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 |
|---|---|
| Kill Devil Hill |
large sand hill, E Dare County, appears first on Price map, 1808. It was from Kill Devil Hill in 1903 that the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered airplane flight. Site of 60-foot-tall monument honoring the achievement. |
| Kill Devil Hills |
town on N Bodie Island, E Dare County. Inc. 1953. There are numerous legends concerning the origin of the name, but among the earliest was one recorded in 1728 by William Byrd of Virginia. He reported that rum consumed in that part of Carolina was shipped from New England and was of such strength that a saying arose: "That thar rum is powerful enough to kill the devil." Alt. 11. |
| Kill Devil Hills Coast Guard Station |
on N Bodie Island in E Dare County. First est. as a life-saving station in 1878-79. Life-saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service joined to form U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. |
| Kill Quick |
See Quick. |
| Kill Swamp |
rises in N Sampson County and flows SW into Great Coharie Creek. |
| Kill'em Swamp |
rises in SE Hertford County and flows NW into Chinkapin Creek. |
| Killets Creek |
rises in central Moore County and flows N into McLendons Creek. Named for William Killet, who settled in the area about 1766. |
| Killian Branch |
rises near Killian Knob in central Buncombe County and flows SE into Beaverdam Creek. Probably named for Daniel Killian, friend and host of Bishop Francis Asbury in his travels, 1803. |
| Killian Knob |
central Buncombe County near Gooch Peak N of Asheville. |
| Killians Creek |
rises in S Catawba County and flows S through E Lincoln County and into NE Gaston County, where it joins Leepers Creek in forming Dutchmans Creek. Appears as Killings Creek on the Collet map, 1770. |
