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.

Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.

Preface to the 2nd edition
Preface to the 1st edition
Acknowledgments
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"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

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Place Description
Mountain Region, Mountain Section

or simply terms applied to the mountainous section of W North Carolina. The E limit of the region runs generally through Surry, Wilkes, Caldwell, Burke, Rutherford, and Polk Counties. The Indians referred to the area as Ottaray (Highlands). White settlers sometimes rendered the word into English as Otaré, which they translated as "Over Hills." See also Appalachian Mountains.
Mountain Run

rises in E Caldwell County and flows S into Upper Little River.
Mountain Run Creek

rises in W Rockingham Creek and flows into Mayo River. Named for Cedar Point Mountain, where creek originates.
Mountain Tea Branch

rises near Henry Mountain in S Transylvania County and flows S into East Fork French Broad River. Named for the abundance of wintergreen that grows near the branch, the herb from which "mountain tea" is made.
Mountain Township

SW Jackson County.
Mountain Valley

community in S McDowell County. Named for plantation owned by George Gradin.
Mountain View

community in S Stokes County between the head of Danbury Creek and Town Fork Creek. Mountain View Institute, an academy, operated there, 1895-1920.
Mountainside Branch

rises in S Macon County and flows NW into Big Mooney Branch.
Mountainside Grove

community on Falls Branch in E Macon County.
Mouse Creek

W Haywood County in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, rises near lat. 35°42'22" N., long. 83°07'17" W., and flows NW into Big Creek. The name is an Indian one.