Charlotte

A hornet's nest of rebellion

Charlotte was named for Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, which makes it awkward that the city became one of the most troublesome places in the colonies for the Crown. Locals claim Mecklenburg County declared independence on May 20, 1775, more than a year before Philadelphia did. Historians still argue about whether that document existed, but the date is on the North Carolina state flag anyway. When General Cornwallis occupied the town in 1780, he reportedly called it "a hornet's nest of rebellion," and the city adopted the insult: hornets appear on the police badge and gave the NBA team its name. In 1799, a twelve-year-old named Conrad Reed found a seventeen-pound gold nugget on his family's farm nearby, and his family used it as a doorstop for three years before anyone realized what it was. That find set off the country's first gold rush, and by 1837 Charlotte had a branch of the U.S. Mint. The Mint building was later moved across town and now houses the Mint Museum. Gold gave way to banking, and today Charlotte is the second-largest financial center in the United States.