Yesterday’s time in the New Bern Registry of Deeds office informed us that Horton Howard and his brother inherited land along the Neuse River, with parcels also bounded by the Cahooque Creek, Clubfoot’s Creek and Mitchell Creek. They may have owned all of the land between the Cahooque and Clubfoot’s Creeks, which would have included at least 7 miles of river frontage.

Neusiok Trail

Yesterday we walked a 2 1/2 mile section of the Neusiok Trail, then turned around and walked it in the other direction to return to our car. This land was a few miles south of the Neuse. I don’t know if this was part of the Howard lands or not – it was at least near to their land. We then drove to any areas of public land where we could walk on land bordered by the Neuse, and visited a Marina on land that is at the confluence of the Clubfoot’s Creek and Mitchell’s Creek. Some of these areas were definitely Howard land, others probably were. The virgin forests of long leaf pine are long gone, but the sense of dense woods that run right up to the river still remains in spots. This would have been an ideal spot for the turpentine production and shipping barrels of finished product.

Pine Forest

Although the land no longer contains the virgin pine forests, many of the trees are impressive in height. The forests have been replanted in long leaf pine to replace the pines harvested years ago for ship building and production of pitch and turpentine. The picture below was taken from land probably owned by the Howards. The water seen through the pines is the Neuse River. This river was very wide, and deep enough for large ships, making this land ideal for anyone who needed to ship merchandise. Clubfoot Creek was as wide and deep as many rivers, making it another waterway suitable for moving merchandise.

Pine Cliff Recreation area along the Neuse River.

View of Clubfoot Creek from land owned by the Howards