About this graphic
On his Southern Tour of 1791, Washington crossed North Carolina twice by two completely different routes: south down the coastal plain from Apr 16 to 27, then north up the Piedmont from May 28 to June 4. The two lines never touch, which is the whole reason this is a map. Washington kept a daily diary with dates, and the National Archives publishes it free, so the route and dates come straight from him1,2,3. Where a building has vanished, Archibald Henderson’s 1923 study of the tour helps identify the site4.
Not every stop could be placed. The diary names 34 stops in North Carolina, and ten of them are not drawn because no source fixes them closely enough. A wrong dot is worse than a missing one, and the footer says so. Only two of the buildings he names still stand, Salem Tavern and the Stanly House in New Bern, and the Stanly House has been moved twice. The town of Comfort claims Washington slept there 'in comfort'. His diary calls the lodgings that night 'both indifferent Houses.'