Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve near Southern Pines protects nine hundred fifteen acres of Sandhills landscape and one of North Carolina’s most important surviving longleaf pine forests, including the oldest known recorded longleaf pine at four hundred fifty-eight years old. The preserve reflects a region once dominated by original-growth longleafs that were heavily logged and tapped for naval stores from the colonial era through the railroad age, leaving most virgin growth gone by nineteen hundred. Its survival owes much to the Boyd family, whose land protection led to the state’s first natural area in nineteen sixty-three. The preserve also includes James Creek, whose blackwater habitat supports rare and regionally unique fish species.