1,670highway markers
100counties
20Civil War battlefields
37state historic sites
1,099quotations from Carolina Quotes
Eras
From the first English colonies on Roanoke Island to the civil rights movement.
Themes
The threads that run through the state's story, and every marker that carries them.
Government and lawGovernors, legislators, judges, courthouses, conventions and constitutions.386 placesThe Civil WarBattles, raids, regiments, hospitals, prisons and the people of the war, 1861-1865.297 placesFaith and congregationsChurches, meeting houses, missions and the people who led them.271 placesSchools and collegesAcademies, colleges, universities and schoolhouses, and the teachers who founded them.261 placesExploration and settlementExplorers, land grants and boundary lines, and where towns, counties, inns and resorts began.217 placesWork and industryMills, mines, furnaces, farms, fisheries, factories and the people who built them.211 placesForts and the armed forcesForts, camps and bases, and North Carolinians in the wars from 1812 to Vietnam.186 placesWriters, artists and musiciansNovelists, poets, journalists, painters, architects and musicians.150 placesThe RevolutionBattles, camps, congresses and the people of the war for independence, 1775-1783.141 placesRoads, rivers and railsTrading paths, wagon roads, ferries, canals, railroads, ports and lighthouses.133 placesAfrican American historySlavery and freedom, Black schools, churches and towns, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement.129 placesNative nationsThe Cherokee, Tuscarora, Catawba, Lumbee and the other nations of North Carolina, their towns, wars and removal.115 placesMedicine and sciencePhysicians, hospitals, naturalists, engineers and scientists.90 placesWomen's historyWomen who led, wrote, taught, founded and voted, and the schools and causes they built.66 placesMountains, rivers and coastPeaks, gorges, rivers, sounds, inlets and islands, and the parks that keep them.57 placesFlightFrom Kitty Hawk in 1903 to the pilots and astronauts who trained here.19 places
Drive it
Loops from a landmark in town, solved on real roads and split into days. Every stop opens its own page.
Chapel Hill52 stops · 3.3 h drivingPittsboro35 stops · 4.4 h drivingFayetteville54 stops · 3.5 h drivingOuter Banks36 stops · 9.9 h drivingRaleigh84 stops · 2.7 h drivingWilmington71 stops · 2.9 h drivingNew Bern46 stops · 3.9 h drivingEdenton55 stops · 4.9 h drivingAsheville51 stops · 3.8 h drivingCharlotte50 stops · 4.5 h drivingGreensboro59 stops · 3.1 h drivingWinston-Salem61 stops · 6.4 h drivingBoone & High Country33 stops · 6.5 h driving
From the roadside
Markers photographed and released to the public domain.
Counties
All one hundred, with the markers in each.
Alamance32Alexander2Alleghany3Anson14Ashe5Avery7Beaufort35Bertie11Bladen7Brunswick29Buncombe51Burke14Cabarrus22Caldwell5Camden10Carteret30Caswell17Catawba15Chatham16Cherokee6Chowan22Clay2Cleveland13Columbus3Craven45Cumberland50Currituck9Dare31Davidson11Davie6Duplin17Durham31Edgecombe28Forsyth26Franklin7Gaston15Gates7Graham3Granville16Greene2Guilford71Halifax51Harnett12Haywood15Henderson15Hertford21Hoke7Hyde8Iredell17Jackson15Johnston37Jones4Lee7Lenoir10Lincoln24Macon11Madison8Martin6McDowell9Mecklenburg42Mitchell4Montgomery6Moore15Nash12New Hanover75Northampton13Onslow19Orange34Pamlico1Pasquotank16Pender20Perquimans6Person9Pitt15Polk8Randolph13Richmond13Robeson18Rockingham26Rowan37Rutherford9Sampson12Scotland11Stanly6Stokes8Surry9Swain9Transylvania11Tyrrell2Union17Vance16Wake88Warren23Washington18Watauga8Wayne25Wilkes11Wilson14Yadkin2Yancey3