The is a 202-mile (325 km) long
Blackwater River in east central
North Carolina in the
United States . It is the longest river entirely within North Carolina, and it flows into the
Atlantic Ocean near
Cape Fear , from which it takes its name.
It is formed at
Haywood , near the county line between
Lee and
Chatham counties, by the confluence of the
Deep and
Haw rivers just below
Jordan Lake . It flows southeast past
Lillington ,
Fayetteville , and
Elizabethtown , then receives the
Black River approximately 10 miles (16 km) northwest of
Wilmington . At Wilmington, it receives the
Northeast Cape Fear River and turns south, widening as an
Estuary and entering the Atlantic approximately 3 miles (5 km) west of Cape Fear.
During the
Colonial Era , the river provided a principal transportation route to the interior of North Carolina. Today the river is navigable as far as Fayetteville through a series of
Lock s and
Dam s. The estuary of the river furnishes a segment of the route of the
Intracoastal Waterway .
