65 Fascinating Facts About North Carolina

1) Esse Quam Videri--Bound by vain Virginians on our northern flank and smug South Carolinians on our southern one, we in North Carolina have never been accused of harboring the pretentious or pompous attitudes of our neighbors. Way back, in fact, one of our state's good people remarked that North Carolina was "a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit."

Our state motto says it best: To Be, Rather Than To Seem. We don't put on airs in North Carolina, never have. What you see is what you get. And what you get in North Carolina is a lot, not only from our people but also from all our state has to offer. Come with us as we explore the virtues of our great state.

[Note from reader: Pat Simmons, Director of the NCDOT Rail Division, tells me that it was Governor Zebulon B. Vance who told CSA President Jefferson Davis, when Davis was squeezing him for more troops to fight the war that South Carolinians got us into and Virginians fought with North Carolinians, that "North Carolina is a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit."

True or not, he's the only person I know who's actually attributed the quotation to someone . . . well, other than my mother, who told the story that it was Luther Hodges telling it at some economic development convention, where the Governors of Virginia and South Carolina stood up, each extolling their states' virtues and boring everyone to tears, and then Hodges, as my mother told it, stood up and, in his laconic way, announced that, "I'm Luther Hodges, Governor of North Carolina, the valley of humility between the two great mountains of conceit," and sat down. Pat's story might be more accurate, but I still like my Mom's version better.

Ben Cornelius Born and raised in Winston-Salem, where my great-great uncle Julius Mickey
(my mother's great uncle) built that 700-gallon coffee pot and placed it outside his tinsmith shop in 1850.]

2) Stately treasures. Not too long ago North Carolina license plates read "Variety Vacationland." That's a notion that's still with us, particularly if you're one who loves the outdoors. With our 37,000 miles of freshwater streams, our more than 200 waterfalls and our 301 miles of coastline, we're as close to the Garden of Eden as you can get.

3) Did someone say Eden? The good people of Eden, North Carolina, sure appreciate their area's natural beauty. The town was named, in fact, because of the Garden of Eden qualities of the nearby 20,000-acre estate of William Byrd (1674-1744).

4) They make quite a splash. Transylvania County's 411-foot-high Whitewater Falls are the highest on the East Coast.

5) Joyce Kilmer would have liked it here. Maybe it was because we Tar Heels lay claim to more species of trees (130 at last count) than all of Europe that we named a 3,800-acre forest after Joyce Kilmer, author of the poem, "Trees." We like trees in North Carolina. The first forestry school in the country was established in Transylvania County in 1898. Did we mention that our state has more than 1.2 million acres of national forests?

6) This man's home was his castle. With its 250 rooms, including 34 bedrooms and 43 bedrooms, Asheville's Biltmore House is America's largest privately owned home. It boasts a total of four acres of floor space or about 175,000 square feet. And you complain about your heating bill?

7) Palatial places. Over on the other end of the state, at New Bern, glorious Tryon Palace looks much as it did when it was home to two Royal governors back in the 1770s. And south of Wilmington, Orton Plantation, built around 1725, stands as a near perfect example of Southern ante-bellum architecture.

8) Watch your step. James Sprunt, who inherited Orton Plantation back in 1904, was interested in the Orient and even established a missionary school in China. That explains this sign on one curving bridge: "The Ancient Chinese believed that evil spirits followed them but could not turn. The crooked bridges forced the evil spirits to fall overboard and drown."

9) From Murphy to Manteo and beyond. North Carolina spans 560 miles, making it the longest state east of the Mississippi (elongated Florida stretches only 450 miles). Riding our predominately easterly winds, an ambitious crow might make landfall quicker in Bermuda, 600 miles east of Cape Hatteras, than in the western corners of the state. Of course, that crow would find more to do in North Carolina.

10) Hit the Road, Jack. Travelers who are limited to mechanized modes of transport will find plenty of roads to travel. With 78,000 miles of blacktop, the Tar Heel State has more paved roads than any other state. James Taylor must have found inspiration on a few miles of our roads when he wrote "Country Road." In his mind, at least, we know that the North Carolina native is going to Carolina. He's told us so in his songs.

11) Smooth Sailing? We find inspiration too, if not on portions of the 250 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway that run through our state, then perhaps along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Here, writes historian David Stick, "the northbound Gulf Stream swerves out to sea as it encounters the cold waters coming down from the Labrador Current. At the junction of the two is Diamond Shoals, the Graveyard of the Atlantic, a point of constant turbulence and of countless shipwrecks."

12) Reach for the sky. While ships collided on our Atlantic shores, planes took flight, the most famous, of course, belonging to Wilbur and Orville Wright. On December 17, 1903, after succeeding where many of the world's greatest scientists had failed, the two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, successfully launched the age of human flight from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, earning us the moniker, "First in Flight."

13) Along the Atlantic Ocean, North Carolinians find many firsts. After all, it is from the mighty Atlantic that our history got its start. But before our English forefathers settled along the Carolina coast, Spaniards and Italians sailed the offshore waters. The earliest recorded European visitor to our shores was Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano. In 1524, he led a French expedition that made landfall on the coast near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Hernando de Soto came here too and explored as far as the mountain region.

14) No beach barbecue. Verrazzano sent a boat out to procure water, but when the crewmen noticed a group of natives on the shore, they decided it prudent to send one of their men swimming out to greet the natives. The swimmer approached cautiously and tossed a few gifts to the natives, then eagerly attempted to turn back. The breakers got the best of him, though, and after an exhausting defeat, he crawled onto the beach and fell into the sand, as if dead. Watching from their boat, the crewmen saw their companion carried off by the natives.

Verrazzano accounts for the incident: "Our sailors in the boat, seeing a great fire made up and their companion placed very near it--full of fear, as is usual in all cases of novelty--imagined that the natives were about to roast him for food." They didn't. They were simply warming and reviving him. After the man recovered his strength, the natives "hugged him with great affection" and accompanied him to shore, watching him until he was safely back in the boat. The event on that beachhead may have been the origins of Southern hospitality.

15) Disappearing act. In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh sent an expedition to form the first English settlement in America. A month after the English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island, Virginia Dare became the first child of English parentage to be born in America. In the four centuries since her and the colony's disappearance, historians and archaeologists are still trying to solve the mystery of how 117 men, women and children vanished without a trace.

16) Dare we question author Richard Walser? He recounts the legend that Dare did not vanish but grew up into a beautiful young woman among the natives. But when she spurned an old tribal witch doctor's love for her, he turned her into a white doe. An admirer, chieftain Okisko, learned from an old magician that the only way to undo the curse was to pierce her heart with an arrow of oyster shell. But Wanchese, a rival admirer whose affections Dare had also spurned, was determined to kill the white doe with a silver arrow, which would bring certain death.

One day in the forest, both Okisko and Wanchese spotted the white doe at the same time. Their two arrows pierced the doe's heart. The white doe transformed back into the beautiful maiden, but she was dying. Okisko rushed to look into the eyes of his beloved Virginia Dare one last time. He buried her on Roanoke Island.

17) A Colony of Actors. Since its debut in 1937, "The Lost Colony" has served as the training ground for nearly 5,000 actors and technicians, many of whom have gone on to greater fame and fortune. Some of the names you may know: Andy Griffith, who played several roles, including Sir Walter Raleigh, from 1947 to 1953; comedian Chris Elliot, who performed here in 1979; and Broadway performer Terrance Mann, best known for his leading roles in "Cats" and "Beauty and the Beast."

18) Drive-in Drama. With a dozen outdoor dramas, North Carolina leads the nation in the number of outdoor dramas presented by a single state. The notion of outdoor drama was born in our state, beginning with "The Lost Colony," which debuted on July 4, 1937. At the other end of the state, "Unto These Hills" recounts the tale of the Cherokee, from the arrival of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1540 to the removal of the Cherokee to Oklahoma along the tragic Trail of Tears.

19) Two dangerous gals. While hurricane Donna destroyed "The Lost Colony's" Waterside Theatre in 1960, it was only a precursor for the tempest that blew through our state in 1954. Her name was Hazel, and she hit our coast at 150 mph. Hazel was the greatest natural disaster to ever affect North Carolina, according to Jay Barnes, author of North Carolina's Hurricane History.

20) A breezy year! North Carolinians have seen three decades of relatively few hurricane strikes, but Jay Barnes recalls that in the 1950s, eastern North Carolina became known as "hurricane alley," as six hurricanes hit the state within seven years. Hurricanes Hazel, Connie, Diane and Ione all made landfall within a 12-month period from October 1954 to September 1955.

21) They'll leave a light on for you. The hurricanes toppled none of the seven powerful beacons that have made our coast safer for ships that have passed in the last two centuries. North Carolina's lighthouses are one of our greatest treasures. Completed in 1870, the 198-foot-tall Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the country's tallest brick lighthouse. The original Hatteras lighthouse, completed in 1802, was topped by a ten-foot-high oil lantern. About 1,800 gallons of oil was stored in nine cedar cisterns.

22) Famous beacons. Oak Island Lighthouse boasts the nation's brightest beacon, while Ocracoke Lighthouse is the oldest working lighthouse in the state. The oldest North Carolina lighthouse still standing is "Old Baldy," built in 1818.

23) Did he see the light? A century before Old Baldy was constructed, Stede Bonnett, "a gentleman of good reputation in the island of Barbados," made a fateful decision. He became a pirate, a career move that had been "occasioned by some discomforts he found in a married state." Captured off Bald Head Island, Bonnett was just one of the notorious pirates who made landfall in North Carolina.

24) It's good to be the governor. The most famous pirate of all, Blackbeard made the Outer Banks his headquarters from which to raid coastal ships. The frightful corsair paid Governor Eden for safe mooring in Ocracoke, according to Nancy Roberts, who wrote North Carolina Ghosts & Legends. From plundered ships, barrels of sugar and rum were secretly transported to the governor's back door, a few miles away.

25) It's a good thing the capital wasn't in Raleigh. It would have been a long haul to the current governor's back door. Established in 1792 as the state's capital, Raleigh was named for Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1808, Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, was born here. In April 1865, some 60,000 Union troops were quartered in Raleigh when word came of President Lincoln's assassination. Torch-carrying troops, bent on revenge, headed downtown. General John Alexander Logan stopped the troops at gunpoint, thus saving Raleigh's downtown.

26) Raleigh Rates. Raleigh was ranked as one of five best places to raise kids in America (Child magazine May 1996); among the "50 Fabulous Places To Retire in America," (Career Press, January 1997); one of the 10 best places for "twentysomethings" to live, (Swing magazine, July 1996); and one of the five best places to balance work and family life (Fortune magazine, October 1996).

27) Colonizing North Carolina. The Tuscarora Indians lived in Raleigh before Europeans arrived. But they were driven out by colonists who found such settlements as Charleston and Jamestown too civilized for their tastes. The treacherous inlets of the Outer Banks and its shallow sounds had up until Colonial times discouraged efforts to settle North Carolina from overseas. It was 1705 before the oldest town in the state, Bath, was incorporated.

28) Sweetened or unsweetened? Once settled, North Carolinians wasted no time in asserting their disdain for England. Edenton-born Penelope Barker became one of the more outspoken critics of Great Britain. On October 25, 1774, she orchestrated the Edenton Tea Party, where 51 women met for a party but refused to drink tea. The group penned a letter that expressed dissatisfaction with Parliament's Tea Act of 1773. In Notable North Carolina Women, Jennifer Ravi, includes part of the petition: "We the ladyes of Edenton do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to ye pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea or that we, the aforesaid Ladyes, will not promote ye wear of any manufacture from England, until such time that all Acts which tend to enslave this our Native Country shall be repealed."

29) Some like it hot, we like it cold. Today, hardly anyone in North Carolina would refuse tea. Of course, nowadays we're more inclined to take ours in a glass, instead of a cup, and iced, instead of hot, and sweetened, of course, instead of plain. Penelope Barker would scarcely recognize the beverage that she protested against drinking.

30) Precursor to the vending machine. Nor would Penelope Barker recognize another of our favorite beverages. Concocted 100 years ago by a New Bern pharmacist, the beverage was intended to be a fountain drink that was delicious, aided digestion and boosted energy. Called "Brad's Drink," after pharmacist Caleb Bradham, the fountain drink later became known as Pepsi-Cola.

31) Pepsi and Pig. Nothing goes better with Pepsi than North Carolina barbecue. Of course, as Bob Garner notes in North Carolina Barbecue, few topics have inspired such intense debate as North Carolina barbecue. The New Yorker's Calvin Trillin wrote in his book, Alice, Let's Eat, of being "subjected to stern geographical probings" when he mentioned to former North Carolina residents that he had sampled barbecue in their home state.

32) When East Meets West. Rudyard Kipling may as well have been writing about divisions surrounding North Carolina barbecue when he penned the words, "Oh, East is East, West is West and never the twain shall meet." The BBQ debate is perhaps best characterized by the feuding between Jerry Bledsoe, who was with the Greensboro Daily News at the time, and Dennis Rogers of the News and Observer.

In a column, Bledsoe wrote: "In the East, you get all these little things in your mouth and wonder what the hell they are. They're ground up pork skin. That's the only way they have to give the meat any flavor." Rogers replied in his column: "When I am hankering for a big piece of dead hog meat, I like to follow the advice of my good friend Jerry Bledsoe and head west, where you find lots of it. For some reason, Jerry calls that barbecue." For the record, the barbecue capital of the state is Lexington, serving the western variation. Of course.

33) Seeing Eye To Eye. Apparently we North Carolinians are more divided on our barbecue than we were on whether to secede the union. Back in 1861, many North Carolinians voted against a convention to consider joining the newly formed Confederate States of America.

34) The Big Battle. Nonetheless, North Carolina joined the Confederacy. Some bloody battles were fought here. In the three days from March 19 to 21, 1865, some 2,600 Southerners and 1,600 Northerners were killed in the Battle of Bentonville.

35) You say Catawba, I say Chowanoc. North Carolina's Native American population in the 1600s is estimated at about 30,000, organized into about 30 tribes, of which the most important were the Hatteras, Tuscarora, Chowanoc, Catawba and Cherokee. Today, we have the largest population of Indians east of the Mississippi, about 70,000 Native Americans, organized into nine or more governments or corporations. The state's largest reservation belongs to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, who descend largely from 1,000 Cherokee who fled into the Great Smokies in 1838 when the Cherokee nation was forcibly moved to Oklahoma. Another strong Native American community is the Lumbee of Robeson County, with a population of about 34,500.

36) Smokin'. Tobacco growing has long been North Carolina's dominant and best-known agricultural activity. State farmers raise nearly 40 percent of the tobacco grown in the United States. More than half of the nation's cigarettes are made here. Inside the state, tobacco accounted for almost half of all crop sales and nearly one-fifth of total agricultural sales in the early 1990s. The high income from tobacco is a major reason why North Carolina ranked ninth among the states in farm income.

37) The most visited winery in the United States is at the Biltmore Estate. In all, our state has 11 wineries that take advantage of ideal conditions to grow a variety of grapes, including the native scuppernong. North Carolina enjoys about 210 days of sunshine a year.

38) This may not mean peanuts to you, but North Carolina is among the country's top producers of peanuts, pork and turkey.

39) Fresh from the garden. North Carolinians grow their share of string beans, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, squash, peppers, crowder peas, corn and butter beans. We've an abundance of plant varieties in our state. When French Botanist Andre Michaux visited our state more than 200 years ago, he found plants and roots that exist only here in the Appalachians, or only here and in Tibet, or only here and in China. Ginseng anyone?

40) Top Accolades. Writer Norman Crampton ranks Boone, Elizabeth City, Hendersonville and Mount Airy as four of The 100 Best Small Towns In America. Alfred Adams, chairman of First Union Bank, says Boone is "The Second Garden of Eden." He explains that the first Garden of Eden was thought to lie 40 miles from Damascus. Boone is located 40 miles from Damascus, Virginia. From the original Garden of Eden, there rose four rivers, flowing north, south, east and west. The same phenomenon occurs at Grandfather Mountain, just south of Boone. And at 3,333 feet, Boone residents are much closer to heaven than those who reside at sea level.

Mount Airy, on the other hand, holds the distinction of more than half of the world's production of electric toasters. Some 30,000 of the kitchen appliances roll off the assembly line every day. Mount Airy's other export was Andy Griffith, who grew up at 711 Haymore Street.

41) Speaking of Andy. North Carolina ranks only behind California in revenues derived from film production. From 1981 through 1995, 314 films were made in North Carolina. Boasting one of the most substantial industry infrastructures in the nation, North Carolina claims eight motion picture studio complexes with more than 1,000,000 square feet of stage space, two backlots, the world's largest Blue Screen, and more than 1,200 crew and technicians. The three most successful independently produced movies of all time--"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I and II (New Line Cinema) and "Dirty Dancing" (Vestron)--were all shot in North Carolina. Going back a ways, the script for "Ben Hur" was written by Lew Wallace at Chimney Rock's Esmeralda Inn. The play, later a popular movie, debuted on Broadway in 1899.

42) Say what? The country's oldest river is the New River. The New is also the world's second oldest and the only large river in the state with both its headwaters and mouth in the same county, Ashe. Does it seem as if we're talking in circles here?

43) Work, work, work. Back in 1813, North Carolina's first cotton mill was built near Lincolnton. Today, textiles are the top industry in the state, and North Carolina is the number-one textile manufacturer in the country. We Tar Heels also lead the nation in the production of wooden furniture. Fully 60 percent of the furniture manufactured in the country is made within a 200-mile radius of Hickory. Twice yearly, in April and October, buyers come to High Point from around the world to preview merchandise for the coming season. Our state also leads the nation in the manufacture of bricks.

44) Money, money, money. Home to a branch of the Federal Reserve, Charlotte ranks as the third largest banking center in the United States.

45) The Write Stuff. North Carolina has a long literary tradition. The Asheville area alone bore Thomas Wolfe, Charles Frazier, Fred Chappell, Gail Godwin, John Ehle and Wilma Dykeman. Carl Sandburg lived nearby and so did O'Henry. Henry James and Edith Wharton were frequent guests at George Vanderbilt's home, and F. Scott Fitzgerald spent much of his time at the Grove Park Inn in the 1930s. Last year, our state contributed three of the 20 contestants for the prestigious National Book Award. Charles Frazier walked away with the award in fiction for his best seller, Cold Mountain.

46) Yes, Cold Mountain is a real place, just west of Asheville. It can be spotted from the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Mt. Pisgah. The hike to the top is arduous and takes all day.

47) Smoke Signals. Heading south from Mt. Pisgah, you'll pass over the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 6,053 feet above sea level. Farther south is the entrance of the country's most-visited national park. "Place of Blue Smoke" was what the Cherokee called the Appalachian Highlands on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The forest here exudes water vapor and oily residues that create a smoke-like haze. A World Heritage Site, Great Smoky Mountain National Park boasts 1,520 flower species, 130 varieties of trees, 50 mammal species and 27 different kinds of salamanders. Nine million people visit the park each year.

48) Battle of the Giants. The only man we know of who owns a mountain, Hugh Morton once told us that a historian considered Grandfather Mountain to be the tallest mountain on the East Coast. Measuring from Grandfather's base to its peak, that historian may have been about right, because the mountain does climb quickly and dramatically. And it is the highest peak in the Blue Ridge range. To prove it, Morton once showed us a picture of the Charlotte skyline, 85 air miles away, photographed from the peak of Grandfather. Nonetheless, the distinction of being the highest mountain on the East Coast goes, of course, to Mt. Mitchell, about an hour's drive south. It juts 6,684 feet into the sky.

49) Games, Anyone? Each year, Grandfather Mountain plays hosts to the Highland Games. This year's event will be held July 9-12. More than 100 Scottish clans and societies sponsor this celebration of Scottish dance, music and athletics, known for its colorful parades and kilted pageantry. History tells us that Scottish Highlanders poured into North Carolina through the Cape Fear. Other Scotch-Irish settlers followed the great wagon road down from Pennsylvania, according to Bill Lee, author of the fine book, The Newcomer's Guide to North Carolina, Everything You Need To Know To Be A Tar Heel. These were Presbyterian Scots who had been encouraged by the British to emigrate to Ireland in the 1600s to dilute the strength of the Irish Catholics. They became too powerful and were encouraged to emigrate again, this time to America. We're glad they found their way to North Carolina.

50) Quakers, Moravians and Waldenses. German Protestants and Quakers took the same route south, establishing communities in the piedmont. The Germans established the communities of Wachovia, Bethabara, Bethania and Salem. The English Quakers established communities in the counties surrounding Guilford. Along about 1893, Italian Waldenses, a sect of dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church that arose in 1170 in Southern France, established a congregation in Valdese, Italian for "Valley of our Lord."

51) Dear Abbey. The first abbey cathedral constructed in the Western Hemisphere was Belmont Abbey, located in Belmont and established by papal edict in 1910.

52) Now That's A Big 'Un. In the early Moravian community of Salem, two brothers who operated a tin shop erected "the world's largest coffeepot" in 1858 as an identifying symbol of their shop. The coffeepot, which measured 16 feet in circumference and was 12 feet tall, is now located on the north side of Old Salem.

53) Have a seat please. Thanks to Jerry Bledsoe's North Carolina Curiosities, we've identified another large item: the world's largest Duncan Phyfe chair in Thomasville. It rises 18 feet above its base and has seated President Lyndon B. Johnson as well as several Miss Americas.

54) Number-one Evangelist. Born in Charlotte, Evangelist Billy Graham has preached the gospel to more than 210 million people in 185 countries. He is said to have personally spoken to more people than anyone in history. Millions have read his best-selling books; presidents and heads of state have sought his counsel. Readers of Our State voted him North Carolina's most-admired man. The Gallup Poll has cited him as one of the Ten Most Admired Men in the World 37 times (a record) since 1955. He was awarded the North Carolina Pubic Service Award in 1986 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1996.

55) Birthplace of Golf. With its more than 500 courses, North Carolina is known as the birthplace of American golf. In June 1999, the U.S. Open Golf Tournament will be held here at one of the country's most prestigious resorts, Pinehurst.

56) What's in a name? North Carolina takes its name from the Latin, "Carolus," in honor of King Charles I of England.

57) Supporting the Arts. Winston-Salem is distinguished by one of the highest rate of per-capita contributions to the arts in the nation. It is home to the North Carolina School of the Arts and Reynolda House Museum or American Art. Built as tobacco magnate Richard Joshua Reynolds' country home, the 100-room estate now features masterpieces of American Art by such artists as Georgia O'Keefe, Thomas Hart Benton and Horace Pippen.

58) Flight of the Butterfly. This fall, Durham opens the nation's first interactive Butterfly House and Insectarium. As part of the Museum of Life and Science expansion, the new 20,000-square-foot, three-story building will feature more than 1,000 butterflies in free flight.

59) Letting Off Steam. The Spencer Shops, in the town of Spencer just north of Salisbury, were once part of the largest steam locomotive servicing station operated by Southern Railway. Built in 1896 and now known as the North Carolina Transportation Museum at Historic Spencer Shops, the site features exhibits on the development of various modes of transport. Here, you can see an old roundhouse and ride a steam locomotive.

60) There's gold in them thar hills. The largest recorded gold nugget taken from Reed Mine in Cabarrus County weighed in at a hefty 28 pounds. The world's rarest gem, by the way, is found in Alexander County. It's called Hiddenite. The nation's first silver mine was opened in 1833, about 10 miles from Lexington.

61) Sky High. At an elevation of 5,505 feet, Beech Mountain claims to be the highest incorporated community east of the Rockies.

62) Animals and Insects. Our state bird is the regal Cardinal; state shell, the Scotch Bonnet; state fish, the Channel Bass; state insect, the honey bee; state reptile, the Box Turtle; and our state mammal is the Gray Squirrel. Why we even have a state dog, the Plott Hound.

63) Charlotte and Professional Sports. The hottest team in Charlotte is the Carolina Panthers. As one of the best teams in the National Football League after starting play in 1995, the team plays its home games in Ericsson Stadium, widely regarded as the best facilities in the NFL. In other sporting news, NASCAR visits Charlotte Motor Speedway twice a year, in late May and early October, at its 1.5-mile track. The Charlotte Hornets made the city major league back in 1988 when the National Basketball Association awarded George Shinn an expansion franchise. Last year, the Hornets had their best season ever, with 54 wins.

64) Bragging rights. With Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base nearby, Fayetteville not only boasts important military establishments but also the first miniature golf course in the country. It was also here that Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run on March 7, 1914, at Cape Fear Fairgrounds.

65) The common man's laureate. Of him, Norman Corwin wrote: "He never took a speech lesson. He never studied journalism. He never feasted on praise. He never sought to charm any more than Einstein needed to look smart. He didn't think he was handsome ('You don't have to be . . . just as long as you don't force people to cover their eyes when you get in front of a camera'), yet he had a face that improved the environment and a smile that could cure leprosy." He had "a lot of Ed Murrow (a Greensboro native) in him, which means guts and integrity; he had Sevareid's talent for inquiry and probity . . . " He embodied our state motto, To Be, Rather Than To Seem, and he wrote the words to "North Carolina Is My Home," which it was and will be forever more. As if you didn't already know, his name was Charles Kuralt. Thanks for journeying with us through our state.

FILLER-- Notable North Carolina Women. In her book, writer Jennifer Ravi lists Annie Lowrie Alexander, the first woman to practice medicine in the South; Maya Angelou, who gained international acclaim for writing on the black experience; Penelope Barker, who refused to drink tea; Frances Bavier, who we know as Aunt Bee, who retired and is buried in Siler City; Anne Bonney, the pirate; Charlotte Hawkins Brown, who established the Alice Freeman Palmer Institute in Sedalia; Lillian Exum Clement, the first woman to be elected to the N.C. legislature; Virginia Dare; Susan Dimock, the first woman from North Carolina to practice medicine; Dorothea Dix, who lobbied for the establishment of separate hospitals for the mentally ill; Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Secretary of Transportation in 1983; Gertrude B Elion, Nobel prize winner for medicine in 1983; Donna Fargo, the "Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A."; singer, pianist and songwriter Roberta Flack; Inglis Fletcher, who chronicled 200 years of North Carolina history; actress Ava Gardner; singer and actress Kathryn Grayson; Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, the first black president of the National Education Association; Flora McDonald, a Scot who gained famed by aiding the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746; Dolley Payne Madison, wife of President James Madison; Shannon Ravenel, editorial director for Algonquin Books; Susie Marshall Sharp, the first woman in U.S. history to be elected to head a state judicial system; singer and pianist Nina Simone; Mary Martin Sloop, a physician who worked in a difficult rural area, Avery County; Kate Smith, radio personality renowned for her rendition of "God Bless America"; writer Lee Smith; Frances Fisher Tiernan, best known by her pen name, Christian Reid; Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Anne Tyler; Elizabeth Valk, publisher of Time magazine; Maggie Axe Wachacha, a Cherokee healer and clerk; and Anne McNeill Whistler, whose son, James, became one of the greatest American 19th century painters.