An Interpretive History of the Lower Deep River Region, NC
Deep River History
For me, it all starts in the Deep. An ironically shallow river, winding through central North Carolina.
I grew up on the Deep, in the once-community-now-road of Cumnock. This former mining village is now a sleepy little sitting in a bend on the river. Other communities like Gulf, Carbonation, Lockville, and Moncure carry the same fate. This page introduces the region, and at the end, one can find additional information about the navigation and mining heritage in the region. This work is fluid – through the support of the Heart of Deep River Historical Society, it is my hope that all visitors to this site can leave with some new information and a desire to ask what’s “beneath the Deep.”
The Deep’s banks hold the stories of people lost to time, Europeans settled in the region as early as 1750, some coming from the east – by way of the Cape Fear River, some from the Northwest by way of the Haw and New Hope Rivers.
Little is known of the native communities who lived on these lands prior to European settlement, but pieces of their story would come to the surface throughout the following centuries.
The interest in the Deep River continues to grow. In 2007, the North Carolina General Assembly approved the creation of the Deep River State Trail, a planned route of both water and land based access points that would encourage recreation through the heart of North Carolina.
This project focuses on the Lower Deep River Region, the lower section of the river before it meets the Haw and creates the Cape Fear River.
Over the course of 30 river miles, from Carbonton, NC, and the confluence of the Deep and Haw River’s below Moncure, NC, travelers will pass four publicly accessible parks positioned to become waystations on the Deep River State Trail. In addition, paddlers will often unknowingly pass land held in conservation trusts, lands marked for future development, and countless numbers of historical sites. It may take a trained eye to spot some of these unmarked features, but in the following maps one can get a better sense of where these locations are, and how they ultimately impact the public spaces we have access to today
Conserving the Past
To understand why the lower Deep River Region is valuable, it’s important to take a step back to its past. As questions. It’s helpful to understand what existed before. On the right, is an interactive map that allows you to click on items of particular historic interest
Learning More
This page is merely a brief introduction to the Lower Deep River Region and some of its history. Below are links to pages that allow you to explore aspects of the region’s history at your own pace.
