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Home > North Carolina
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North Carolina
The state of North Carolina positioned on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west and Georgia andSouth Carolina to the south. North Carolina contains 100 counties and its capital is Raleigh.
North Carolina was one of the original Thirteen Colonies, formerly known as Carolina. Joara, a native village near modern Morganton, was the place in 1567 of Fort San Juan, the first Spanish colonial settlement in the center of what became the United States. The state was also the home of the Roanoke Island colony, the first effort by the English to establish the existence of the Americas.
On May 20, 1861, North Carolina was the very last of the Confederate states to break away from the Union. It was re-established on July 4, 1868. The state was the site of the first successful powered, controlled and sustained heavy, manned flight, by the Wright brothers, at Kill Devil Hills close to Kitty Hawk in 1903. Today, it is a fast-growing state with an progressively more assorted population and economy. As of July 1, 2007, the population was projected to be 9,061,032. Identifying eight Native American tribes, North Carolina has the largest population of American Indians east of Mississippi.
North Carolina has a broad range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to about 6,700 feet (2,042 m) in the mountains. The climate ranges usually from the coastal Tidewater and Piedmont to the western mountains. The coastal plains are strongly subjective by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the state falls under the humid subtropical zone.
North Carolina is made up of three major geographic sections: the Appalachian Foothills and mountains; the Piedmont region, which is made up the middle 35%; and the coastal plain, which takes up the eastern 45% of the state. The extreme eastern section of the state includes the Outer Banks, a string of narrow, sandy islands which makes up a barrier between inland waterways and the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks is made up of two sounds— Pamlico Sound in the south and Albemarle Sound in the north. They are the two biggest landlocked sounds in the United States. Immediately domestic, the coastal plain is rather flat, with rich soils perfect for growing melons, soybeans, cotton, and tobacco. The coastal plain is North Carolina's most rural part, with few large cities or towns. Agriculture remains an significant industry. The major rivers of this section: the Cape Fear, Pamlico, Tar, and Neuse, tend to be quiet and spacious.
The coastal plain shifts to the Piedmont region alongside the "fall line", a line which identifies the elevation at which waterfalls first show on rivers and streams. The Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the state's most urbanized and heavily populated part. It consists of gently undulating countryside regularly broken by low mountain ridges or hills. A number of small, deeply eroded, and remote mountain peaks and ranges are found in the Piedmont, including the the Uwharrie Mountains, Pilot Mountain, Sauratown Mountains, Crowder's Mountain, the South Mountains, the Brushy Mountains, and King's Pinnacle. The Piedmont varies from about 300–400 feet (90–120 m) in elevation in the east to about 1,000 feet (300 m) in the west.
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