Copyright Notice: This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.

Preface to the 2nd edition
Preface to the 1st edition
Acknowledgments

"The North Carolina Gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which an attempt has been made to list all of the geographic features of the state in one alphabet. It is current, and it is historical as well. Many features and places that no longer exist are included; many towns and counties for which plans were made but which never materialized are also included. Some names appearing on old maps may have been imaginary, but many of them also appear in this gazetteer.

Each entry is located according to the county in which it is found. I have not felt obliged to keep entries uniform. The altitude of a place, the date of incorporation of a city or town, may appear in the beginning of one entry and at the end of another. Some entries may appear more complete than others. I have included whatever information I could find. If there is no comment on the origin or meaning of a name, it is because the information was not available. In some cases, however, resort to an unabridged dictionary may suggest the meaning of many names."

--From The North Carolina Gazetteer, 1st edition, preface by William S. Powell

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Place Description
Spot

community on Currituck Sound, S Currituck County. Formerly Hog Quarter, but renamed when a post office was est. there about 1920 (spot is a fish that is caught locally).
Spot Knob

on Haywood-Jackson county line. Alt. 5,900-6,000.
Spout Branch

rises in W Avery County and flows E into Roaring Creek.
Spout Springs

community in SW Harnett County. Once the center of a lumber and naval-stores industry. Alt. approx. 330.
Sprawls Old Field

See Norman.
Spray

former town in N Rockingham County on Smith River. Settled about 1813, when James Burnett est. gristmill at falls of Smith River. Site of cotton mill founded by future governor John M. Morehead; later operated by his son J. Turner Morehead. Known first as Splashy from the water thrown up by a waterwheel at a local mill; name later changed in 1890 to the more sophisticated Spray. Inc. 1951; merged with Leaksville and Draper in 1967 to form Eden, which see. Alt. 625.
Spread Branch

rises in NE Swain County and flows N into Bunches Creek.
Spread Eagle Branch

rises in NE Cherokee County and flows SW into Pile Creek.
Spring

community in SE Iredell County served by post office, 1898-1903.
Spring Bank

former plantation and ferry, central Wayne County on Neuse River midway between the mouths of Stoney and Sleepy Creeks. Owned by Joseph Green Sr., largest slave owner in the county in 1790 and a member of the General Assembly. In 1784 Spring Bank was designated as a location for the receipt and inspection of tobacco. The Price map, 1808, shows only Green's Ferry at the location.