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
Tips for Searching the Gazetteer

"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
Paynes Tavern

community in S Person County near North Flat River. Cornwallis spent a night there in 1781 during the Revolutionary War. The tavern has long since ceased to exist.
Pea Branch

rises in E Pitt County and flows E into Tranters Creek.
Pea Hill Creek

rises in S Virginia and flows S into Northampton County, where it enters Roanoke River. Appears on the map of the North Carolina-Virginia line run by William Byrd and others, 1728.
Pea Island

part of the Outer Banks in E Dare County. Once a separate island, but now part of Hatteras Island, bounded on the N by Oregon Inlet and on the S by Hatteras Island. Also known as Chicamacomico Banks, which see.
Pea Island National Waterfowl Refuge

a national wildlife refuge covering all of Pea Island and the N end of Hatteras Island to Rodanthe, E Dare County. Federally funded in 1938 as a winter preserve for migratory birds. Formerly known as Pea Island Migratory Waterfowl Refuge.
Pea Landing

See Calabash.
Pea Ridge

elevated sandy area in N Washington County on Albemarle Sound extending NE from Leonards Point.
Peace

community in SW Wake County.
Peach

community in N Perquimans County.
Peach Bottom Mountains

a range of high, grass-covered mountains extending across most of Alleghany County from SW to N central. Among the named peaks are Cheek, Fender, and Doughton Mountains and Bald Knob.