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 |
|---|---|
| Roanoke Rapids |
city in N Halifax County on the Roanoke River. Founded in 1893 by John Armstrong Chaloner (1862-1935) as a cottonmill site and named for the rapids in the river. Inc. 1897. Originally known as Great Falls. Produces paper and textiles. Alt. 169. |
| Roanoke Rapids Dam |
See Lake Gaston. |
| Roanoke Rapids Lake |
is formed by a dam near the city of Roanoke Rapids in NE Halifax County on Roanoke River. The lake extends NW along the Halifax-Northampton county line to Gaston Dam. The dam there was completed in 1955, and the lake covers 4,900 acres, with a shoreline of 47 mi. and a max. depth of 90 ft. Built by Virginia Electric and Power Company to generate hydroelectric power, the lake is also used for recreation. See also Lake Gaston. |
| Roanoke Rapids Township |
N Halifax County. |
| Roanoke River |
is formed in Montgomery County, Va., by the junction of North Fork and South Fork and flows SE into North Carolina in NE Warren County. It flows across a corner of Warren and along the Halifax-Northampton, Halifax-Bertie, Bertie-Martin, and Bertie-Washington county lines into Batchelor Bay of Albemarle Sound. The John H. Kerr Dam on Roanoke River in Virginia creates Kerr Lake, a part of which is in Granville, Vance, and Warren Counties. Appears as Morattico River on the Comberford map, 1657, and as Noratake River on the Ogilby map, 1671. The Moseley map, 1733, specifies Roanoke River. |
| Roanoke Sea |
See Albemarle Sound. |
| Roanoke Sound |
between Roanoke Island and the Outer Banks in E Dare County. Known in the eighteenth century as Sanderson's Channel for Richard Sanderson, local landowner. The name Walter Rawleigh appears there on the Collet map, 1770, though it is uncertain whether it was intended to represent the name of the sound. See also Albemarle Sound. |
| Roanoke Township |
E central Northampton County. |
| Roaring Branch |
rises in S Mitchell County and flows NW into Crabtree Creek. |
| Roaring Creek |
rises in W Avery County and flows S into North Toe River. |
