Charlotte, NC news and local guide

Charlotte was incorporated in 1768 and, like Mecklenburg County, formed in 1762, was named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, which gave it the nickname Queen City. In 1770 the streets were laid out in a grid. The trading paths became Trade Street and Tryon Street, and their crossing is now Independence Square. In 1772 William Moultrie found only five or six log houses. Local leaders adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves in 1775, and May 20, the traditional date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, is still celebrated and appears on the state flag. During the Revolution the British general Lord Cornwallis occupied the town but was driven out and called it "a hornet's nest of rebellion," giving Charlotte its other nickname. In 1799 in nearby Cabarrus County, 12-year-old Conrad Reed found a 17-pound rock that his family used as a doorstop. Three years later a jeweler found it was nearly solid gold and paid the family $3.50. It was the first documented gold find of any consequence in the United States, and it set off the nation's first gold rush. The Charlotte Mint opened in 1837, and North Carolina led the country in gold until the California discoveries of 1848. Sources Wikipedia: Charlotte, North Carolina