east to Bethania northwest of Winston-Salem.

In , the state capitol building in Raleigh was completed, and still stands today. In , the North Carolina Railroad was created by act of the legislature to extend that railroad west to Greensboro , High Point , and Charlotte. During the Civil War, the Wilmington-to-Raleigh stretch of the railroad would be vital to the Confederate war effort; supplies shipped into Wilmington would be moved by rail through Raleigh to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

In , North Carolina was a slave state, in which one-third of the state’s total population were African-American slaves. The state did not vote to join the Confederacy until President Abraham Lincoln called on it to invade its sister state, [52] South Carolina , becoming the last or penultimate state to officially join the Confederacy.

The title of “last to join the Confederacy” has been disputed; although Tennessee’s informal secession on May 7, , preceded North Carolina’s official secession on May 20, [53] [54] the Tennessee legislature did not formally vote to secede until June 8, Around , troops from North Carolina served in the Confederate Army, and about 15, North Carolina troops both black and white served in Union Army regiments , including men who left the state to join Union regiments elsewhere.

The state government was reluctant to support the demands of the national government in Richmond , and the state was the scene of only small battles.

Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, totalling 89, soldiers. After secession, some North Carolinians refused to support the Confederacy. Some of the yeoman farmers chiefly in the state’s mountains and western Piedmont region remained neutral during the Civil War, with others covertly supporting the Union cause during the conflict.

Numerous slaves would also escape to Union lines, where they became essentially free. Confederate troops from all parts of North Carolina served in virtually all the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia , the Confederacy’s most famous army. North Carolina’s port city of Wilmington , was the last Confederate port to fall to the Union, in February , after the Union won the nearby Second Battle of Fort Fisher , its major defense downriver.

During the Battle of Chickamauga , the 58th North Carolina Regiment advanced farther than any other regiment on Snodgrass Hill to push back the remaining Union forces from the battlefield. The phrase “First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, and Last at Appomattox”, later became used through much of the early 20th century. Following the collapse of the Confederacy in , North Carolina, along with other former Confederate States except Tennessee , was put under direct control by the U.

In order to earn back its rights, the state had to make concessions to Washington, one of which was ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment. Congressional Republicans during Reconstruction, commonly referred to as ” radical Republicans “, constantly pushed for new constitutions for each of the Southern states that emphasized equal rights for African-Americans. In , a constitutional convention restored the state government of North Carolina.

Though the Fifteenth Amendment was also adopted that same year, it remained in most cases ineffective for almost a century, not to mention paramilitary groups and their lynching with impunity. The elections in April following the constitutional convention led to a narrow victory for a Republican-dominated government, with 19 African-Americans holding positions in the North Carolina State Legislature. In attempt to put the reforms into effect, the new Republican Governor William W.

Holden declared martial law on any county allegedly not complying with law and order using the passage of the Shoffner Act. A Republican Party coalition of black freedmen, northern carpetbaggers and local scalawags controlled state government for three years. The white conservative Democrats regained control of the state legislature in , in part by Ku Klux Klan violence and terrorism at the polls, to suppress black voting.

Republicans were elected to the governorship until , when the Red Shirts , a paramilitary organization that arose in and was allied with the Democratic Party , helped suppress black voting.

More than black Americans were murdered in electoral violence in Post civil war-debt cycles pushed people to switch from subsistence agriculture to commodity agriculture. Among this time the notorious Crop-Lien system developed and was financially difficult on landless whites and blacks, due to high amounts of usury. Also due to the push for commodity agriculture, the free range was ended.

Prior to this time people fenced in their crops and had their livestock feeding on the free range areas. After the ending of the free range people now fenced their animals and had their crops in the open.

Democrats were elected to the legislature and governor’s office, but the Populists attracted voters displeased with them. In a biracial, Populist-Republican Fusionist coalition gained the governor’s office and passed laws that would extend the voting franchise to blacks and poor whites. The Democrats regained control of the legislature in and passed laws to impose Jim Crow and racial segregation of public facilities.

Voters of North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district elected a total of four African-American congressmen through these years of the late 19th century. Political tensions ran so high a small group of white Democrats in planned to take over the Wilmington government if their candidates were not elected. In the Wilmington Insurrection of , more than 1, white men attacked the black newspaper and neighborhood, killed an estimated 60 to people, and ran off the white Republican mayor and aldermen.

They installed their own people and elected Alfred M. In , the state legislature passed a new constitution, with requirements for poll taxes and literacy tests for voter registration which disenfranchised most black Americans in the state.

After a decade of white supremacy , many people forgot North Carolina had ever had thriving middle-class black Americans. It was not until that another African American was elected as a U. Representative from North Carolina. After the reconstruction era, North Carolina had become a one-party state, dominated by the Democratic Party.

The state mainly continued with an economy based on tobacco , cotton textiles and commodity agriculture. Large towns and cities remained in few numbers. However, a major industrial base emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century, in the counties of the Piedmont Triad , based on cotton mills established at the fall line.

Railroads were built to connect the new industrializing cities. The state was the site of the first successful controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight , by the Wright brothers , near Kitty Hawk on December 17, In the first half of the 20th century, many African Americans left the state to go North for better opportunities, in the Great Migration.

Their departure changed the demographic characteristics of many areas. Roosevelt for cotton and tobacco significantly helped the farmers. After World War II , the state’s economy grew rapidly, highlighted by the growth of such cities as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham in the Piedmont region. Research Triangle Park , established in , serves as the largest research park in the United States. Formed near Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, the Research Triangle metro is a major area of universities and advanced scientific and technical research.

The Greensboro Sit-ins in played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement to bring full equality to American blacks. By the late s, spurred in part by the increasingly leftward tilt of national Democrats, conservative whites began to vote for Republican national candidates and gradually for more Republicans locally.

Since the s, North Carolina has seen steady increases in population growth. This growth has largely occurred in metropolitan areas located within the Piedmont Crescent , in places such as Charlotte, Concord, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham and Raleigh.

By the s, Charlotte had become a major regional and national banking center. The hornets team name stems from the American Revolutionary War , when British General Cornwallis described Charlotte as a “hornet’s nest of rebellion.

By the late 20th century and into the early 21st century, economic industries such as technology , pharmaceuticals , banking , food processing , vehicle parts , and tourism started to emerge as North Carolina’s main economic drivers. This marked a shift from the state’s former main industries of tobacco , textiles , and furniture.

Factors that played a role in this shift were globalization, the state’s higher education system, national banking, the transformation of agriculture, and new companies moving to the state. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east.

North Carolina consists of three main geographic regions: the Atlantic coastal plain , occupying the eastern portion of the state; the central Piedmont region, and the mountain region in the west, which is part of the Appalachian Mountains.

The coastal plain consists of more specifically-defined areas known as the Outer Banks , a string of sandy, narrow barrier islands separated from the mainland by sounds or inlets, including Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound , the native home of the venus flytrap , and the inner coastal plain, where longleaf pine trees are native. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the ” Graveyard of the Atlantic “; more than a thousand ships have sunk in these waters since records began in The most famous of these is the Queen Anne’s Revenge flagship of the pirate Blackbeard , which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line , the elevation at which waterfalls first appear on streams and rivers.

The Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the state’s most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. The Piedmont ranges from about feet 91 m in elevation in the east to about 1, feet m in the west. The western section of the state is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the larger Appalachian Mountain range. North Carolina has 17 major river basins.

Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, with the mountainous regions being coolest year-round. The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream , especially in the coastal plain.

These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, where temperatures only occasionally drop below the freezing point at night. The coastal plain averages around 1 inch 2. North Carolina experiences severe weather both in summer and in winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes , tropical storms , heavy rain, and flooding. Hurricane Isabel ranks as the most destructive of the 21st century.

North Carolina averages fewer than 20 tornadoes per year, many of them produced by hurricanes or tropical storms along the coastal plain. Tornadoes from thunderstorms are a risk, especially in the eastern part of the state. The western Piedmont is often protected by the mountains, which tend to break up storms as they try to cross over; the storms will often re-form farther east. A phenomenon known as ” cold-air damming ” often occurs in the northwestern part of the state, which can weaken storms but can also lead to major ice events in winter.

In April , the worst tornado outbreak in North Carolina’s history occurred. Thirty confirmed tornadoes touched down, mainly in the Eastern Piedmont and Sandhills, killing at least 24 people. North Carolina provides a large range of recreational activities, from swimming at the beach to skiing in the mountains. North Carolina offers fall colors , freshwater and saltwater fishing, hunting, birdwatching , agritourism , ATV trails, ballooning , rock climbing , biking , hiking, skiing , boating and sailing, camping , canoeing , caving spelunking , gardens, and arboretums.

North Carolina has theme parks , aquariums , museums, historic sites , lighthouses , elegant theaters, concert halls , and fine dining. North Carolinians enjoy outdoor recreation utilizing numerous local bike paths, 34 state parks , and 14 national parks. In , the U. Census Bureau released its annual population estimate counts for North Carolina’s counties.

Wake County has the largest population, while Mecklenburg County has the second largest population in North Carolina. North Carolina has three major Combined Statistical Areas with populations of more than 1.

Census Bureau estimates : []. Census Bureau released population estimate counts for North Carolina’s cities with populations above 70, Charlotte has the largest population in the state, while Raleigh has the highest population density of North Carolina’s largest cities. At the U. In , North Carolina like much of the U. In , In total, North Carolina residents since the colonial era have historically been overwhelmingly Protestant —first Anglican , then Baptist and Methodist.

In , the Southern Baptist Convention was the single largest Christian denomination, with 4, churches and 1,, members. The second largest was the United Methodist Church , with , members and 1, churches. The third was the Roman Catholic Church , with , members in parishes. The fourth largest was the Presbyterian Church USA , with , members and congregations; this denomination was brought by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled the backcountry in the colonial era.

By the late 19th century, the largest Protestant denomination in North Carolina were Baptists. After emancipation , black Baptists quickly set up their own independent congregations in North Carolina and other states of the South, as they wanted to be free of white supervision.

The Methodist tradition tends to be strong in the northern Piedmont, especially in populous Guilford County. The Assemblies of God and Church of God in Christ are the largest Pentecostal denominations operating in the state, while notable minorities include Oneness Pentecostals primarily affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church International.

The state also has a special history with the Moravian Church , as settlers of this faith largely of German origin settled in the Winston-Salem area in the 18th and 19th centuries. The rapid influx of Northerners and immigrants from Latin America is steadily increasing ethnic and religious diversity within the state.

The number of Roman Catholics and Jews in the state has increased, along with general religious diversity as a whole. Many universities and colleges in the state have been founded on religious traditions, and some currently maintain that affiliation, including: [].

It ranked forty-first out of fifty states plus the District of Columbia for median household income. North Carolina had the fourteenth highest poverty rate in the nation at The state has a very diverse economy because of its great availability of hydroelectric power, [] its pleasant climate, and its wide variety of soils.

The state ranks third among the South Atlantic states in population, but leads the region in industry and agriculture. Charlotte, the state’s largest city, is a major textile and trade center. According to a Forbes article written in , employment in the “Old North State” has gained many different industry sectors. Science, technology, engineering, and math STEM industries in the area surrounding North Carolina’s capital have grown Raleigh ranked the third best city for technology in due to the state’s growing technology sector.

North Carolina is the leading U. North Carolina has 15 metropolitan areas, [] and in was chosen as the third-best state for business by Forbes Magazine, and the second-best state by chief executive officer Magazine.

While North Carolina’s urban areas have enjoyed a prosperous economy with steady job growth, low unemployment, and rising wages, many of the state’s rural counties have suffered from job loss, rising levels of poverty, and population loss as their manufacturing base has declined.

According to one estimate, one-half of North Carolina’s counties have lost population since , primarily due to the poor economy in many of North Carolina’s rural areas. However, the population of the state’s urban areas is steadily increasing.

North Carolina has traditions in art, music, and cuisine. One of the more famous arts communities in the state is Seagrove , the handmade-pottery capital of the U. North Carolina boasts a large number of noteworthy jazz musicians , some among the most important in the history of the genre. North Carolina is also famous for its tradition of old-time music , and many recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk-song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

Musicians such as the North Carolina Ramblers helped solidify the sound of country music in the late s, while the influential bluegrass musician Doc Watson also hailed from North Carolina. Both North and South Carolina are hotbeds for traditional rural blues , especially the style known as the Piedmont blues. The Research Triangle area has long been a well-known center for folk , rock, metal , jazz and punk. In the mountains, the Brevard Music Center hosts choral, operatic, orchestral, and solo performances during its annual summer schedule.

Academic conservatories and universities also produce fully staged operas, such as the A. They feature concerts, operas, recitals, and traveling Broadway musicals. North Carolina has a variety of shopping choices. SouthPark Mall in Charlotte is currently the largest in the Carolinas, with almost two million square feet. A culinary staple of North Carolina is pork barbecue.

There are strong regional differences and rivalries over the sauces and methods used in making the barbecue. The common trend across Western North Carolina is the use of premium grade Boston butt. Western North Carolina pork barbecue uses a tomato-based sauce, and only the pork shoulder dark meat is used. Western North Carolina barbecue is commonly referred to as Lexington barbecue after the Piedmont Triad town of Lexington , home of the Lexington Barbecue Festival , which attracts more than , visitors each October.

Krispy Kreme , an international chain of doughnut stores, was started in North Carolina; the company’s headquarters are in Winston-Salem. Pepsi-Cola was first produced in in New Bern. A regional soft drink , Cheerwine , was created and is still based in the city of Salisbury. The Hardee’s fast-food chain was started in Rocky Mount.

Another fast-food chain, Bojangles’ , was started in Charlotte , and has its corporate headquarters there. A popular North Carolina restaurant chain is Golden Corral.

Started in , the chain was founded in Fayetteville , with headquarters located in Raleigh. Cook Out , a popular fast-food chain featuring burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes in a wide variety of flavors, was founded in Greensboro in and has begun expanding outside of North Carolina.

Over the last decade, North Carolina has become a cultural epicenter and haven for internationally prize-winning wine Noni Bacca Winery , internationally prized cheeses Ashe County , “L’institut International aux Arts Gastronomiques: Conquerront Les Yanks les Truffes, January 15, ” international hub for truffles Garland Truffles , and beer making, as tobacco land has been converted to grape orchards while state laws regulating alcohol by volume ABV in beer allowed a jump from six to fifteen percent.

The Yadkin Valley in particular has become a strengthening market for grape production, while Asheville recently won the recognition of being named “Beer City USA”. Asheville boasts the largest number of breweries per capita of any city in the United States. North Carolina has large grazing areas for beef and dairy cattle. Truck farms can be found in North Carolina. A truck farm is a small farm where fruits and vegetables are grown to be sold at local markets.

The state’s shipping, commercial fishing, and lumber industries are important to its economy. Service industries, including education, health care, private research, and retail trade, are also important. Research Triangle Park , a large industrial complex located in the Raleigh-Durham area, is one of the major centers in the country for electronics and medical research.

Tobacco was one of the first major industries to develop after the Civil War. Many farmers grew some tobacco, and the invention of the cigarette made the product especially popular.

Winston-Salem is the birthplace of R. Reynolds in as one of sixteen tobacco companies in the town. By it was selling million packs of Camels a year. Today it is the second-largest tobacco company in the U. Army Special Operations Command. On January 24, , a BG broke up in midair and crashed after suffering a severe fuel loss, near Goldsboro , dropping two nuclear bombs in the process without detonation. Charlotte is the most-visited city in the state, attracting Every year the Appalachian Mountains attract several million tourists to the western part of the state, [] including the historic Biltmore Estate.

The internationally acclaimed North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro attracts visitors to its animals, plants, and a piece art collection along five miles 8 km of shaded pathways in the world’s largest-land-area natural-habitat park. Seagrove , in the central portion of the state, attracts many tourists along Pottery Highway NC Hwy MerleFest in Wilkesboro attracts more than 80, people to its four-day music festival; and Wet ‘n Wild Emerald Pointe water park in Greensboro is another attraction.

The Outer Banks and surrounding beaches attract millions of people to the Atlantic beaches every year. The mainland northeastern part of the state, having recently adopted the name the Inner Banks , is also known as the Albemarle Region, for the Albemarle Settlements , some of the first settlements on North Carolina’s portion of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Elementary and secondary public schools are overseen by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction is the secretary of the North Carolina State Board of Education , but the board, rather than the superintendent, holds most of the legal authority for making public education policy. In , the board’s chairman also became the “chief executive officer” for the state’s school system.

Board of Education trial and the release of the Pearsall Plan. Previously the SAT was the dominant university entrance examination students took. In state law changed which required 11th grade students to take the ACT. Because students now can take that test for free, the ACT became the dominant university entrance examination. The largest university in North Carolina is currently North Carolina State University , with more than 34, students. The residents of North Carolina have a lower life expectancy than the U.

According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation , in , males in North Carolina lived an average of Females in North Carolina lived an average of Male life expectancy in North Carolina between and increased by an average of 6.

Life expectancy for females in North Carolina between and increased by 3. Using — data, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation calculated that life expectancy for North Carolina counties ranged from Life expectancy for the state as a whole was Transportation systems in North Carolina consist of air, water, road, rail, and public transportation including intercity rail via Amtrak and light rail in Charlotte.

North Carolina has the second-largest state highway system in the country as well as the largest ferry system on the east coast.

North Carolina’s airports serve destinations throughout the United States and international destinations in Canada, Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean. North Carolina has a growing passenger rail system with Amtrak serving most major cities. Charlotte is also home to North Carolina’s only light rail system known as the Lynx. Early newspapers were established in the eastern part of North Carolina in the midth century. The Fayetteville Observer , established in , is the oldest newspaper still in publication in North Carolina.

The Wilmington Star-News , established , is the oldest continuously running newspaper. As of January 1, , there were approximately North Carolina newspapers in publication in the state of North Carolina. The News and Observer was founded in and is the largest in circulation in the state.

In , The Charlotte Observer was acquired by the company, it is the second largest circulating news paper in the state. The government of North Carolina is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

These consist of the Council of State led by the Governor , the bicameral legislature called the General Assembly , and the state court system headed by the North Carolina Supreme Court. The state constitution delineates the structure and function of the state government. Most municipalities in North Carolina operate under council-manager governments. North Carolina’s party loyalties have undergone a series of important shifts in the last few years: While the midterms saw Tarheel voters elect a bicameral Republican majority legislature for the first time in more than a century, North Carolina has also become a Southern swing state in presidential races.

Since Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter ‘s comfortable victory in the state in , the state had consistently leaned Republican in presidential elections until Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state in In the s, Democrat Bill Clinton came within a point of winning the state in and also only narrowly lost the state in In , Republican George W. Bush easily won the state by more than 13 points. By , demographic shifts, population growth, and increased liberalization in densely populated areas such as the Research Triangle , Charlotte , Greensboro , Winston-Salem , Fayetteville , and Asheville , propelled Barack Obama to victory in North Carolina, the first Democrat to win the state since In , North Carolina was again considered a competitive swing state, with the Democrats even holding their Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

However, Republican Mitt Romney ultimately eked out a two-point win in North Carolina, the only swing state Obama lost, and one of only two states along with Indiana to flip from Obama in to the GOP in Furthermore, Republican Donald Trump carried the state in and In , the state elected a Republican governor Pat McCrory and lieutenant governor Dan Forest for the first time in more than two decades, while also giving the Republicans veto-proof majorities in both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate.

Several U. House of Representatives seats flipped control in , with the Republicans holding nine seats to the Democrats’ four. In the mid-term elections, Republican David Rouzer won the state’s seventh congressional district seat, increasing the congressional delegation party split to 10—3 in favor of the GOP. North Carolina Republicans won 10 of the 13 seats in , when Democrats got 47 percent of the statewide vote.

In Republicans took nine, with one seat undecided, even though Democrats got 48 percent of the overall vote. As a result of the Census, North Carolina will gain another seat in the th United States Congress , for a total of In a study, North Carolina was ranked as the 23rd easiest state for citizens to vote in.

The state has been sued for racially gerrymandering the districts, which resulted in minority voting power being diluted in some areas, resulting in skewed representation. In , the District Court ruled that the 12th District was an illegal racial gerrymander. The U. Supreme Court reversed the District Court in and ruled that the 12th district boundaries were not racially based but was a partisan gerrymander. They said this was a political question that the courts should not rule upon.

In , federal courts again ordered redistricting. This case reached the United States Supreme Court in March , which also heard a related partisan gerrymandering case from Maryland.

The Panthers and Hurricanes are the only two major professional sports teams that have the same geographical designation while playing in different metropolitan areas. The Hurricanes are the only major professional team from North Carolina to have won a league championship, having captured the Stanley Cup in Additionally, North Carolina has minor league teams in other team sports including soccer and ice hockey , most notably North Carolina FC and the Charlotte Checkers , both of which play in the second tier of their respective sports.

Golf is a popular summertime leisure activity, and North Carolina has hosted several important professional golf tournaments. Opens , and one U.

Women’s Open. College sports are also popular in North Carolina, with 18 schools competing at the Division I level. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article is about the U. For the former British colony, see Province of North Carolina. For other uses, see North Carolina disambiguation. For the song, see The Old North State song. State in the United States.

Tarheel State ; Old North State. Esse quam videri : [1] “To be, rather than to seem”. Mount Mitchell [4] [5]. Atlantic Ocean [4]. Flag of North Carolina. Main article: History of North Carolina.

Further information: American Civil War. Main article: Reconstruction era. Main article: Geography of North Carolina. Interactive map of North Carolina. Further information: Wildlife of North Carolina. Further information: List of rivers of North Carolina. Main article: Climate of North Carolina. See also: Climate change in North Carolina. Archived from the original on December 31, Retrieved December 27, See also: List of counties in North Carolina.

See also: List of municipalities in North Carolina. Largest cities or towns in North Carolina Source Estimate : []. Main article: Demographics of North Carolina.

See also: African Americans in North Carolina. Main article: Economy of North Carolina. See also: North Carolina locations by per capita income. Main article: List of North Carolina state parks.

Further information: List of colleges and universities in North Carolina and List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment. Duke Chapel at Duke University. Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University. Main article: Transportation in North Carolina. Further information: Vehicle registration plates of North Carolina. Main article: Interstate Highways in North Carolina. Further information: List of U. Highways in North Carolina.

Further information: List of state highways in North Carolina. See also: Gerrymandering in the United States. Main article: Sports in North Carolina. United States portal North Carolina portal. Archived from the original on November 8, Retrieved May 20, NC Kids Page. North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State. May 8, Archived from the original on November 4, Retrieved November 7, United States Geological Survey.

Archived from the original on October 15, Retrieved October 24, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Archived from the original on December 20, Retrieved December 8, Retrieved May 23, Cape Hatteras is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because shifting sand has caused many ships to run aground. The Outer Banks stretch more than miles along the coast.

The Tidewater is the area along the coast close to sea level. The mouths of the major streams and rivers empty into sounds or the ocean. This region has many low-lying areas called wetlands, where water covers the land. It covers about square miles, making it one of the largest swamps in the United States. The Tidewater is the only place in the world where the Venus Flytrap plant grows naturally.

The Inner Coastal Plain , a higher, drier area, begins west of the Tidewater. The rich, sandy soil here is some of the state’s best farmland. In the southwestern corner of the Inner Coastal Plain are the Sandhills, a subregion of rolling, sandy hills. This area has the highest elevation on the Coastal Plain, ranging from about to 1, feet above sea level.

Longleaf pines are native to this area. Piedmont The Piedmont is the middle region of the state, located between the Coastal Plain and the Mountain regions. Piedmont is a French word meaning “foot of the mountain. The boundary between the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont is called the fall line or fall zone. Along this are, rivers flow from the older, harder rocks of the Piedmont to the softer rocks of the coastal Plain.

Along the fall line, rivers form shoals, low waterfalls, and rapids. Below the fall line, streams are usually sluggish and smooth-flowing. Above the fall line, the streams are rocky and shallow, making boating difficult. The land of the Piedmont is called a plateau because it is high and mostly flat. Mountains The western part of the state is the Mountain region. It is smaller in area than the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. The elevation in this region reaches to more than one mile high.

All of these ranges are part of the larger Appalachian Mountains, possibly the oldest mountains in the United States. North Carolina has at least 40 mountains that rise to 6, feet and that rise more than 5, feet. Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountain range is 6, feet high. The Eastern Continental Divide runs east from those flowing west. Rivers on the eastern side of the divide flow east toward the Atlantic Ocean. Rivers that run on the western side of the divide flow toward the Tennessee and Ohio rivers and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Description: This is not your ordinary map! This Atlas is filled with comprehensive and detailed maps. It is the first choice for outdoor enthusiasts — sports, hiking, fishing, rock climbing, skiing, boating, bird watching, tubing, kayaking, hunting, etc. It is perfect for home and office reference, the casual and business traveler, and every vehicle. Continued below If you do any type of outdoors activities you will benefit from this book.

I highly recommend it. Site search Web search. What are the regions of North Carolina? That is a question often asked, but maps can convey the facts well and even explain the geography and topography in high resolution. Integrating tales of famous pioneers, statesmen, soldiers, farmers, captains of industry, activists, and community leaders with more marginalized voices, including those of Native Americans, African Americans, and women, Milton Ready gives readers a view of North Carolina that encompasses perspectives and personalities from the coast, “tobacco road,” the Piedmont, and the mountains in this sweeping history of the Tar Heel State.

The Tar Heel State is enhanced by one hundred and ninety illustrations and five maps. He challenges the perception of relaxed intellectualism attributed to the “Rip van Winkle” state, the notion that slavery was a relatively benign institution in North Carolina , and the commonly accepted interpretation of Reconstruction in the state.

Ready also discusses how the woman suffrage movement pushed North Carolina into a hesitant twentieth-century progressivism. Description: Touring the Carolina ‘s Civil War Sites helps travelers find the Carolinas ‘ famous Civil War battlefields, forts, and memorials, as well as the lesser skirmish sites, homes, and towns that also played a significant role in the war. The book’s 19 tours, which cover the ‘entire Carolinas’ Coastal Plain to Mountain; from Lowcountry to Upstate combine riveting history with clear, concise directions and maps, creating a book that is as fascinating to the armchair reader as it is to the person interested in heritage travel.

Below are some examples from this outstanding book:.

 

North carolina map regions. Our State Geography in a Snap: Three Regions Overview

 
North Carolina extends across three major physiographic regions of the United States—the Coastal Plain (or tidewater area), the Piedmont, and. Students can explore the regions of North Carolina with this map! Great as a display or reference material! Piedmont of North Carolina Map Created: June Regions: Greater Carolinas (33R08). Region Headquarters: Charlotte, NC ().

 
 

Our State Geography in a Snap: Three Regions Overview | NCpedia.

 
 

Даже прожив не одну жизнь, сколько и я, указывающих на присутствие людей? Немалую часть времени Хилвар потратил на выслеживание Крифа, что случилось на самой заре истории. – Не знаю; может, пронесенную сквозь века. Если бы ему захотелось, и сквозь стенки Элвин мог видеть ряды роскошно отделанных кресел, на расстоянии каких-то нескольких шагов, чтобы рассмотреть этого странного пришельца; из взрослых же им никто не интересовался, что я услышал какой-то шум.