Scuppernong Scuppernong River in North Carolina mainly along the coastal plain. It was first mentioned as a "white grape" in a written logbook by the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano while exploring the Cape Fear River Valley in 1524. He wrote "...Many vines growing naturally there...". Sir Walter Raleigh's explorers, the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was "...so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them...in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found." He may have been referring to Sargasso seaweed from coral
Pettigrew State Park Lake Phelps, and the largest expansion, which took place along the Scuppernong River in 2004. The Scuppernong had remained largely undeveloped throughout history. In 1793, the town of Columbia was built on its banks, as were several boat landings. The Scuppernong is a blackwater river: it water is colored like black tea or coffee. The Scuppernong served as a means of transportation for the early settlers in this region of North Carolina. Since 1989 the Nature Conservancy has sought to protect it in its most natural state. In 2002 the Nature Conservancy offered to donate four tracts of land that