North Carolina has a very interesting and fascinating history. From the ancestral lands of the Cherokee in the western mountains to the home of real pirates along the eastern shoreline, here are some unusual facts about this fascinating southern state.
This coastal resort got its name from pirates who at one time would walk donkeys along the ridge of 100-foot-high sand dunes that naturally occur here. Distant boats would see the swinging lights as a faraway harbor and inadvertently guide their ships too close to shore, where they would be attacked by the waiting outlaws.
North Carolina has over a half dozen popular and successful downhill ski centers, all located in the far western portion of the state.
In 1999, the National Park Service moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 2,900 feet to a new location. The lighthouse was moved on top of railroad tracks. The trip took 23 days and cost nearly $10 million. The lighthouse had to be moved because of encroaching seas and severe beach erosion.
By some quirk of fate, Civil War battles within the state were relatively uncommon, and when they did occur, they tended to be rather insignificant events.
This picturesque mountain trail commemorates the route traveled by American Revolutionary soldiers. It runs through the states of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and ends at Kings Mountain, just a few miles south of the state line, which is the site of a decisive battle between the Americans and British, where the British troops were beaten and eventually driven out of the Carolinas.
