Jones Lake State Park is located in Elizabethtown, NC. It is full of beauty, science and history…read more European migrants settled in the area and the lakes. Jones Lake was named for a local who donated a tract of land on which Elizabethtown was founded. Salters Lake was named after Sallie Salter. She was an American Revolutionary War heroine who famously spied on the Tories encamped along the Cape Fear River.
Jones Lake State Park has a Visitor Center with restrooms and interactive educational displays. These cover the history of the area, the scientific phenomenon and the ecology. Both Jones Lake and Salters Lake are Carolina Bays with highly acidic ecosystems. They are shallow, elliptically shaped depressions found throughout the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Aerial views show that thousands of these ovals are perfectly parallel, precisely aligned along a northwest-to-southeast axis. There are many theories about these geological wonders. From wind and waves to even meteorite impacts.
The industry in the area was farming and harvesting cotton and longleaf pines for the turpentine, pitch and timber. The area became overcut, and farmers could no longer survive. This led to an experiment of making these areas into parks. During the Jim Crow Era, it became a refuge for African Americans and was the state's first state park for African Americans. As most areas were segregated, the park is where the community came together culturally for baptisms, family reunions and community celebrations. In 1964, the park became desegregated. I had to double-check the date, as 1964 is not that long ago.
The lake's water is tea-colored, and decomposing organic matter produces tannic acids. This lowers the pH to 4.3, so it is closer to vinegar than to lake water. It is nutrient-poor as well, so not much can survive here. The waterlogged wetland and rims create a unique evergreen shrub bog called a pocosin. The bog has evergreen bay trees such as the Sweet Bay, Loblolly Bay, and Red Bay.
Bladen County is home to carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap, pitcher plants and sundews, which thrive here. Not many fish can survive here except for acid-tolerant fish species, like the chain pickerel, yellow perch, flyer sunfish, and yellow bullhead catfish.
For day visitors, Jones Lake State Park features over 50 picnic tables, charcoal grills, a sandy volleyball court, and horseshoe pits. During the warmer summer months, the park also opens a designated, roped-off swimming area with a white-sand beach.
