Nostalgic North Carolina

We’ve spent the last week in the coastal plains area of North Carolina. This is primarily a farming community that continues to pay homage to the past in some fascinating ways we have never seen up to now.

As we drive around the area of Bear Grass, NC., where we are camped, we find ourselves on roads with names belonging to the people that settled this area decades and even centuries ago. Jack Roberson road, Everetts Road, Eds Grocery road, Toba Bowen road, etc. This area of North Carolina honors those that have gone before them and made it what it is today, like no other place we’ve seen.

Driving by the fields full of corn, cotton or peanuts, you will often times see small graveyards right in the middle of the crops. North Carolina allows you to be buried on the land you farmed and owned way back when and we find it remarkable, with headstones dating back to the early 1800’s, these small family graveyards are still maintained today. It truly is an area that pays tribute to those before them, each and every day.

Not only are those that settled the area still here and buried beneath their land, often times you’ll also find their original homes still here. No longer in use and not easy to spot, but here still. We came across one field close by us that is still actively farmed. A brand-new crop of peanuts had just been planted. (We were careful to step over the perfect rows of plants!)

Knowing my penchant for finding trees and plants we haven’t seen before, we walked around a small copse of trees and low and behold, the remnants of two homesteads long gone, were hiding in plain sight. We tried to research why these are still here and haven’t been torn down and found nothing regarding this tradition. Finally, we just asked some local people and the primary response was that it was mom and dad’s place, or our grandparents place, and we left it as a tribute to them. The ones that are overgrown as the pictures above show, the family may have moved out of the area, or the family has all passed on and they haven’t been cleaned up because they are still part of the history. Nostalgia is at the core of what we’ve found in North Carolina.

Williamsburg, North Carolina

The closest town to us is Williamsburg, North Carolina. It’s on the Roanoke River, or better known as the river of death! Eeeeek! Actually, it was known as the river of death because of the spring flooding that happened each year and is now controlled through the use of dams. Not so deadly anymore, thank goodness.

Williamsburg dates back to 1832 and while it appears they are working to try and leverage their small historical district, you’ll mostly find the stores and supplies you would need to run a farm, vs. a thriving tourist destination. What they do have is wonderful access to the Roanoke River and its many camping platforms. We had never heard of camping platforms and were fascinated that these exist.

The other little piece of history we discovered, is there was a WWII prisoner of war camp in Williamsburg, NC. There’s nothing left of it today, but when it was up and running, it looked fairly large.

Our research of the camp gave us the positive aspects of how the POW’s were treated within the farming community, rather than negative. History is history, so I’ll leave it to you to read about it more fully and determine for yourselves. This is the first POW camp we have seen in the US and were surprised it was in this small town in North Carolina. We just never know what we’ll see as we travel around.

World War II prisoner of war camp, Williamston, N.C. – ECU Digital Collections

Washington, North Carolina

Our last excursion was to Washington, North Carolina. It’s located at the junction of the Pamlico and Tar rivers and is the gateway to the largest estuary on the east coast. Washington was a federal supply outpost during the revolutionary war and has twice been rebuilt.

Washington has a lovely walk along the river and they have done a fabulous job of building out their historical district with shops and restaurants. Fishing and sailing are mainstays of the area outside of agriculture.

While we were in Washington, we stopped in at one of the many shops, and learned that Bath, NC is just 15 minutes down the road. Did you know Blackbeard lived there and used it as one of his many ports just before he was killed? How could we not go there and learn about Blackbeard the pirate? As an FYI – there is not much in Bath, NC. Lots of really nice homes built right up to the river, a small cafe and a couple of buildings that they consider historical. We suggest giving Bath, NC a miss if you are visiting the area and stick with Washington, NC instead.

Tomorrow, we hit the road again. We are headed north through Virginia and then onto West Virginia for a week. We will once again be doing some mountainous travel and while Dave appears to have a little angst not knowing what we will be driving into, we are both excited to continue our journey north to Maine. We are still absolutely, loving this lifestyle.

See ya on the road,

Dave and Theresa