Moorefield's Relation to Occaneechi Gap is of more than Orange County importance.
Occaneechi Gap and “Moorefields” Historic Site We blogged about Occaneechi Gap some time back (“An Important Gap in the Piedmont” (December, 2009), now the following note ties Occaneechi Gap to a colonial era historic site just west of gap, “ Moorefields .” It is more than likely that historic site, now known simply as an antebellum plantation house, is where it is because of the gap; telling the story of one requires the story of the other. Before there was a recognized town at the place we call Hillsborough, there was little reason to use the Eno River fords at or near the great bend of the Eno. Instead, traffic on an east-west axis in the central piedmont was (and still is) drawn to Occaneechi Gap as an alternative to repeated crossings of the Eno River. It was more efficient to bypass the Eno by cutting through the gap south of Occaneechi Mountain. The brown shaded are in the above map defines the gap zone. This saddle gap, the cente...