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 |
|---|---|
| Elk Ridge |
S Watauga County, extends NE between Dutch Creek and Clark Creek. |
| Elk Ridge |
extends S from Bluff Mountain in SW Ashe County. |
| Elk River |
rises in NE Avery County near Banner Elk and flows W into Tennessee, where it enters Watauga River. For most of its course, it flows in a deep gorge. |
| Elk River Falls |
in Elk River, NW Avery County, a drop of about 85 ft.; for the next 4 mi. downstream, there is a fall of about 100 ft. per mile. |
| Elk Shoal |
community in W Yancey County on Cane River. A nineteenth-century post office serving the community was named Wampler. |
| Elk Shoal Creek |
rises in W Yancey County and flows E into Cane River. |
| Elk Shoals |
former community in E Alexander County near headwaters of Elk Shoals Creek. Post office est. there in 1852 was discontinued in 1901 with postal service transferred to Stony Point. Named for shoals in creek at which elk crossed. |
| Elk Shoals Creek |
rises in N Catawba County and flows SE into Catawba River. |
| Elk Shoals Creek |
rises in SE Alexander County and flows S and SW into Catawba River. The name occurs in local records as early as 1760, and the stream is shown on Collet map, 1770. |
| Elk Spur |
central Avery County. |
