CHAPTER 1 THE TAR HEEL STATE Sports fans in North Carolina have all the fun Between the two Carolinas North Carolina is the one that’s home to the area’s major league teams And the fun doesn’t end there North Carolinians also have plenty to cheer for when it comes to college sports racing and more With an area of approximately 49,000 square miles 127,000 sq km North Carolina is not one of the largest states It barely ranks in the top 30 A snarling panther defends Carolina’s home field in Charlotte 5
But contained in that land area are a wide variety of landscapes From the Appalachian Mountains in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the rolling hilly land called the Piedmont in between North Carolina has it all American Indians were the first people to live in what is now North Carolina The first tribes settled the area at least 10,000 years ago Eventually more than 30 tribes made their homes there They included the Cherokee Croatan Pamlico and many others Explorers from Europe first arrived in the 1500s European settlers built a village at Roanoke Island in 1585 More settlers came in the 1600s They pushed many native tribes off their land often through violence In 1663 the settlers established the British colony of Carolina The northern and southern 6
Lighthouses dot the North Carolina coast The one at Cape Hatteras is the tallest at 198 feet 60 m parts of the colony developed different industries and cultures The colony officially separated into North and South Carolina in 1712 In time North Carolina became famous for its production of barrels of tar pitch and turpentine 7
