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 |
|---|---|
| Otter Creek |
rises in E Alamance County and flows S into Quaker Scrub Creek. |
| Otter Creek Township |
former township in S Edgecombe County, now township no. 9. Earlier known as Autreys Creek Township. |
| Otter Gap |
NW Macon County between Long Branch and Otter Creek. |
| Otter Mountain |
NW Macon County between Cold Spring Creek and the head of Jane Otter Branch. |
| Otters Knob |
See Arturs Knob. |
| Otto |
town in S Macon County. Alt. 2,060. Inc. 1909, but long inactive in municipal affairs. |
| Otway |
community in E Carteret County near the mouth of Ward Creek. Settled about 1800. Named for Otway Burns (1775-1848), captain of a privateer vessel in the War of 1812. Alt. 5. |
| Ouaniche |
See Wananish. |
| Outer Banks |
are a string of low, narrow, sandy islands extending for more than 175 mi. from the Virginia state line to below Cape Lookout. They are separated from the mainland of North Carolina by broad, shallow sounds. Narrow inlets through the Outer Banks provide access to the Atlantic Ocean from the sounds. The Outer Banks, from N to s, are Currituck Banks, Bodie Island, Pea Island, Hatteras Island, Ocracoke Island, Portsmouth Island, Core Banks, Shackleford Banks, and Bogue Banks. In 1709 John Lawson wrote of the "Sand Banks." In 1713 the term "Sea Banks" was used in describing them (see Shackleford Banks). See also Carolarns Islands; Croatoan Island. |
| Outer Diamond Shoal |
See Diamond Shoals. |
