The Cape Fear River is a 191.08-mile-long blackwater river in east-central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of Moncure, North Carolina. Its river basin is the largest in the state: 9,149 sq mi.
The Cape Fear River at Smith Creek in Wilmington, NC.
The port in Wilmington on the Cape Fear River estuary
Lock and Dam No. 1 on the Cape Fear River in Bladen County
U.S. Coast Guard vessel on the Cape Fear, photographed from the USS North Carolina
A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. Most major blackwater rivers are in the Amazon Basin and the Southern United States. The term is used in fluvial studies, geology, geography, ecology, and biology. Not all dark rivers are blackwater in that technical sense. Some rivers in temperate regions, which drain or flow through areas of dark black loam, are simply black due to the color of the soil; these rivers are black mud rivers. There are also black mud estuaries.
A swamp-fed stream in northern Florida, showing tannin-stained undisturbed blackwater
The Lumber River as seen from the boat launch at Princess Ann near Orrum, North Carolina
Chocolate-colored Tahquamenon Falls
Amazon tributary classified as blackwater
