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.
"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
| Place | Description |
|---|---|
| Tar Ridge |
S Watauga County, extends SE from the head of Days Creek. |
| Tar River |
rises in W central Person County and flows SE through Granville, Franklin, Nash, Edgecombe, and Pitt Counties to Beaufort County, where it becomes the Pamlico River. It is 179 mi. long. Appears on the Moseley map, 1733, apparently for the first time; previously known as Pampticough and other spellings of the modern Pamlico. There are many explanations of the origin of the name. It may be from an Indian word, Tau, meaning "river of health"; named for the Taw River in Devonshire, England; or named because of the tar produced in the counties through which it flows. |
| Tar-ko-ee |
See Piedmont. |
| Tarawa Terrace |
residential area of Camp Lejeune Marine Base, central Onslow County. Named for the Pacific Island on which a battle was fought against the Japanese, November 21-24, 1943. |
| Tarboro |
town and county seat, central Edge-combe County. Settled in 1732 and est. 1760. Inc. 1772. Named for Tar River, on which it is situated. Town commons, created by legislative act of 1760, is still maintained. The legislature met there in 1787. Produces textiles, lumber, machinery, toys, and paper products. In early records, the name sometimes appears as Tawboro. Alt. 58. See also Runnymeade; West Tarboro. |
| Tarboro Township |
former township in central Edgecombe County, now township no. 1. |
| Tarcamp Branch |
rises in W Jackson County and flows E into West Fork Tuckasegee River. |
| Tare-over |
SW Washington County, a bridge and straight stretch of the road from Plymouth to Leachville crossing the headwaters of Flat Swamp at the NE end of Van Swamp. The name appears on the Price map, 1808, and is thought to have originated as the name for the grassy, swampy depression that cuts into Long Acre, which see. |
| Tarkiln Branch |
rises in W Swain County and flows SE into Little Tennessee River. |
| Tarkiln Gap |
NE Cherokee County in the Valley River Mountains. |
