Bolivia, NC

Bolivia is a Brunswick County town and county seat with 149 people at the 2020 census. Old U.S. 17 passes through the center, while the current route bypasses the town to the northwest; Wilmington is 18 miles northeast and Myrtle Beach is 53 miles southwest. A post office has operated here since 1892, and the town was incorporated in 1911 after developing in the 1890s.

The county-seat role is a newer chapter than the name suggests. A 1975 referendum moved Brunswick County's seat from Southport to the present government area just below Bolivia, bringing county offices into the town's orbit. One local naming theory holds that shipping boxes marked Bolivia gave residents the idea for the name; the place is definitely named for the South American country. Bolivia's map therefore joins a distinctive name to an old highway, a long postal history, and the county government now gathered nearby. The courthouse move made that name a working county reference for residents.