Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.
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.
"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 |
|---|---|
| Oak Island |
a peninsula between Elizabeth River and the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in SE Brunswick County. Site of Fort Caswell, Long Beach, and Yaupon Beach. Appears as an island on the Collet map, 1770. |
| Oak Knob |
on the Buncombe-Madison county line. Alt. approx. 4,400. Also appears on maps as Oakes Knob and as Oak Ridge. |
| Oak Level Township |
SE Nash County. |
| Oak Lodge |
community in E Guilford County. |
| Oak Park |
community in S Buncombe County. |
| Oak Ridge |
town in NW Guilford County. Alt. 885. Est. in 1852 and inc. in 1897. Named for its location on an oak-grown ridge. Oak Ridge Military Institute, oldest military preparatory school in North Carolina, founded there in 1853. |
| Oak Ridge Creek |
rises in E Jackson County and flows SW into Piney Mountain Creek. |
| Oak Ridge Township |
NW Guilford County. |
| Oak Spring |
community in central Rutherford County on Catheys Creek. A post office was there, 1855-1907. |
| Oak Summit |
community in N Forsyth County served by post office, 1891-1903. Formerly Flat Branch. |
