NCNorth Carolina Fun Facts

North Carolina and Ohio have been arguing on their license plates for decades. North Carolina prints First in Flight because the Wright brothers got off the ground at Kill Devil Hills. Ohio prints Birthplace of Aviation because they built the machine in Dayton. Both claims are accurate.

Facts most people get wrong

• The Wright brothers were not North Carolinians. Wilbur and Orville ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, and came to the Outer Banks for steady wind and soft sand.
• Raleigh is the capital, Charlotte is the big city. Charlotte is also the second largest banking center in the United States after New York.
• Tar Heel is not a battlefield insult. The name traces to naval stores: colonial and 19th century North Carolina led the world in tar, pitch and turpentine boiled out of longleaf pine. The stories about sticky heels came afterward.
• There is no single North Carolina barbecue. Eastern style cooks the whole hog with vinegar and pepper. Lexington style, from the Piedmont, uses only the shoulder and adds tomato. Ordering the wrong one in the wrong county is a real social error.
• Mountain Dew is not from here, but Pepsi is. Pharmacist Caleb Bradham mixed it in New Bern in 1893, sold it as Brad's Drink, and renamed it Pepsi-Cola in 1898. Mountain Dew was created in Tennessee.

Records and firsts

• The first powered airplane flight lifted off at Kill Devil Hills on December 17, 1903. It lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet, less than the wingspan of a modern airliner.
• North Carolina grows roughly 60 percent of the nation's sweet potatoes and led the country in tobacco for generations.
• The Halifax Resolves of April 12, 1776 were the first formal call by any colony for independence from Britain. The date is printed on the state flag.
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened to students in 1795, the first state university in the country to do so.
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States at about 200 feet. In 1999 engineers picked it up and moved it 2,900 feet inland to save it from the surf.

Geography that surprises

• Mount Mitchell rises 6,684 feet, the highest point anywhere in the United States east of the Mississippi, taller than anything in New England or New York.
• The state runs about 500 miles from the barrier islands to the Tennessee line, so Charlotte is closer to Atlanta, roughly 245 miles, than to its own Outer Banks.
• The Outer Banks push far into the Atlantic where the Gulf Stream meets colder northern water. The shoals off Cape Hatteras have swallowed more than a thousand documented ships, hence Graveyard of the Atlantic.
• North Carolina touches four states, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, and sits entirely in the Eastern time zone.

Where the name comes from

Carolina is Carolus, the Latin form of Charles. Charles I granted the territory to Sir Robert Heath in 1629 and named it after himself. That grant lapsed, and in 1663 his son Charles II reissued the charter to eight Lords Proprietors, who kept the name for the second Charles. The province was too long to govern from one seat, so it took separate governors around 1712 and was formally split in 1729 when the Crown bought the proprietors out. The Tar Heel nickname has no royal connection at all. It came from pine tar.

Quick stats

• Capital: Raleigh · Largest city: Charlotte
• Admitted: November 21, 1789, the 12th state
• Area rank: 28th of 50 · Time zone: Eastern · Nickname: Tar Heel State
• Motto: Esse quam videri, Latin for "to be, rather than to seem"
• Bird: northern cardinal · Flower: dogwood · Tree: pine

Common questions

What is North Carolina known for?

The first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills in 1903, whole-hog barbecue, sweet potatoes at roughly 60 percent of the national crop, Charlotte banking, the Outer Banks, and college basketball.

Why is North Carolina called the Tar Heel State?

The state led the world in tar, pitch and turpentine boiled from longleaf pine, and workers went home with tar on their feet. The Civil War stories about soldiers sticking to their ground came later.

What is the difference between Eastern and Lexington barbecue?

Eastern North Carolina cooks the whole hog and sauces it with vinegar and red pepper. Lexington or Piedmont style cooks only the pork shoulder and adds tomato to the vinegar base.

Where did the Wright brothers actually fly?

At Kill Devil Hills, a few miles south of Kitty Hawk village, on December 17, 1903. The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. The brothers lived and built in Dayton, Ohio.

What is the highest mountain in North Carolina?

Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, also the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

Bordering states

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