Blackwater Highways

Blackwater Highways. . Nearby Moores Creek not only figured in the battle but was critical to the naval stores economy, Surrounded by pine forests that generated tar and turpentine but with few passable roads to get the heavy barrels to market, the colonists used an intricate web of tidal creeks and rivers to reach the port of Wilmington – and the world., Moores Creek and connecting waterways were the interstate highways of the 18th century and helped make the Carolina coast the world capital of shipbuilding products. The dark, tannin-stained waters of Moores Creek are only a few hundred yards downslope from this site.,

…the river, by which he sends down all the lumber, tar and pitch, as it rises every tide sufficiently high to bear any weight. This is done on what is called rafts… – Janet Schaw of Scotland visited her brother's Cape Fear plantation in 1776 and described bow naval stores were transported.

, [Captions] , Background: The barge Bee near the mouth of Moores Creek, 1890s. Flatbottom barges were ideal for transporting heavy casks of tar and turpentine down these shallow waterways. , Inset: Loading flats on the Cape Fear River, 1800s