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Last updated: August 25. 2006 2:36PM
IN HISTORY
Beginnings of familiar people, places
Some people mistakenly call Holly Shelter Creek, ‘Holland’s Shelter Creek,’ because of all the small businesses Steve Holland owns up and down the black water creek. And maybe it should be renamed. (His ‘Holland’s Shelter Creek Fish Camp’ makes a shrimp po-boy worth writing home about.)
The creek’s real name goes back before Holland was born. The first record of it comes from a 1770 map, which listed Holly Schelter Creek.
The U.S. Chief of Engineers simply called it ‘Shelter River’ in a 1913 report. The cartographer must have been local, because that’s the nickname a lot of people still use for it. Its still waters and wide banks make it a favorite day trip for canoeists and kayakers. Along the way, they enjoy unspoiled woodlands and wildlife.
Whatever you decide to call the area, it’s definitely worth the trip.
Porters Neck: Not what you’d imagine
The name Porters Neck is simple enough to figure out, but its history is quite surprising.
Col. Maurice Moore, of Orton Plantation fame, deeded several acres to John Porter and Rush Watts in 1729. ‘Neck’ was selected because it means a jut of land or narrow strip of land. The area also was known at different times in its history as Ludley Castle, Royal Oak, Bridgen Hall, Bridgens Pastime, Oakley and Corbyn Place, according to Ogden-Porters Neck-Scotts Hill by Nola Nadeau.
With each successive owner, more land was bought and peanuts became the cash crop of choice.
The property also boasted modern farming techniques and machinery and an international commercial seaport called Shell Landing, according to Nadeau’s book.
“Four-masted schooners came from England to pick up peanuts, sweet potatoes, peas and soy beans. They probably also took on turpentine and logs from ships’ masts. The long leaf pine, with its tall straight trunk was exported for masts,” she writes in the book.
Town Creek: A Yankee colony?
North Carolina is littered with creeks named Town Creek. But the Town Creek in Brunswick County just might have claim to being the oldest. Formed by Rattlesnake Branch and Lewis Swamp, it was originally named Indian Creek by William Hilton in the late 1600s. Hilton is believed to be the first English explorer of the Cape Fear area (Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian working for the French preceded him by more than 100 years) and is credited with sending word to the crown that the area was worth settling.
By 1733, at least one map recorded it as Old Town Creek. This new name is probably in honor of the settlement Hilton established along its banks, named Charles Town.
It’s likely this colony came from Charlestowne, Mass. But they abandoned the site in 1663. The following year, a colony from Barbados moved onto the site, led by Sir John Yeamans, but they left after one year, too.
A few hearty colonists managed to tough it out, though, with high hopes, though. On a 1671 map the settlement was called New Town.
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