State

Beautiful Bladen, the Land of Lakes It bulges with crops, rivers, lakes, forests and history, and is called “the mother of counties.*9 By BILL SHARPE White loke it idcol for fomilict bccoutc о wide tondr shelf provide! thollo- -voter near the shore. ID Once upon a time, Bladen was North Carolina’s largest county, stretching to the "limit of government." Once upon a time it was our most beautiful county, containing over 1 ,000 lakes, comparing to modern Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan. Meddling — by man and nature — wrought profound changes. Fifty-five counties were carved from Bladen, in¬ spiring its nickname of "mother of counties." It now contains "only" 879 square miles. The lakes, created by a theatrical bombardment by meteors 100,000 years ago. were filled by peat deposits and lowering of the water table. But seven of them remain, and these, plus the Cape Fear, South and Black rivers give Bladen all the water it needs, and sometimes in floods a bit more. The other lakes survive as the mysterious "Carolina bays" — damp, oval shaped depressions readily identi¬ fied from the air (see photo, page 9). Geography It lies in the Sandhill-Coastal Plains area, with altitudes rarely above 120 feet. The southwest bank of the Cape Fear usually rises as a bluff; the northeast shore is low and marshy. Much of the county is in swamps and bays, and of the 562,560 acres, forest lands cover 516,800 acres — making it one of the most forested counties in the state. Timber grows best along the watercourses. While some of the bays produce trees, many of them have a sterile hardpan base capable only of supporting underbrush. Its location assures Bladen of a good climate, with an average mean annual temperature of 62, precipitation of 43.9. and annual snowfall averaging only 4 inches. The county lies within 25 miles of the ocean. History The Moores, who settled in both northeast and southeast North Caro¬ lina following the Tuscarora wars, ex¬ plored the Cape Fear before 1730, but in 1733 there still were only three freeholders (one of them Nathaniel Moore), and not more than 30 families in Bladen territory. Attempts to create the new precinct failed in 1732 and 1733, but in 1734, the council sitting at Edenton yielded to demand for erecting the new county. Rivers were the only highways, and it was not long before desirable sites along the Cape Fear were pre-empted. According to tradition, the first court- THE STATE. JUNE 25, 1960