Neuse

The Neuse River rises in the Carolina Piedmont and flows southeast into Pamlico Sound. The Tuscarora called it Gow-ta-no, “pine in water”; its English name was taken from the Neusiok people of the lower river. Near its mouth the Neuse widens into an estuary, and the Trent River joins it at a site long inhabited by Indigenous communities.

In 1710 Swiss and German settlers under Christoph von Graffenried founded New Bern at the confluence, naming it for his Swiss home. The following year the Tuscarora attacked colonial settlements along the Neuse, Trent and Pamlico rivers after mounting grievances over enslavement and unfair trade. New Bern survived the war and grew during the eighteenth century into a major port and trading centre.