Lumber River State Park: Navigating the Lumber River

Navigation is planning your route of travel, often using maps and other instruments. Today we use cell phones, satellites and cars to navigate our roads. For thousands of years before modern technology, humans made inventions that helped their communities grow along the Lumber River.

American Indians have been navigating rivers and lakes of North Carolina for over 5,000 years. The dugout canoe was an important form of technology that moved people and goods more easily than walking across the land. American Indians still live along the Lumber River today. The Lumbee tribe has more than 50,000 members.

The first European and African Americans navigated with sailboats, maps and compasses. Settlers established the town of Princess Ann by navigating ships up the river in 1796. Until the mid-1800s in North Carolina, boat navigation was the most important way to transport goods.

The steam locomotive was new technology that changed where people lived throughout the nation. The first railroad opened in North Carolina in 1840. Railroads quickly became just as important as rivers for moving goods. In the early 1900s, the new technology of automobiles led to improved roads.

In the 1960s and 1970s, citizens of North Carolina got organized to protect the environment. The Lumber River became North Carolina’s first state designated Recreational Water Trail because it is great for fishing, canoeing and kayaking. In 1989, Lumber River became a state park. This allowed new lands along 115-miles of river to be purchased and protected for the common good.

Student Resources:

Discover More (reading page) — Navigating the Lumber River Grade 4
Explore Outdoors — Navigating the Lumber River
Lumber River State Park Fact Sheet

Teacher Resources:

Museum of the Southeast American Indian

Video and student resources are correlated with the following North Carolina Standards:

Science
· 4.L.1. Understand the effects of environmental changes, adaptations and behaviors that enable animals (including humans) to survive in changing habitats.

Social Studies Standards
· 3.C&G.2. Understand how citizens participate in their communities.
· 4.H.1. Analyze the chronology of key historical events in North Carolina history.
· 4.G.1. Understand how human, environmental and technological factors affect the growth and development of North Carolina.
· 5.G.1. Understand how human activity has and continues to shape the United States.
· 6.H.2 Understand the political, economic and/or social significance of historical events, issues, individuals and cultural groups.
· 6.G.1 Understand geographic factors that influenced the emergence, expansion and decline of civilizations, societies and regions over time (
· 6.EC.1 Understand how the physical environment and human interaction affected the economic activities of various civilizations, societies and regions.
· 7.G.1 Understand how geography, demographic trends, and environmental conditions shape modern societies and regions.
· 7.G.2 Apply the tools of a geographer to understand modern societies and regions.