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

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Place Description
Bear Creek Lake

central Jackson County on Tuckasegee River. Formed in 1954 as a reservoir for Nantahala Power and Light Company. Covers 476 acres, with a max. depth of 195 ft. Shoreline is 13.5 mi. Used for generating hydroelectric power. Named for Bear Creek, which feeds it. Also receives the waters of Sols, Flat, and Robinson Creeks. Known for bass and trout fishing. Alt. 2,560.

Bear Creek Township

SW Chatham County.

Bear Gap

S Yancey County between Blue Sea Creek and Beech Nursery Creek.

Bear Grass Creek

rises in central Craven County and flows S into Trent River S of New Bern.

Bear Inlet

SE Onslow County, through which Brown's Sound drains into the Atlantic Ocean. Mentioned in local records as early as 1713 and appears on the Moseley map, 1733. Following the Spanish alarm of 1747, Bear Inlet Fort was constructed there.

Bear Island

a sand island in the W section of Angola Bay, N Pender County.

Bear Knob

on the Cherokee-Graham county line.

Bear Marsh Branch

rises in NW Duplin County and flows SW into Merritt Mill Pond and Goshen Swamp.

Bear Mountain

S Jackson County between Doubletop Mountain and Glassy Rock Creek. Alt. 4,650.

Bear Pen Branch

rises in N Transylvania County and flows NE into South Fork Mills River.