The Geographic High Point
High Point, Guilford County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Approximately 424 feet west southwest lies the geographic "High Point" between Goldsboro and Charlotte. Identified by the survey crew for the North Carolina Railroad about 1849, the elevation became the city namesake upon the granting of a city charter on May 26, 1859. Dedicated on the 125th anniversary of the city May 26, 1984.
Erected by City of High Point
The Story
When surveyors laid out the North Carolina Railroad around 1849, they identified the highest point on the line between Goldsboro and Charlotte near here. When the settlement that grew up around it was chartered in 1859, it took its name — High Point — from that surveyed summit.
Why it matters
The city's very name records how the railroad reshaped the map of the nineteenth-century South, giving rise to new towns along its route.
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Themes & tags
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