The Shallotte River (pronounced shallOtte) is a

tidal river A tidal river is a river whose flow and level are caused by tides. A section of a larger river affected by the tides is a tidal reach, but it may sometimes be considered a tidal river if it had been given a separate and another title name. Gene ...

in Brunswick County,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, United States.

Geography

The Shallotte River is a

Brunswick County, North Carolina Brunswick County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the southernmost county in the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 136,693. Its population was only ...

. Its waters drain from the tributaries of the Green Swamp near the town of Shallotte, flowing south for approximately nine miles to empty into the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. In addition to the Green Swamp, its river basin also includes farmland, forests, and semi-developed rural area. Approximately one-mile southwest of the river's mouth lies the Shallotte Inlet which connects the Intracostal Waterway to Long Bay of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The inlet separates Holden Beach Isle from Ocean Islef; this mouth of the Shallotte River before the Intracoastal Waterway's construction and decades of shifting sands. It also runs past Sunset Beach. The Shallotte River is heavily influenced by ocean tides, making its channel difficult to navigate. Its mouth is a wave intensive area. Waves and tides frequently move its bottom

sediments Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

which consists of course and medium sand, with traces of shell fragments. The river was dredged in 1929 for the first time, and again between 1966 and 1969. In the 1970s, the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

determined that 30,000 cubic yards had to be dredged every two years to maintains the river's channel. Its depth over the sandbar was 1983, making it accessible only to outboard motor boards. This made the depth at the inlet 4.6 inches and 3 feet at Shallott.

Name origin

The ''Shallotte River'' name dates back to at least 1734. According to some accounts, the waterway was once known as the "Charlotte River", a name coined by a traveler who crossed it by ferry. Over time the word Charlotte morphed into Shallotte.Town of Shallotte: Welcome to Shallotte
/ref> Another explanation is the river was so named on account of there being wild

shallot The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the difference was t ...

s along its course.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Brunswick County, North Carolina Rivers of North Carolina Inlets of North Carolina