Bladenboro, NC

Bladenboro is a Bladen County town whose early identity was built on turpentine, timber, cotton, and the railroad. Robert Tate arrived from Scotland in 1857, opened a store, and ran the town's first turpentine distillery; the Seaboard Railway followed in 1859. The Bridger family later added turpentine operations, a cotton gin, a bank, and cotton mills, helping shape the town for decades. Today the old school building is tied to the Bladenboro Historical Society. This is eastern North Carolina in a pine-and-railroad story.