North Carolina the last shots of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War. For many years, North Carolinians proudly boasted that they had been "First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, and Last at Appomattox." North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. North Carolina consists of three main geographic regions: the Atlantic coastal plain, occupying the eastern portion of
South Mountains (North Carolina) Carolina, located five miles north of the range). Most of the South Mountains remain in the hands of private owners. However, in 1973 the State of North Carolina paid $1.5 million to acquire 5,779 acres (23.4 km²) of land in the South Mountains, and in 1975 the South Mountains State Park was created. Today the park covers nearly 17,000 acres (69 km²), and includes the impressive High Shoals Falls, which cascade over 80 feet down a sheer cliff and form a large, deep pool at the bottom. The park, like most of the South Mountains, is largely undeveloped, and much