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 |
|---|---|
| Unaka Mountains |
in Avery and Mitchell Counties, N.C., and Unicoi and Carter Counties, Tenn., form the common boundary line between the two states from the Nolichucky River to the Doe River (in Tennessee). Of 40 miscellaneous maps dating from 1795 to 1930, 22 called the ridge, in whole or in part, Iron Mountains; others divide between Iron and Yellow Mountains; and 5 call them Unaka Mountains the entire distance. Unaka is a corruption of Unega, meaning "white"; it is used in the 1789 act passed by the General Assembly of North Carolina that ceded what is now the state of Tennessee to the U.S. government. |
| Uncas |
community in E Mecklenburg County served by post office, 1893-1903. |
| Under Hills |
See Piedmont. |
| Underwood Branch |
rises in NE Cherokee County and flows SE into Webb Creek. |
| Underwood Mountain |
W Henderson County, extends E in an arc between Little Willow Creek and South Fork. Alt. approx. 3,250. |
| Unicoi Gap |
on the Cherokee County, N.C.-Monroe County, Tenn., line in the Unicoi Mountains. |
| Unicoi Mountains |
in Cherokee and Graham Counties, N.C., and Monroe and Polk Counties, Tenn., form in part the common boundary line of the two states between the Little Tennessee River and Hiwassee River. The name is one of those in common use; it was suggested by Horace Kephart and approved by the nomenclature committees of the Great Smoky Mountains Park Commissions of North Carolina and Tennessee. The name—which, like Unaka, is a corruption of Unega, meaning "white"—was used in the 1789 act passed by the General Assembly of North Carolina that ceded what is now the state of Tennessee to the U.S. government: "where it is called Unicoy or Unaka Mountain between the Indian towns of Cowee and Old Chota." |
| Union |
community in S Hertford County. Inc. 1889; charter repealed 1939. Brittle Ordinary appears at the location on the Collet map, 1770; in 1808 it was called Brickle Inn. A post office with the name Union operated, 1878-1906. |
| Union City |
See Fairmont. |
| Union Copper Mine |
former mine in NE Cabarrus County, operated extensively from the early 1900s until 1914. Further explorations made in 1960, but mine not reopened for work. |
