This article is about the geographical feature on the coast of North Carolina. For other uses, see Cape Fear (disambiguation).

Cape Fear, on the coast of North Carolina.

Cape Fear in a NASA satellite photo, showing the estuary of the Cape Fear River.

Cape Fear is a prominent headland jutting into the Atlantic Ocean from Bald Head Island on the coast of North Carolina in the southeastern United States. Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment Bald Head Island is an island and village located on the east side of the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County, North Carolina, USA North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States The United States of America —commonly referred to as the It is largely formed of barrier beaches and the silty outwash of the Cape Fear River as it drains the southeast coast of North Carolina through an estuary south of Wilmington. The Cape Fear River is a long Blackwater river in east central North Carolina in the United States. An estuary is a semi-enclosed Coastal body of Water with one or more Rivers or Streams flowing into it and with a free connection to the open Wilmington is a city in and the County seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The cape is the southernmost point of the state of North Carolina, formed where two sweeping arcs of shifting low-lying beach intersect, the result of longshore currents which also form the treacherous, shifting Frying Pan Shoals, part of the ship graveyard of the Atlantic. Longshore drift (sometimes known as shore drift, LSD or littoral drift) is a geological process by which Sediments such as sand The Frying Pan Shoals are a long shifting area of Shoals off the coast of Cape Fear in North Carolina, United States.

Dunes dominated by sea oats occur from the upper beach driftline back to the stable secondary dunes, where they mix with other grasses such as Saltmeadow Cordgrass and panic grass, as well as seaside goldenrod, spurge, and other herbs to form a stable salt-tolerant grassland. In physical Geography, a dune is a Hill of Sand built by Aeolian processes. Sea oats ( Uniola paniculata) are a type of Grass that grows along the East Coast of the United States, Mexico, and on islands Saltmeadow Cordgrass ( Spartina patens) also known as Salt Hay Grass, is a species of Cordgrass native to the Atlantic coast of the Panicum virgatum, commonly known as switchgrass, is a warm season Grass and is one of the dominant Species of the central North American Euphorbia is a Genus of Plants belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. Grasslands (also called greenswards) are areas where the Vegetation is dominated by Grasses ( Poaceae) and other Herbaceous (non-woody

The Cape Fear estuary drains the largest watershed in North Carolina, containing 27% of the state's population.

Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer sailing for France, made landfall at Cape Fear on his voyage to the New World in the spring of 1524 or 1525. Giovanni da Verrazzano (c 1485 &ndash c 1528 was an Italian Explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown.

The name (variously "Cape Fair" and "Cape Fare", a sept of the Scots' Ross Clan) comes from the 1585 expedition of Sir Richard Grenville. Sir Richard Grenville ( June 6, 1542 &ndash September 10, 1591) (sp Sailing to Roanoke Island, his ship became embayed behind the cape. Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County near the coast of North Carolina, United States. Some of the crew were afraid they would wreck, giving rise to the name Cape Fear. It was the second English name, after Virginia, bestowed upon the coast of what later became the United States. ^[1]

Landing place of General Clinton during the American Revolution on May 3, 1775.

See also

• Geography of North Carolina

References