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 |
|---|---|
| Possumquarter Creek |
rises in W central Warren County and flows S into Fishing Creek. Probably named for Possum Quarter, the plantation of Governor Gabriel Johnston, mentioned in his 1751 will. Appears on the Price map, 1808, as Possum Creek. |
| Possumtown |
See Bethany. |
| Possumtrot |
community in W Yancey County on Possumtrot Creek. Named by an early settler who was riding down a trail on horseback when a lone opossum entered the path ahead of him and trotted along in front of the horse for some distance. |
| Possumtrot Creek |
rises in W Yancey County and flows NE into Bald Creek. |
| Post Oak |
See Blaine. |
| Postell |
community in W Cherokee County on Shoal Creek. Alt. 1,900. Named for Thomas Postell, an early settler. |
| Pot Branch |
rises in S McDowell County and flows SE into Rutherford County, where it enters Briar Creek. Erosion in rocks over which it flows has made potlike holes. |
| Pot Cove Gap |
on the Buncombe-McDowell county line near the headwaters of Flat Creek. |
| Potaskike River |
See North River. |
| Potato Branch |
rises in SW Buncombe County near Potato Gap and flows NW into South Turkey Creek. |
