Plymouth

Plymouth NC Weather

Plymouth Weather Forecast, NC

Plymouth Hotels
Plymouth Restaurants
Plymouth Golf

Plymouth North Carolina NC Street View Maps Pictures

View Larger Map

The primary industry for the area is Domtar Paper Company, LLC., a paper manufacturer. The Plymouth paper mill and its related facilities have been the largest employer since 1937. It was owned by Kieckhefer Container Company (John W. Kieckhefer) which was merged into Weyerhauser in 1957. In March 2007 Weyerhauser sold its paper interests to Domtar Paper Company LLC. The Plymouth paper mill is now a Domtar papermill, while the onsite sawmill is still owned by Weyerhauser. In October 2009, Domtar announced the end of paper machine operations, and the mill will be converted to produce fluff pulp alone, with a 33% workforce reduction to about 360 employees.

The Plymouth town is rebranding itself as a tourist destination to offset the reduction in paper-making employment, taking advantage of its sublime natural beauty, being surrounded by vast tracts of forests and beautiful swamplands. A riverfront boardwalk has been built, presenting scenic views of the Roanoke River.

The Moratuc tribe of American Indians was living in a large settlement on Welch Creek near the current Domtar pulp mill site in 1585 when the area was explored by English settlers. Moratuc was an Indian name for the Roanoke River. The Moratuc were probably an Algonquian tribe, but there is debate that they may have been Iroquois.

Plymouth was established in 1787 by Arthur Rhodes on 100 acres (0.40 km2) of his Brick House plantation he subdivided into 172 lots. Note that "Brickhouse" is a common local patronym. In 1790 the North Carolina General Assembly named Plymouth a "port of delivery" and in 1808 it was named a "port of entry". The county seat of Washington Co. was moved to Plymouth from Lee's Mill, as Roper, North Carolina was then known, by special act of the NC General Assembly on January 31, 1823. A new courthouse was completed by November 1824 on the same lot where the present courthouse stands. It stood until 1862 when it caught fire and burned to the ground from a shell fired by a Union gunboat during bombardment of Plymouth.

Plymouth has the historical distinction of being the site of the second largest battle in North Carolina and its last Confederate victory, the Battle of Plymouth (1864), during the American Civil War. The Confederate ironclad warship "CSS Albemarle" and its eventual sinking on October 27, 1864 while moored at a dock in Plymouth are the centerpieces of this history. Beginning early in the war and for its remainder, the Union controlled the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. The geographical importance for the Northern forces of Plymouth's location at the mouth of the Roanoke River was the Union desire to push upriver and capture the vital Wilmington and Weldon Railroad line passing through Weldon, North Carolina, which would completely cut off the major supply line for General Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia from more southerly ports. This would essentially end all material support for Lee's forces and force his defeat or retreat from Virginia. Fort Branch, located upriver at Hamilton, successfully blocked the Union gunboats and troops sailing upstream from Plymouth at the river bend called Rainbow Branch in an attempt to push upriver to Weldon. The fort held until April 10, 1865, one day after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, at which point it was abandoned and its cannons hurled into the Roanoke River. Thus, the war histories of Fort Branch and Plymouth are intimately connected.

The Port O'Plymouth History Museum, located in the circa 1923 former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad station in downtown Plymouth, has an excellent nationally-recognized collection of Civil War artifacts, including one of the most complete belt buckle and button collections in the U.S., and a model of the ironclad ram "CSS Albemarle".