Chowan

• Contains Edenton, the first permanent European settlement in NC.
• Along with the Roanoke River, it supplies fresh water to the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary, the second largest estuary system in the US.
• Contains less than 1% of the state’s population.

Little Tennessee

• Home of Bridal Veil Falls, a waterfall that you can drive a car under.
• River otters were reintroduced into streams in the basin, which helps the basin keep a natural balance of native aquatic animal life.
• Contains Nantahala Gorge, one side of which reaches more than 1,000 feet.

Hiwassee

• Got its name from the Cherokee word meaning savanna or meadow.
• Home of the endangered knotty elimia, a freshwater mollusk that lives nowhere else in the world.
• Contains Peachtree Mound, one of the most important Cherokee ancestral sites.

Watauga

• Grandfather Mountain, the highest peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is located in this basin.
• This is the second smallest river basin in NC with only 6 incorporated towns.
• This basin’s rare animal residents include the peregrine falcon, the Carolina northern flying squirrel, the Virginia big-eared bat, and the spruce-fir moss spider.

White Oak

• This basin is filled with coastal and freshwater wetlands, and is made up of four river systems.
• The 160,000-acre Croatan National Forest is home to more insect-eating plants than any other national forest.
• Insect-eating plants like the Venus flytrap, pitcher plants, bladderworts, butterworts, and sundews can be found in this basin.

Neuse

• This river is the longest contained in NC’s borders, and at its mouth it is the widest in North America at 6 miles across.
• Contains an unusual feature for the coastal plain, a 100-foot canyon carved by the river, located near Goldsboro.
• Home to the Neuse River waterdog (a rare aquatic salamander), the rare Carolina madtom fish, and the panhandle pebblesnail.

New

• This river is actually thought to be one of the oldest in the world, estimated at 300 million years old.
• More bog turtles live in this basin than any other basin in NC. This rare and threatened turtle weighs only about 4 ounces when it reaches adulthood.
• This basin is the largest supplier of Christmas trees in NC.
  

Pasquotank

• This basin has more national wildlife refuges than any other and the fewest number of people.
• Home of Lake Phelps, the second largest natural lake in NC. It has crystal blue water, and more than 30 ancient dugout canoes have been found on its bottom.
• In 1987, red wolves were reintroduced into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge located in this basin.
  

Roanoke

• This river carries more water than any other in NC, it also has the widest floodplain – up to 5 miles in some places.
• Contains the densest population of white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and black bear, and has at least 214 bird species.
• This river was once called “the river of death” because its spring floods claimed so many lives.
  

Lumber

• Lake Waccamaw is the largest water-filled Carolina Bay in NC.
• Contains a large portion of the Green Swamp, which has the highest density of small-scale plant diversity in North America.
• American alligators, carnivorous pitcher plants and Venus flytraps, as well as the Waccamaw silverside and Waccamaw darter, are found in this basin.

Tar-Pamlico

• This basin contains Lake Mattamuskeet, NC’s largest natural lake.
• 90% of all commercial seafood caught in NC is born in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary in this basin.
• NC’s largest producer of tobacco (Pitt) and producer of corn, wheat, and sorghum (Beaufort) are located in the basin.

Yadkin-PeeDee

• This basin was the location of the United States’ first documented gold discovery.
• Location of the Uwharries, the oldest mountain range in North America.
• This basin is called the cradle of civilization of the Carolinas. The area has artifacts of Native American culture that date back 12,000 years.

Cape Fear

• The largest river basin located entirely in NC.
• Home of the Cape Fear Shiner, an endangered minnow species that lives nowhere else in the world.
• Contains ¼ of the state’s population.

Catawba

• Contains the most major dams of any NC basin.
• Home of Lake Norman, the largest man-made lake in NC.
• Home of the rare Edmund’s snaketail dragonfly.