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

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Place Description
Roses Gap

NE Swain County between Thicket Branch and Roses Branch in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near lat. 35°39'34" N., long. 83°13'29" W.

Roseville

community in SW Person County served by post office, 1889-1906. Named for Duncan Rose, local Tory leader during the Revolutionary War.

Rosewood

community in W central Wayne County. Formerly known as Rose. Alt. 133.

Rosin Hill

community in N Sampson County on Sevenmile Swamp. Named for the fact that rosin was produced in the pine forests there.

Rosindale

community in SE Bladen County. Alt. 120. Settled in 1866 by George C. McDougald, who produced turpentine and rosin (from which the name was taken).

Roslin

community in S Cumberland County served by post office, 1869-1903. Alt. 179.

Rosman

town in S Transylvania County on French Broad River between its junction with East Fork and North Fork. Named by industrialist J. S. Silverstern, who compounded the word from the names of two associates, Rosenthal and Ormansky. Inc. 1901 as Toxaway; name changed to Estatoe in 1903 and to Rosman in 1905. A NASA satellite-tracking station was built nearby in 1962. Produces lumber. Alt. 2,188.

Ross Creek

rises in central Buncombe County near Patton Mountain and flows S into Swannanoa River. Named for an early settler. Often called Chunn Cove Creek.

Ross Falls

former waterfalls (8.1 ft. drop in a distance of 0.9 mi.) in Catawba River a short distance N of the South Carolina state line in SW Mecklenburg and SE Gaston Counties. The site is now under the waters of Lake Wylie.

Rosser

community in NE Lee County.