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 |
|---|---|
| Croatan Township |
central Dare County on the mainland. |
| Croatoan Island |
a name applied by John White on his map of 1585 to the S portion of Hatteras Island (Dare County) and a portion of Ocracoke Island (Hyde County). Hatteras Inlet, now dividing this portion of the Outer Banks into two islands, was opened in 1846. Ralph Lane, governor of the first Roanoke colony, named the island "My Lord Admirals Iland" in honor of Lord Howard of Effingham, created Lord High Admiral in 1585. By 1657 Comberford showed the island as "Chowanoke." Smith, in 1624, had called it Abbots Island. The name Croatoan was derived from the Indian village that was on the present Cape Hatteras (Kro-otän [talk town], indicating the chief's residence.) See also Portsmouth Island. |
| Croft |
community in N Mecklenburg County. A post office there, Alexandriana, was est. in the home of Joseph McKnitt Alexander in 1804 and continued until 1886. By 1896 the name Croft was in use. Long served by only filling station in N Mecklenburg County. |
| Cromartie |
community in central Robeson County served by post office, 1892-1917. |
| Cromarties Bridge |
See Hickory Grove Crossroads. |
| Cromartys Ferry |
See Hickory Grove Crossroads. |
| Cromwell Canal |
a stream, rises in S Edgecombe County and flows SW into Tar River. |
| Cronly |
See Acme. |
| Crooked Branch |
rises in S Richmond County and flows S into South Carolina, where it enters Lightwood Knot Creek. |
| Crooked Creek |
rises in N Stokes County and flows NE into Virginia, where it enters Mayo River. |
