North Carolina Facts

In 1799, a boy found a 17lb. rock in a creek in North Carolina and used it as a doorstop. It was actually gold.

At its peak in the late 1990s, one out of every 11 workers in North Carolina depended on tobacco for their livelihood, making it the backbone of the state's agricultural economy.

Hurricane Helene tore apart Chimney Rock, North Carolina in 2024. Amish and Mennonite craftsmen from Pennsylvania answered the call. They sent buses of 35 to 75 volunteers every week, working for free. Over the winter they framed dozens of tiny homes. They also poured a new foundation for a 125-year-old inn. Almost a year later, they delivered their final tiny home to a Vietnam veteran.

Eddie Hunnell was at his son's wedding rehearsal when Hurricane Helene knocked Leslie Worth's house into the river. Worth jumped from a window in a life jacket and was swept downstream at 8 mph. He tried a canoe but couldn't fight the current, so he jumped in himself. He grabbed her life vest and held on as they drifted 600 feet to calmer water. That night, Worth joined his family for the rehearsal dinner.

Mayberry never existed. It was invented for The Andy Griffith Show. Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, its real-life basis. Every September the town throws Mayberry Days: a parade, replica squad cars, and a contest to whistle the theme song. One year the crowd hit 90,000, in a town of 10,600 people. Mount Airy still carries the tune every year.

Grady-White has built offshore fishing boats in Greenville, North Carolina since 1959. Eddie Smith was 26 when he bought the near-bankrupt shop in 1968. Buyers later offered him more than $400 million. He turned them down and gave the company away: voting control to a trust, the profits to a charity. Then he paid every worker a bonus scaled to years of service. The hulls are still laid up by hand.

Dennis Anderson bagged grain for $3.65 an hour. He welded a monster truck from a wrecked 1950s Ford. Rivals mocked the junk heap, so he snapped back he'd dig them a grave with it. The name stuck. A booked truck no-showed a car-crush show, and his junker stunned the crowd instead. That truck became Grave Digger, the world's most famous monster truck. The weathered early Digger still sits in his family's truck museum.

Paul Brittain runs a tree service in North Carolina. When an 85-year-old widow called for firewood and said she could not pay until her Social Security check came, he delivered it himself and told her at the door, "I ain't coming back for no money." Then he kept coming back anyway, with new tires for her car, a patched roof and a fixed heater, all free.