Cape Fear
Cape Fear is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 34.71°, -78.71°
About Cape Fear
The Cape Fear River is a 191.08-mile-long (307.51-kilometer) blackwater river in eastern North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of Moncure, North Carolina. Its river basin is the largest in the state: 9,149 sq mi.
The river is the most industrialized river in North Carolina, lined with power plants, manufacturing plants, wastewater treatment plants, landfills, paper mills, and industrial agriculture. Relatedly, the river is polluted by various substances, including suspended solids and manmade chemicals. These chemicals include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), GenX, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, perfluorooctanoic acid, byproducts of production of the fluoropolymer Nafion; and intermediates used to make other fluoropolymers (e.g. PPVE, PEVE and PMVE perfluoroether). Industrial chemicals such as 1,4-Dioxane and other pollutants have been found in its tributary, the Haw River.
In 2020, a national study of tap water found the highest concentration of PFAS in Brunswick County, which gets its drinking water from the Cape Fear River.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Cape Fear River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Cape Fear in Depth
Course
It is formed at Haywood, near the county line between Lee and Chatham Counties, by the confluence of the Deep and Haw Rivers just below Jordan Lake. It flows southeast past Lillington, Fayetteville, and Elizabethtown, then receives the Black River about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Wilmington. At Wilmington, it receives the Northeast Cape Fear River and Brunswick River, turns south, widening as an estuary and entering the Atlantic about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Cape Fear.
During the colonial era, the river provided a principal transportation route to the interior of North Carolina. Today the river is navigable as far as Fayetteville through a series of locks and dams. The estuary of the river furnishes a segment of the route of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Cape Fear River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Cape Fear: Key Facts
| Length | 325 km |
|---|---|
| Mouth | Atlantic Ocean |
| Drainage system | Cape Fear River basin |
| Tributaries | Black River, Brunswick River, Deep River, Northeast Cape Fear River, Haw River, Price Creek, Rockfish Creek, Upper Little River |
Facts from Wikidata Q1034421 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Cape Fear: Quick Answers
- Where is Cape Fear?
- Cape Fear is located in United States, at 34.7057° N, 78.7071° W.
- Are there dams on the Cape Fear?
- No dam on the Cape Fear is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.