50@50 – New Bern, NC
The history of coastal North Carolina has been “shaped by the push and pull of the sea”.[*] Native Americans have occupied the Carolinas for roughly 12,000 years. Abundance brought them here and about 2500 years ago, they developed permanent settlements morphing into an agrarian society with primarily wooden houses. The work of explorer and surveyor John Lawson contributed significantly to our understanding of resources and daily lives of the indigenous communities.[†]
Abundance also brought the Europeans here. The warmer climate provided a growing season far longer than most of northern Europe. The Neuse River, named for the Neusoik tribe, is a wide navigable river, a natural inland port, thus critical to the colonization and development of New Bern in 1710. Under ground, lies one of the largest aquifers in the world, providing colonists with seemingly endless fresh drinking water. Founded by Swiss and Germans, the British soon seized control of the region’s fertile land, diverse forests and rich estuaries, establishing New Bern as the royal capital of North Carolina.[‡] After having built the finest state house in the colonies in 1770, the strength of patriot sentiment forced the royal governor to flee in 1775.
Tryon Palace hosts an annual Christmas Candlelight celebration complete with period music and dancing, including festivities from the African celebration of Jonkonnu practiced by slaves beginning about 1800. “I think to really interpret history you have to look for [things relevant to] all the people living in the area.”[§] Meticulous research was conducted to make the rebuilt state house, furnishings, attire, and character assumptions as authentic as possible. Eighty-five percent of the book titles in the palace were actually owned by Governor Tryon in 1770. North Carolina today enjoys a reputation of strong arts communities from its diverse cultural heritage, including the traditions of the state’s eight recognized tribes whose ancestors celebrated the events and the experience of the world around them in music, dance and pottery.
The next morning, I headed into the Croatan National Forest to get a better idea of the local environment and geography that early settlers may have encountered 200-300 years ago. Bordered by the sea and tidal rivers on its east and west flank, the forest is defined by water. The only large coastal forest in the east, its topography includes bogs, raised swamps called pocosins, and saltwater inlets. Large portions of this forest remain wilderness areas, but several short trails are found along its edges. I chose a portion of the Newsoik Trail which meanders 21 miles south from the Neuse River at Highway 306. On this crisp December day, neither waterproof gear nor bug spray was necessary.
Near the river, this forest was quite dense with tall pines and skinny hardwoods, and a wide diversity of bushes. Reportedly, carnivorous plants including the Venus fly-trap and make their home here. The trail is well marked, but narrow and winding. Leaves, needles and debris that looked like reeds or grasses covered the surfaces of the trail and tree roots. Seasonal runoff streams can look deceptively like trail turnoffs, and I found myself retracing my steps a couple of times. People new to hiking may choose another trail. My briefest experience confirmed the information in the regional museum that the ebb and flow of the water shapes the geography –ultimately shaping the interaction of people with the landscape.
Locals tell me this area is a great place to grow up. On my last day, a guy told me how he went off to Raleigh for college, but this place beckoned him back. He recommended traveling to Ocracoke Island[**], just a ferry ride from the mouth of the Neuse River in Pamlico Sound. Lives there truly ebb and flow like the tides, he said; they even have a different dialect!
We all live and adapt to our own environment, the particulars of which are so ingrained, we don’t even notice until we go somewhere else. Tide charts are completely foreign to me – as are marshes, and swamp bays. But to those who live along the coast of the Carolinas, they’re as natural to their lives as sunrises and sunsets.