| Kannapolis | city in S Rowan and N Cabarrus Counties. Alt. 765. Until inc. in 1984, it was the seventeenth-largest unincorporated community in the United States and the largest in North Carolina. James William Cannon bought 600 acres there along the Southern Railway tracks in 1905; there he built houses and a mill, which began production in 1908. Cannon Mills, noted for manufacture of towels, was there. Since 2008 the site of North Carolina Research Campus, with focus on nutrition. The name comes from a form of the Cannon family name plus polis, the Greek word for city. |
| Kannapolis Township | former township in NW Cabarrus County, now township no. 4. Once named Cooks Cross Roads Township. |
| Kanuga Lake | central Henderson County on Little Mud Creek. Formed about 1908. Covers 12 acres; max. depth 20 ft. Summer camp owned by the Episcopal Church. Named for prehistoric Cherokee town Ka-nu-ga, on the West Fork of Pigeon River in Haywood County. The Indian name traditionally meant "Meeting Place of Many Peoples." |
| Kappa | community in W Davie County. In the 1870s known as Ketchie's Mill for a mill erected on Little Creek. Post office est. 1883 in the home of W. R. Ketchie, a Lutheran minister, who gave it the name Kappa, the Greek name for the letter K Davie Academy opened there about 1908, and the name Davie Academy is also sometimes still used for the community. |
| Kapps Mill | community in W Surry County served by post office, 1878-1929. |
| Karrs Branch | rises in SW Iredell County W of Troutman and flows SW into Hicks Creek. |
| Katalsta Ridge | NE Swain County in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a spur extending S from Eagle Rock. Named for a daughter of Yonaguska, noted as a pottery maker. |
| Kate Gap | on the Madison County, N.C.-Cocke County, Tenn., line. |
| Kate Knob | S Macon County between Pine Ridge and Jones Creek. |
| Katesville | community in central Franklin County. Settled 1888. Named for Kate Griffin, donor of the site. Alt. 300. |