Roanoke Rapids

Geography

Roanoke Rapids is located in northern Halifax County bordered to the north by Northampton County, with the county line following the Roanoke River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 0.36%, are water. The town is located at the eastern edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, on the Roanoke River at the fall line, which marks the area where an upland region (continental bedrock) and a coastal plain (coastal alluvia) meet. The fall line is typically prominent where a river crosses it, for there will usually be rapids or waterfalls. Because of these features, riverboats normally could not travel any further inland. Because settlements needed a port and a ready supply of water power, they often developed where the river crosses the fall line. The Roanoke River and its falls inspired the development of Roanoke Rapids; businessmen such as Sam Patterson and other textile manufacturers used the river to power their mills. The most prominent example of fall line settlement was the establishment of the cities along the eastern coast of the United States where the Appalachian Rise and the coastal plains meet.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  760
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  721
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  587
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  550
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  492
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  461
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  434
• Eastern Bluebird

  Sialia sialis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  391