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 -Appleswirl Cake |
This region's character comes from its rich, coastal plain farmland, its
longtime role as a transportation corridor, and its development as a diversified
society. It is authentic eastern North Carolina.
The state's best cotton, tobacco, corn and soybeans are produced here. Along these roads you can see old pack houses and newer bulk barns, historic auction warehouses, neatly planted fields that turn abundantly green, wagons loaded with firm cucumbers or compacted cotton, giant tractors, men and women working hard at a harvest.
Travelers have long found this a hospitable region. Railroads have connected all the cities. Routes 301 and I-95 are THE legendary north-south highways. Military aircraft command the sky. The Global TransPark someday will transform the region into a worldwide air shipping hub.
Even Sherman's army was not impeded in 1865 when it plundered this region. The southern portion, along the rich Neuse River plain, displays reminders of the Confederates' confrontation with Sherman. It all is explained at a state Historic Site in Bentonville. Although the plantation economy was finally laid to rest then, its elegant and fruitful aspects have been preserved in each county.
The area bred a population that has reckoned gradually and gracefully with its differences and its common destiny. Today, the amazing mix of people work and grow well together. Any place that produced Ava Gardner and Thelonius Monk must be doing something well.