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Old 09-26-2014, 09:31 PM
 
Location: SRQ
186 posts, read 327,169 times
Reputation: 326

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For those individuals considering moving to NC, or those who recently arrived, here is a lengthy public service lesson guide to help understand the locations of several towns, cities, counties and other places. And by the way, in NC the word "town" means just that: a town, not a "township". We do not have operating "townships" in NC.... a town is simply a small city (or commonly called a "village" up north).

It seems North Carolina's founders back in 1789 had a sense of humor about how and where to assign names. Maybe it was too much moonshine....

North Carolina has 100 counties. Each town or city name, and county name listed here is an actual county or town of North Carolina. I'm not making up any of this. Here we go:

Neither the city of Asheville nor Asheboro are located in Ashe County. The largest town in Ashe County is Jefferson, which is located northeast of the town of West Jefferson. The "New River" that flows north into West Virginia starts in North Carolina and flows through Ashe County. The "New River" is widely regarded as one of the oldest rivers in the eastern continental United States. And this New River is not to be confused with another "New River" that is located in North Carolina at the coast, near Jacksonville, NC. And the city of Jacksonville, NC is not located in Jackson County.

Neither Greensboro nor Greenville are located in Greene County.
Greenville is the home of ECU and is located in Pitt County. Not to be confused with Greenville, South Carolina.
Pitt County and Greene County adjoin each other. And the town of Pittsboro is not located in Pitt County.

The town of Lenoir is not located in Lenoir County.
Waynesville is not located in Wayne County.
Henderson is not located in Henderson County. But Hendersonville is in Henderson County.
Clayton is not located in Clay County.

Amazingly, the city of Durham is in Durham County.

Neither the town of Franklin nor Franklinville are located in Franklin County. But Franklinton is in Franklin County.
Columbus is not located in Columbus County.
Graham is not located in Graham County.
Madison is not located in Madison County.

Gastonia is in Gaston County.
Lincolnton is in Lincoln County.
Rutherfordton is in Rutherford County.

Mooresville is not located in Moore County.
And Mooresville is not the same as Morrisville....these are 2 separate towns.
Mooresville is near Charlotte....Morrisville is near Raleigh.

Wake Forest is in Wake County. But Wake Forest University is not. The University is in Winston-Salem.

The town of Hertford is not located in Hertford County.
The town of Hertford is in Perquimans County, which is very nearby to Hertford County.
The town of Washington (AKA "Little Washington") is not located in Washington County. The town is in Beaufort County, pronounced "BOW-furt". Not to be confused with Beaufort County South Carolina which is pronounced "be-YOU-fert". And Beaufort County (NC) is adjoining to Washington County.

Nashville is in Nash County. Not to be confused with Nashville, TN....two very very different towns...
Wilson is in Wilson County.
Rocky Mount is located north of Wilson and east of Nashville. But there are no rocky mountains anywhere near Rocky Mount.

Gatesville is in Gates County.
Warrenton is in Warren County.
Yadkinville is in Yadkin County.

The town of Zebulon is named after Zebulon B. Vance, a confederate war officer and ex-Governor.
Vance County is also named for the general.
The town of Zebulon is not located in Vance County.
The town of Vanceboro is also not located in Vance County.
And the man Zebulon B. Vance was born in what is now Buncombe County. North of Asheville. (Not Asheboro).

Both Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro are in Wilkes County.
The W.Kerr Scott Reservoir/Lake is also in Wilkes County. This is not to be confused with the John H. Kerr Reservoir/Lake that is located in Vance County. And "Kerr" is pronounced "car". Yes really.

Lake Gaston is not located in Gaston County.

The town of Roanoke Rapids is on the Roanoke River. But neither are located on Roanoke Island.

The town of Cherokee is not located in Cherokee County. The Cherokee Native American Nation is located near the town of Cherokee. The Cherokee Nation lands are also known as the Qualla Boundary.

There really is a Translyvania County. It's in the southwestern mountains.

Rockingham is not located in Rockingham County. Rockingham Speedway is near Rockingham.
Polkton is not located in Polk County.
Tyrrell County is not pronounced "tye-rell"....it is pronounced "TARE-ull".
The town of Kinston is spelled and pronounced Kinston. There is no "g" in the name.

The town of Albemarle is far away from the Albemarle Sound.
Pamlico County adjoins the Pamlico Sound. A "Sound" is an open body of relatively shallow sea water, protected by outer banks islands.

Cape Carteret is in Carteret County.
Camden is in Camden County.
Halifax is in Halifax County. But not to be confused with Halifax County, VA which is very close nearby across the border.

Bladenboro is in Bladen County.
There really is a town called "Tar Heel". It's also in Bladen County.
Livestock outnumbers people about 100 to 1 in Tar Heel.
However the University of North Carolina mascot is the Tarheel (one word), and the university is in the town of Chapel Hill.

And there really is a town called "Turkey", located in Sampson County.

The towns of Elizabeth City and Elizabethtown are two separate towns.
The towns of Princeton and Princeville are two separate towns.

Neither Robbinsville nor Robersonville are located in Robeson County.
And the towns of Robbinsville and Robbins are two separate towns.

The town of Scotland Neck is not located in Scotland County.
The town of Cleveland is not located in Cleveland County.
And depending upon who you ask, there are either 1, 2, or 3 towns in NC called "Cleveland."

Yanceyville is not located in Yancey County.
Jonesville is not located in Jones County.
The town of Leasburg is not located in nor spelled the same as Lee County.

The towns of Bunn and Bunnlevel are two separate towns.
And the town of Bunn should not be confused with the town of Dunn.
And the town of Bunn is not located in Buncombe County.

The town of Wendell, located near Raleigh, is named after the poet Oliver Wendell ("whendull") Holmes.
But the town name is pronounced "wen-DELL" or "win-DELL" depending upon your accent.

There are many, many different streams that are mapped and officially labeled/named as "Swift Creek".
And there are several completely different rivers that are each officially named "Little River".

The town of Murphy is different from the town Murfreesboro.
When somebody wants to say how far & wide something in North Carolina may apply....they say "it goes from Murphy to Manteo". These are the two largest towns that are very nearly the furthest apart from each other, with Murphy in the far west and Manteo in the far east. US Highway 64 connects both towns.

And the state capital city of Raleigh is named after Sir Walter Raleigh, pronounced "RAHLL-ee".....instead of incorrectly saying "rally".

The cities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point are collectively known as the "Triad Area".
The cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill (or Cary, depending on who you ask) are collectively known as the "Triangle Area".
Therefore the Triad is different from the Triangle.

The airport that serves the Triad is called Piedmont Triad Intl. Airport, locals call it "PTI airport."
However the FAA call letters for this airport are "GSO" because it is located in Greensboro (not Greenville).
So signs along the interstate highway now refer to "PTI-GSO Airport."

And the airport that serves the Triangle is called the Raleigh-Durham Intl. Airport, locals call it "RDU."
These are also the FAA call letters for this airport. When talking with locals, "RDU" means the actual airport, not the Triangle region.
But that's been discussed in other thread posts. And Research Triangle Park is called RTP or simply "The Park". And RTP is located next to RDU.

And the William B. Umstead State Park is also located next to RDU. Most people just call it Umstead Park (pronounced "umm-stedd"). Not to be confused with an ultra fancy high-end luxury hotel resort called "The Umstead" that is located 1 mile down the road from the entrance to the Umstead State Park, on the campus of SAS software company.

Soooooooo....ya still wanna move here, huh...?? Stop at the interstate welcome center and pick up a free DOT state road map!
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Old 09-26-2014, 09:50 PM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,206,847 times
Reputation: 11213
Very good. Except you left out Bahama, which is pronounced Buh-HAY-muh, and not like the Bahama islands. Then there's Mebane, which is not pronounced ME-Bane, but Mebbin.

(Also, the UNC mascot is the Tar Heel, two separate words. They drilled that into us in J-school.)
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Old 09-26-2014, 10:15 PM
 
Location: Winston-Salem
4,218 posts, read 8,475,739 times
Reputation: 4487
What a fun thread!!!!!


Quote:
Tyrrell County is not pronounced "tye-rell"....it is pronounced "TARE-ull".
I've always pronounced it "Tier-ull"

Quote:
Wake Forest is in Wake County. But Wake Forest University is not. The University is in Winston-Salem.
But WFU's original campus is in the town of Wake Forest. The school moved to W-S in the 1950's.

A reminder that Albemarle does not have two "r's" - It is not spelled Albermarle. Thank you, OP, for spelling it correctly.

Robersonville and Robeson County are not pronounced "Robe-son," but rather "Robb-uh-son."


Also the Appalachian mountains and Appalachian State University (in Boone) are NOT pronounced App-uh-LAY-chin, but rather App-uh-LATCH-in.
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Old 09-26-2014, 10:48 PM
 
Location: Southeastern Cumberland County
983 posts, read 3,971,481 times
Reputation: 818
And those of us native to Cumberland County and the surrounding area do not pronounce Fayetteville as "Fay-ette-ville," it's "Fed-vul."

And in Fayetteville, it's common for roads to have 2 or 3 names the length of the road....For example, Skibo (pronounced Sky-bo, NOT Ski-bo) becomes Pamalee, and then finally Country Club Drive.
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Old 09-27-2014, 11:09 AM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,206,847 times
Reputation: 11213
LRoyal, I'm going to have to disagree with you on "Fed-vul". That's one of my pet peeves. I never have said it that way and was born and raised there and my family has been in SE NC since the back of beyond of forever. "Fed-vul" always grated on my nerves, but I will accept it as a common alternate pronunciation. My family and I have always said "FAY-et-vll".
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Old 09-27-2014, 07:35 PM
 
Location: SRQ
186 posts, read 327,169 times
Reputation: 326
Thanks to moderator for making it a 'sticky note'.
And despite my exhaustive research and general knowledge base, I overlooked a couple more examples:

Neither the town of Davidson nor the Davidson River are located in Davidson County.
However, Davidson College is in the town of Davidson.

And Goldsboro is a separate town from Goldston.
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Old 09-27-2014, 09:15 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,809 posts, read 34,419,348 times
Reputation: 10256
Kings Mountain battlefield, where the Revolutionary War battle was fought, is in SC. City of Kings Mountain is in NC in Cleveland & Gaston counties. On the Cleveland side it's surrounded by Kings Mountain Twp. Crowders Mountain state park does have a post office address of Kings Mountain although its in Gaston County & not in City of Kings Mountain or Kings Mountain Twp.
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Old 09-28-2014, 11:58 AM
 
Location: The 12th State
22,974 posts, read 65,252,507 times
Reputation: 15075
Imo townships still exist but you might have to be in area long enough to know about them. Often voting and fire districts was created by them like Silver Valley, Churchland, Lowell, Cats Square, and Love Valley for a few.
Love is an old western style town in foothills in Brushy Mountains north of Statesville. Its a car-less community only horses permitted.

The town of Schley which is north of Hillsbourgh is pronounced 'Sly" like a sly fox.
Town of Robbins is located in Moore County not Robeson.

Im sure this might confuse some who researching Belmont. Belmont NC is a town located in Gaston County where Belmont Abbey College is located , 15 minutes west of Charlotte.
Belmont community is a neighborhood area in Charlotte on the outskirts of I277, it is going under revitalization and has Charlotte skyline views.

Last edited by SunnyKayak; 09-28-2014 at 12:18 PM..
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Old 09-29-2014, 12:47 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
10,728 posts, read 22,718,061 times
Reputation: 12318
Quote:
Originally Posted by LRoyal10900 View Post
And those of us native to Cumberland County and the surrounding area do not pronounce Fayetteville as "Fay-ette-ville," it's "Fed-vul."
And as a general rule, for any place in NC ending in "-ville", it's pronounced "-vul".

Green-vul, Ashe-vul, States-vul, etc. Oddly, the more syllables in the word, the less likely this is (e.g. Faye-ett-ville as stated by someone above, or "Hen-der-son-vill"). I personally say either one for Fayetteville; Fed-vul to a Southerner and Fay-ett-ville to a Northerner, without noticing.

Also, New Bern has the accent on the "NEW", not on the "BERN", making it unlike almost any other "New ____" place (New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, New London, etc). It's "NEW bern"
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Old 09-29-2014, 01:02 PM
 
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
1,266 posts, read 2,612,963 times
Reputation: 699
I have to correct my wife's pronunciation of Zebulon: it's ZEB-ulun, not Zeb-u-LON.

And it's AD-vance, not ad-VANCE.


Two items previously mentioned have caused confusion: we live in Davidson County, and had a contractor agree to come up from Charlotte. They thought we were in the town of Davidson, and charged more to come to our home in northeast Davidson County. And when searching schools a few years ago in Franklin County, places in the town of Franklin often came up.
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