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 |
|---|---|
| Nancys Mountain |
S Randolph County between Kies Mountain and Little River. |
| Nane Branch |
rises in central Clay County and flows NW into Cold Branch. |
| Nanito |
See Shingle Hollow. |
| Nanny Mountain |
SE Buncombe County near the Rutherford County line. |
| Nansemond Indian Town |
appears on the Moseley map, 1733, near the forks of Nottoway River and Blackwater River where they form the Chowan River. The site is now in NE Hertford County. |
| Nantahala |
community in SW Swain County. A post office operated there, 1873-1905. After 1889 known as Ledford. Alt. 1,942. |
| Nantahala Balds |
grassy areas in the Nantahala Mountain Range, which see, of W Macon County. Wayah Bald is the most prominent of these areas. Named for the Cherokee word Nan-toh-ee-yah-heh-lih (sun in the middle; noonday), as Indian runners between Valley River crossed it at midday on their way to Oconaluftee or Soco in Swain County. |
| Nantahala Gorge |
ne Graham and SW Swain Counties, a canyon of the Nantahala River with such depth and such sheer sides that the Cherokee Indians named it "Land of the Middle Sun," believing that only the noonday sun could penetrate its depths. One of the several Cherokee legends is that the gorge was the haunt of the Uktena (keen-eyed), a huge horned serpent. The bright gem blazing from between its horns was called ulstitlu (it is on his head) and meant death to the family of any Indian who beheld it. However, when detached it became the ulunsuti (transparent), the great talisman that revealed the future to the possessor. When a wary hunter encased himself in leather, surprised the monster, killed it, and tore the great jewel from its head, the snake writhed from one side of the gorge to the other, shutting out the radiance of the sun and causing the perpetual twilight. The great jewel was said to be the rutile quartz, so rare that there was only one specimen among the Eastern Cherokee in 1890. In the gorge, on the left bank of the river, are caves claimed by some to have been occupied by a race that preceded the Cherokee. |
| Nantahala Lake |
in Clay and Macon Counties on the headwaters of Nantahala River. Dam completed in 1942. Area 1,605 acres; max. depth 225 ft.; shoreline 30 mi. Owned by Nantahala Power and Light Company and used for the generation of electricity. Nantahala is an Indian word meaning "sun in the middle" and was applied to the gorge through which the river runs. |
| Nantahala Mountain Range |
lies between the Great Smoky Mountains on the N and the Blue Ridge on the s. It extends about 50 mi. across Macon County from the junction of Nantahala and Little Tennessee Rivers in Swain County to Tallulah Falls, Ga. |
