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.

"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
Blackrock Ridge

N Jackson County, extends N from Scott Creek to Soco Creek.

Blacksnake Branch

rises in N Transylvania County and flows SE into Turkey Creek.

Blackstock Branch

rises in N Buncombe County and flows NW into Madison County, where it enters Ivy River.

Blackstock Knob

on the Buncombe-Yancey county line between Balsam and Rainbow Gaps. Alt. 6,325. Probably named for a surveyor, Nehemiah Blackstock, who worked in the vicinity in 1845.

Blackstone

community in NE Caldwell County. Named for Sir William Blackstone (1723-80), English jurist, by Col. George N. Folk, who conducted a law school there after the Civil War.

Blackwalnut Swamp

rises in E Bertie County and flows E into Chowan River.

Blackwater River

rises in Virginia and flows SW into North Carolina, where it joins the Nottoway River a short distance S of the Virginia line on the Hertford-Gates county line to form the Chowan River. The name appears on the Comberford map, 1657.

Blackwater Run

rises in S Rowan County and flows S into N Cabarrus County, where it enters Dutch Buffalo Creek. The last Indians in Cabarrus County lived along the stream.

Blackwell

community in NW Caswell County. A post office operated there, 1830-1909. A tobacco factory also formerly existed there.

Blackwell Gap

central Cherokee County near the middle of Bates Mountain.