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There are estimated to be about half
a million Carolina Bays in existence
today, most of them in the Carolinas,
including here in southeastern North
Carolina. From high in the atmosphere,
they collectively resemble impact
craters, an appearance that has
led some people to speculate that
Carolina Bays are the result of
impacts from a comet or meteor.
C
arolina Bays, also simply called “bays,”
are so-named for trees in the Laurel
family, especially red bay (genus Persea),
commonly found in and around these
wetland habitats. Carolina Bays are
puzzling landform features easily recognized as egg-shaped
depressions oriented northwest to southeast, and
sprinkled on the Atlantic coastal plain from southern
New Jersey through northern Florida. These bays vary in
size from a fraction of an acre to several square miles, as
in the case of Lake Waccamaw in Columbus County. At
nearly 9,000 square acres, it is North Carolina’s largest
Carolina Bay.
The origin of Carolina Bays is more likely owed to
long periods of ice age winds during the Pleistocene
Period (2,588,000 to 11,700 years before present), when
northern North America was covered by an ice sheet
more than a mile thick and the Atlantic coastal plain
was much colder than present day conditions. During
that bygone time, our region was populated by forests of
spruce and hardwood trees scattered across vast expanses
of open plains. Much as we might want a definitive
answer to the question of bay origin, scientific consensus
remains distant.
By most interpretations, persistent winds are the likely
cause, sweeping over wide areas of deep sands sometimes
covered by shallow water, over time scouring oblong
depressions as a result, and eventually becoming wetland
and pond ecosystems we know today as the Carolina
Bay. Think of wind acting on the sand of an open beach,
albeit spread over thousands of years.
Unproven origin theories aside, I can attest that few
places are more fun to explore than a Carolina Bay, for
a sensory experience highlighted with aromatic smells of
cypress tree oils and the sweet fragrances of innumerable
flowers including blooming loblolly and Virginia bay trees.
Carolina Bays, and a related habitat locally known
as pocosin, have a complex forest structure topped by
tall canopy trees including pond cypress (Taxodium)
“Gum Springs Bay,” Bladen County, photogravure by Jennifer Page.
PHOTOGRAVURE BY JENNIFER PAGE, CAPE FEAR PRESS
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM