Longleaf roots of the “Tar Heels”?

Does UNC’s nickname have its origins in how the North American Coastal Plain lost its coniferous forest ecoregion?

Pinus palustris (longleaf pine). Photo by Wilhelm Kühner (2017).

Created in 1964 the Order of the Long Leaf Pine is among the most prestigious awards presented by the Governor of North Carolina. According to the order’s society, honorees receive a certificate which confers them “the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary privileged to enjoy fully all rights granted to members of this exalted order among which is the special privilege to propose the…North Carolina Toast in select company anywhere in the free world.” The toast was adopted by the General Assembly in 1957.

“Hereʹs to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Hereʹs to ʺDown Home,ʺ the Old North State!”
— § 149–2. “A Toast” to North Carolina.

But what’s so special about the longleaf pine? The mascot for the 2017 NCAA champions provides a clue. Folklore suggests that the “Tar Heel” nickname, first used by others as a pejorative but adopted by North Carolinians as a source of pride during the American Civil War, comes from the fact that our state was once a rich source of tar distilled from the longleaf pine tree. But only a couple million acres (less than two percent)…