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 |
|---|---|
| Cheoah |
community in E central Graham County on Sweetwater Creek. Alt. 2,300. Named for the Indian word tsiyahi or cheeohwa, meaning "otter." |
| Cheoah Bald |
on the Graham-Swain county line between Bellcollar Gap and Sassafras Gap. Alt. 5,062. |
| Cheoah Branch |
rises in NW Swain County and flows SW into Fontana Lake. |
| Cheoah Mountains |
extend across central Graham County E in an arc from the headwaters of Gladdens Creek to the headwaters of Sawyer Creek. |
| Cheoah River |
is formed in central Graham County by the junction of Sweetwater and Tulula Creeks. It flows NW into Little Tennessee River at Cheoah Dam. Santeetlah Lake is on Cheoah River. |
| Cheoah Township |
S Graham County. See also Qualla Boundary. |
| Cheoah Valley |
See Robbinsville. |
| Chepanuu |
two Indian villages of the Weapemeoc tribe shown on the De Bry map, 1590, in what is now SW Pasquotank County on the Little River estuary. |
| Cheraw |
community in central Caldwell County, named for the Cheraw (or Saura) Indians that formerly roamed the area. |
| Cherokee |
town in E Swain County on Oconaluftee River that is the governmental and spiritual center of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Alt. 1,955. The name probably is from the Muskogee Indian word tciloki, meaning "people of a different speech." The outdoor drama Unto These Hills, written by Kermit Hunter, has been produced there each summer since 1950; the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the Oconaluftee Indian Village Living History Museum are also there. |
