For a town that is only two square miles, China Grove sure does have a lot to offer. While the area has less than 4,300 people, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing like many people seem to think. Located not too far from major cities, it can be nice to live somewhere that you can get away from all of the fast-paced living. It certainly helps that China Grove was rated among North Carolina’s top 20 safest cities in 2016. Having a smaller population certainly has its perks when it comes to some things, and everyone knowing their neighbors definitely helps with safety!
One of the things that it doesn’t help with is publicity. Now, this may be something that the residents enjoy, but it certainly doesn’t do much when it comes to the economy of the town. Naturally not every place makes its money off of tourism, but in most places it certainly couldn’t hurt. This is especially true of smaller towns that may not have many people passing through often, much like China Grove. Any town, no matter how tiny, has something to offer. You just need to know how to look for that thing and then publicize it.
Trying to find China Grove online is rather difficult if you don’t know the name of the town. Searches for “safe North Carolina towns”, “small North Carolina towns”, and quite a few other terms turned nothing up in my quest to find the wonderful hidden gem that is China Grove. In fact, typing in “hidden gems North Carolina” mostly only turned up Franklin, but that was to be expected in retrospect. The point is that even many small towns in this state are able to be found, but for some reason China Grove is almost totally off the map.
As I said before, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just seems a little odd that one of the top 20 safest towns in North Carolina doesn’t seem to show up on any of the lists, even when you are specifically looking for the safest towns in the state. While Google and other search engines are a wonderful reference, they certainly aren’t infallible. This is why having a solid SEO company behind you to help is so incredibly important. No matter how little you may think you need it, it is always better for people to be able to at least find out about you with a search.
Like most towns in North Carolina, the beginnings of China Grove were extremely early. It is believed that there was a settlement as early as 1710, however it was finally known by the name it has today by 1849. Sadly, the Chinaberry trees that the town was named for have all either been cut down or died out, but we can only imagine how lovely (and cool) they must have looked in the summer. The depot unfortunately had to be taken down in 1974, but there are still many pictures remaining for those who may not have been able to see it in person.
The depot was likely put in place due to the fact that China Grove was once a stagecoach stop. While this was before the American Revolution, the quiet and mostly unnoticed importance of China Grove throughout North Carolinian history did not stop there. For example, in October of 1896 the first Rural Free Delivery Mail in North Carolina was made in China Grove. You see, since 1863 most of the people in cities had mail delivered right to their homes. However in 1890 nearly 65% of Americans still had to travel to the local post office to pick their mail up. The Postmaster General at the time became an ally to the Farmers’ Alliance movement among other similar groups and decided to work towards getting free home mail delivery to every person in the country. This was finally realized almost a decade later with China Grove being only the second Rural Free Delivery made in all of America.
These may seem like small things, but even the smallest shift in snow can start an avalanche. The same is true for historical events. With things like the Rural Free Delivery Mail experiment, if the program had not worked in China Grove, congress never would have allotted the extra funding needed to expand throughout the country. This means that the mail system as we know it today was partially formed due to China Grove and its willingness to take a chance on something that was then seen as a radical new idea.
China Grove has so much to offer not just North Carolina, but all of America as well. The only thing is that people need to know about the town in order to realize this! Give us a call today and see what we can do to help you get back on the well known map!