Cape Fear

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. 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. Cape Fear is formed by the intersection of two sweeping arcs of shifting, low-lying beach, the result of longshore currents which also form the treacherous, shifting Frying Pan Shoals, part of the ship graveyard of the Atlantic.

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.

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.^{[citation needed]}

The name (variously "Cape Fair" and "Cape Fare", a sept of the Scots' Ross Clan) comes from the 1585 expedition of Sir Richard Grenville. Sailing to Roanoke Island, his ship became embayed behind the cape. Some of the crew were afraid they would wreck, giving rise to the name Cape Fear. It is the fifth oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S.^[1]

It was the landing place of General Sir Henry Clinton during the American Revolutionary War on May 3, 1775.

See also

• Geography of North Carolina

References

Coordinates: 33°50′38.03″N 77°57′43.66″W / 33.8438972°N 77.9621278°W / 33.8438972; -77.9621278