Huntersville: From Craighead to the Carolina Corridor

Before it was Huntersville, this community in northern Mecklenburg County was called Craighead, honoring Alexander Craighead, a fiery Presbyterian minister who preached in these hills in the seventeen forties. Scotch-Irish and German settlers had been arriving along the old Trading Path from the north and via the rivers from Charleston since the early seventeen hundreds, drawn by fertile Piedmont land and cotton cultivation.

The town was reborn when the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad ran its tracks straight through the community in the eighteen seventies, spurring enough growth for a town charter in eighteen seventy-three. The new name honored Robert Boston Hunter, a local farmer and landowner. Today Huntersville is one of the fastest-growing towns in the Charlotte metro, but the railroad tracks still run parallel to Main Street, same as they always have.