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.

Preface to the 2nd edition
Preface to the 1st edition
Acknowledgments
Tips for Searching the Gazetteer

"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

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Place Description
Mashawatoc

See Mashoes.
Mashburn Branch

rises in S Macon County and flows N into Cullasaja River.
Mashoes

community on the NE shore of the mainland of Dare County on Albemarle Sound. Legend relates that it is named for Peter Michieux or Mashows who, with his family, was shipwrecked on a nearby beach in the eighteenth century. He was washed ashore with his wife and child clinging to him. When he regained consciousness, he found both were dead. The shock of the experience shattered his reason, and 20 years later he sat with his back to a cypress tree and died. His skeleton and a board on which he had rudely carved the account of his tragic experience were discovered years later. The name, in spite of the legend, may be of Indian origin; John White's map, 1585, shows an Indian village named Mashawatoc on the E Virginia shore.
Mason Bay

N Pamlico County, in Bay River.
Mason Branch

rises in central Cherokee County near Mason Knob and flows SE into Valley River.
Mason Creek

rises in W central Transylvania County and flows SE into Cherryfield Creek.
Mason Inlet

NE New Hanover County between Moore Inlet on the S and Rich Inlet on the n. The waters of Topsail Sound enter the Atlantic Ocean through the inlet. Appears as Barren Inlet on the Moseley map, 1733, and on other maps as late as 1909; and as Queen Inlet during the period 1906-36.
Mason Knob

N Cherokee County.
Mason Mountain

E Macon County between Lyle Knob and Fed Gap.
Masonboro

community in E New Hanover County on Masonboro Sound. Appears on the Collet map, 1770. Named because members of the order of Masons in the late eighteenth century built houses there. A popular resort in the early and middle nineteenth century.