1789 map of Mecklenburg County (link) (Charlotte, Marion: home, transfer, transport)

[southbound_295]

While looking for something else, I found this map.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncmeckle/1789Meck.jpg

I got the link from this website.

Mecklenburg County North Carolina Genealogy

[anifani821]

Thanx, SB! You are always so good to share info with us on the history of the area. Really appreciate your willingness to do that.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by anifani821

Thanx, SB! You are always so good to share info with us on the history of the area. Really appreciate your willingness to do that.

Thanks Ani.

I wasn't after this, but went to the USGenweb, which is one of my favorite places to check for historical information & links to it. When I saw the map I just had to click on it & when I saw all of the detail & the familiar-to-this-day names, I had to post it. This was a better find than what I was looking for.

I realize that it's not of interest for a lot of people, but I knew that it would probably interest some people. It seems like a decent point of reference for some of the discussions on here, past, present, & future.

[Metallisteve]

I'd love to find the full original document. Anyone know where it is? There's very limited info on the bottom...something about a "Carolina Room." Ring any bells?

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by Metallisteve

I'd love to find the full original document. Anyone know where it is? There's very limited info on the bottom...something about a "Carolina Room." Ring any bells?

I was poking around on the bottom website & found the source of the map. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story

Apparently, they have a lot of these maps.

[lumbollo]

An interesting piece of triviality that is also a pretty rare occurrence in modern times. Mecklenburg county is actually about ~30 sq miles smaller now. Around 1999 a small portion in the upper left hand corner was transferred to Iredell county. That portion of Mecklenburg had become isolated when Lake Norman was built in 1963 and the residents of the peninsula had argued for years to be moved to Meck. At the end of the 20th century, the Mecklenburg county council finally agreed.

You can see this by looking a many maps where that corner is shown to be a right angle, now on newer maps it is cut off.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by lumbollo

An interesting piece of triviality that is also a pretty rare occurrence in modern times. Mecklenburg county is actually about ~30 sq miles smaller now. Around 1999 a small portion in the upper left hand corner was transferred to Iredell county. That portion of Mecklenburg had become isolated when Lake Norman was built in 1963 and the residents of the peninsula had argued for years to be moved to Meck. At the end of the 20th century, the Mecklenburg county council finally agreed.

You can see this by looking a many maps where that corner is shown to be a right angle, now on newer maps it is cut off.

Thanks! I'd rep you if I could.

[lumbollo]

You are welcome. I forgot to mention this area had become known as Meck Neck.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by lumbollo

You are welcome. I forgot to mention this area had become known as Meck Neck.

Thanks, again. If you think of anything else that applies to the map, don't hesitate to post it.

[lumbollo]

The only thing I can think of at the moment has to do with the map before they built Lake Norman, Lake Wylie and Mountain island Lake. When this map was drawn, the Catawba was used to transport goods from Charlotte down to Charleston. You might ask how was this done as in many places the river is just a pile of rocks with water flowing over it. By barge, I mean a boat that is about 6-8 ft wide and of the length where it could be moved by people with poles and/or mules horses donkeys or what ever animal they could find that would walk the shore and pull ropes.

Now when the barge got to a rocky area, they would build canals around this portion of the river. These canals would be built with and understanding of hydrology so there were locks pullouts, and many times water wheels that took advantage of the flow. So with this system, goods produced in Charlotte could be carried down to the port in Charleston and goods came back the same way. This system was used until railroads replace them. These days that route would be the Catawba River, the Wateree River, then east of Columbia there is a confluence with Congaree river. From here you can still boat close to 100 miles to the coast as SC maintains an excellent set of river locks. You would go through Lake Marion, Lake Moultrie (both larger than Norman) then the Cooper River to the Charleston harbor. Quite a trip.

Now that Duke has placed dams all over the river, the land looks nothing like it did in that map. However, just south of Charlotte, they re-discovered the ruins of one of these canals and about number of decades ago Duke donated the land for a park. You can go there now and see this 200+ year old canal and also see the Catawba as it looked on that map. It's called Landsford Canal state park and it offers a fairly pristine view of the river. It's much like it would have looked in Mecklenburg when people used to walk up it to get to Charlotte. I highly recommend a trip to this park. It's also home to the now very rare Spider Lily which is beautiful when in bloom.