North of Whiteville, two-lane US 701 collects the northern end of US 701 Business and continues the business route's name of James B. White Highway. The highway veers northeast as its junction with NC 131 (Bladenboro Road) at Western Prong. US 701 Business splits to the northeast just before both highways enter Bladen County. US 701 follows W.R. Latham Street through the town of Clarkton, where the highway intersects NC 211 (Green Street) and CSX's Wilmington Subdivision. North of town, US 701 collects the northern end of its business route, College Street, crosses Brown Marsh Swamp, and passes to the west of the historic Brown Marsh Presbyterian Church. The highway continues north to Elizabethtown, on the southern edge of which US 701 intersects and becomes concurrent with NC 242 and has a junction with NC 87, which bypasses the town to the south. The U.S. Highway passes through town as Poplar Street, which intersects NC 87 Business in the center of town; there, NC 41 joins US 701 and NC 242 as they exit the town on a four-lane divided highway that crosses the Cape Fear River. North–south NC 242 splits from US 701 and NC 41 at the same three-way intersection east–west NC 53 joins the highways to pass through Bladen Lakes State Forest, which is named for several Carolina Bays known collectively as the Bladen Lake Group. US 701, NC 41, and NC 53 head east as a two-lane road to the town of White Lake, which surrounds the namesake lake. The two state highways separate from the U.S. Highway at separate intersections in the town.