To know North Carolina is to love North Carolina. Every year, thousands of folks from all over the United States and other countries around the world discover North Carolina's natural beauty, its economic opportunity and its unparalleled quality of life. We have catalogued links to other WWW sites with North Carolina content on our Links - North Carolina Information page. On this page, however, we have listed some fun facts that make North Carolina unique. Many of these facts can be found in the North Carolina Manual. Now, did you know that:

     North Carolina was the site of the earliest attempts by English explorers to settle the North American continent? Sir Walter Raleigh's famous "Lost Colony" was founded on Roanoke Island, near 

present-day Manteo, in North Carolina was the site of the earliest attempts by English explorers to settle the North American continent? Sir Walter Raleigh's famous "Lost Colony" was founded on Roanoke Island, near present-day Manteo, in 1587. When the colony's governor, John White, returned to the colony in 1590 after being gone for three years, he found the settlement deserted. The only clue to what had happened to the colonists was found carved on the trunk of a tree near the settlement, the word: "Croatan." No trace of the colonists was ever found by subsequent explorers and settlers.

North Carolina has its very own Declaration of Independence? The Mecklenburg Declaration of 1775 dissolved the colony's ties to England and the British Crown. The signing of this declaration preceded the more famous one penned by Thomas Jefferson for all of the former colonies in Philadelphia in 1776.

North Carolina was the first state in the nation to establish a state museum of art? The 1947 General Assembly appropriated $1 million to fund the purchase of artwork for the museum. Today, the North Carolina Museum of Art holds works by artists such as Winslow Homer, Peter Paul Rubens, Claude Monet, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth and Anselm Kiefer.

North Carolina was one of the first states in the U.S. to establish a state symphony? The North Carolina Symphony, founded in 1943, currently performs nearly 185 full-orchestra concerts each year.

North Carolina has the largest state-maintained highway system in the U.S.? The state's highway system currently has 77,400 miles of roads.

The University of North Carolina system has 16 member institutions?

The North Carolina Community College System consists of 58 institutions scattered throughout the state? In 1995-96, 779,000 adults took one or more courses at a North Carolina community college.

North Carolina currently holds 12 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives?

North Carolina has 100 counties?

North Carolina's total population had reached 7.3 million by 1996?

Be sure to play our North Carolina Trivia Quiz while you're visiting our site. Answer all of the questions on the quiz correctly and you will have your name posted on our North Carolina Trivia Hall of Fame page.