Fayetteville, NC

Fort Bragg defines much of Fayetteville's regional role. The installation began as Camp Bragg in 1918, an artillery training post, and the Army now calls it the country's largest military installation by population. As of July 2026, the Army reported about 53,700 troops and 14,000 civilian employees on the post. The XVIII Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division, and U.S. Army Special Operations Command are based there. Fayetteville adjoins the installation in North Carolina's Sandhills, and defense contracting, health care, education, manufacturing, and retail all form established parts of the local economy. Fayetteville's hospitals, campuses, and commercial districts serve a large civilian city as well as the wider military region. The city long predates the post. Campbellton was chartered on the Cape Fear River in 1762 and merged with neighboring Cross Creek in 1778. North Carolina renamed the combined town for the Marquis de Lafayette in 1783. Fayetteville also hosted North Carolina's 1789 convention ratifying the U.S. Constitution.

During the same session, the legislature chartered the University of North Carolina. Trade, state politics, and military history occupy distinct chapters of the same city's story. Cross Creek still helps organize the center. It flows east through downtown toward the Cape Fear River, passing parks and older streets before the two waterways meet. The 1832 Market House stands where Hay, Person, Green, and Gillespie streets meet amid more than 120 older commercial buildings. Work that began June 29, 2026, was expanding its plaza and improving pedestrian and ADA access, with completion expected in late fall. City and county offices, churches, restaurants, shops, and cultural venues share the surrounding blocks. North of downtown, Fayetteville State University is both an HBCU and a University of North Carolina System campus. Founded by seven Black men as the Howard School in 1867, it is North Carolina's second-oldest state-assisted institution.

As of 2026, it enrolled over 6,500 students and offered over 60 degree programs. Two places make the city's military and river histories especially visible. The free Airborne & Special Operations Museum presents the history of the units based nearby through artifacts and immersive exhibits at the western edge of downtown, about thirteen miles from Fort Bragg. From Festival Park, the Harry F. Shaw Linear Park Trail follows Cross Creek toward the river. A connector completed in 2025 joined it to the Cape Fear River Trail, creating nearly 11.4 miles of continuous greenway. The river segment runs for over seven miles past woodland, wetlands, a covered bridge, and boardwalks, with Clark Park's nature center and live-animal displays serving as a trailhead. A resident can leave the Market House area along Cross Creek and reach the river landscape that first made Campbellton a trading town.