North Carolina is also known as the Tar Heel State and Old North State.
Admitted to the Union November 21, 1789
Capital: Raleigh
Motto: Esse Quam Videri – To be, rather than to seem
Total Area: 53,821 square miles, rank 28th
Total Land Area: 48,708 square miles, rank 17th
Total Water Area: 5,103 square miles, rank 10th
Length: 500 miles
Width: 150 miles
Mount Mitchell in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the highest peak east of the Mississippi; it towers 6,684 above sea level.
The Outer Banks are a series of barrier islands made up entirely of sand – undersea sand bars. These islands have stabilized and are suitable for habitation.
photo courtesy Cardcow.com
In 1903 the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered flight by man at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk. The Wright Memorial now commemorates their achievement.
The first English colony in America was located on Roanoke Island. Sir Walter Raleigh founded it, but the colony mysteriously vanished with no trace except for the word “Croatan” crawled on a nearby tree.
The waters off the shores of the Outer Banks are known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” where over 500 ships have gone down. The most notable include:
The Monitor. Built for the Union forces during the Civil War, the Monitor was one of the first ironclad warships. This ship and its Confederate counterpart, the Virginia, were the predecessors of the submarine. The Monitor and the Virginia battled to a draw off the coast of Virginia in 1862. On New Year’s Eve, 1862, the Monitor went down off Cape Hatteras during a storm.
U-85. The first Nazi submarine destroyed during World War II by Americans was sunk off Bodie Island. Apparently the Germans had a stranglehold on US supply lines and shipping routes in the early stages of the war. U-85, a Type Vllb, German submarine went down after an attack by the USS Roper on April 14, 1942.
Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard the Pirate, lived, pirated, and died on the Outer Banks. Blackbeard was a very successful and flamboyant pirate. He was a tall, intimidating man decorated with cutlasses and pistols. During combat, his beard was braided with ribbons and he wore lit cannon fuses in his hair. He was killed in hand-to-hand combat with members of the Royal Navy at Ocracoke Inlet on November 22, 1718.
