CAPE FEAR RIVER

river in central and southeast North Carolina, U.S., formed by the confluence of the Deep and Haw rivers in Chatham county. It flows generally southeast, past Fayetteville, Elizabethtown, and Wilmington, to enter the Atlantic Ocean at Southport, opposite Smith Island, after a course of about 200 miles (320 km). The chief tributary is the South River, which joins the Cape Fear River 50 miles (80 km) from its mouth. The south estuary forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. A series of locks and dams makes the river navigable from Wilmington to Fayetteville. The river is named for Cape Fear, at the southern tip of Smith Island, the site of dangerous shoals.