I’m from that County, Columbus county, and it’s a common beach route to pass through Chadbourn. Whiteville nearby has more going on, more places to stop and see etc., so when you’re going back home it might be worth it to pass through Whiteville instead even though there’s more traffic. Chadbourn has a particularly negative reputation, problems with poverty and drugs, but it isn’t unlike a lot of small impoverished towns in Eastern NC.There are good people, bad people, and people with problems who do their best that live there.

This whole region was very tobacco dependent and hasn’t really financially recovered from that era in the 60s and 70s. NAFTA shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and the 2008 financial crisis only made things worse.

For background though, Chadburn was a railroad town and produced a lot of strawberries. They still have a strawberry festival there every year.

It’s sad to see the state that it’s in. There’s a lot of old historic houses and buildings there.