North Carolina Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

Looking for North Carolina trivia? Try our list North Carolina little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—The state’s largest county in terms of land is Robeson County, which encompasses 949 square miles. The most populated is Mecklenburg County, with 695,454 residents, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

—David Hayes of Elkin (pop. 4,109) caught the state record channel catfish—21 pounds, 1 ounce—on a pink Barbie fishing pole last summer. Hayes was holding the pole while his granddaughter, Alyssa, took a break. The 32-inch-long catfish was 2 inches longer than the rod.

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—Shivani Sud, a senior at Jordan High School in Durham, won top honors and a $100,000 scholarship in the Intel Science Talent Search in March for a project on colon cancer.

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—Joey and Erin Maynard of Winston-Salem are parents of the biggest twins to be born in the state and among the heftiest on record anywhere. Sean William and his sister, Abigail Rose, tipped the scale at 23 pounds in June. Sean weighed 10 pounds, 14 ounces, and Abigail weighed 12 pounds, 3 ounces.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—The state’s official Christmas tree is the Fraser fir, adopted in 2005. The firs, which are native to the Appalachian Mountains, can grow to 80 feet in height and have trunks as large as 18 inches in diameter.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—Jean Beasley of Top- sail Beach (pop. 471) was named 2007 Hero of the Year by Animal Planet for her work as founder and director of The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. The center releases 12 to 20 sea turtles each year after nursing them back to health.

first appeared: 10/19/2008

—The 892-acre Bear Island, part of Hammocks Beach State Park, in the state’s southeastern region can be reached only by private boat or passenger ferry, and is home to forests, broad salt marshes and pristine beaches.

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—The northernmost habitat for the American alligator is the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County (pop. 29,967) and Hyde County (pop. 5,826).

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—An underwater bicycle race is held each July 4 at the USS Indra wreckage near Beaufort (pop. 3,771). Contestants wearing scuba gear pedal or kick their way to the finish line. Spectators watch by charter boat, or by snorkeling or scuba diving.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—The James K. Polk State Historic Site in Pineville (pop. 3,449) is the birthplace of the 11th U.S. president. Log buildings and furnishings similar to those on the Polk homestead, where Polk was born in 1795, have been reconstructed, and the visitor center features films and exhibits about Polk’s life.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—The first Christian religious service on record in Carolina Colony was a Quaker service held in 1672 in Perquimans County (pop. 11,368) and presided over by George Fox and William Edmundson. A stone marker commemorates the site.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in Charlotte does more than lend books. It creates them through its own publishing house, Novello Festival Press, the nation’s only public library- sponsored literary publisher.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—The cornerstone was laid in 1793 for Old East, the first building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (pop. 48,715) and the oldest state university building in the nation.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—Hundreds of gourds from around the world, from miniature gourds the size of robins’ eggs to giant dipper gourds as tall as humans, are displayed at the Marvin and Mary Johnson Gourd Museum in Angier (pop. 3,419).

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—The world’s best bricklayer is Garrett Hood, a mason for McGee Brothers Co. in Monroe (pop. 26,228), who laid 791 bricks in 60 minutes to win the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 National bricklaying competition in January in Las Vegas. Hood won a 2008 Ford truck, $5,000 and other prizes for his feat.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—The dome in the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville has a clear span measuring 58 feet by 82 feet, and is believed to be the largest freestanding elliptical dome in North America

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—Rameses, a live ram, is the football team’s mascot at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (pop. 48,715). The ram was chosen to represent the team in 1924 to honor popular fullback Jack Merritt, who was nicknamed the “battering ram.”

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—The nation’s largest privately owned department store company is Belk Inc., based in Charlotte, with more than 300 stores in 16 Southern states. Belk was founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe (pop. 26,228) and continues to operate under the third generation of Belk family leadership.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—The highest point along the Blue Ridge Parkway is Richland Balsam Overlook, elevation 6,047 feet, near Waynesville (pop. 9,232) on the 469-mile scenic mountain drive from Rockfish Gap, Va., to Cherokee (pop. 24,298).

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—For three consecutive years, Site Selection magazine has ranked the state No. 1 for “best business climate.” Rankings are based in part on a survey of corporate site-selection executives and new plant activity. North Carolina was followed on the 2007 list by Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

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