Rocky Mount is located in Edgecombe County east of Raleigh, between Wilson and Roanoke Rapids along US Highway 301 on the banks of the Tar River near Tarboro, Nashville, Dortches, Gold Rock, and Whitakers. The name comes from the rocky mound at the falls of the Tar River, which was also the site of one of the first cotton mills in North Carolina, the Rocky Mount Mills was established in 1818.
