Pettigrew State Park in North Carolina centers on Lake Phelps and extends to the Scuppernong River, encompassing more than 22,000 acres of protected land and water. Lake Phelps, one of the oldest lakes in the eastern United States, is unusually shallow and clean because it is fed by rain and springs, conditions that have helped preserve ancient pottery, arrowheads, and dugout canoes left by Algonquian peoples thousands of years ago. The surrounding landscape also holds the history of Somerset Place, a plantation built with enslaved labor, and the burial site of Confederate general J. Johnston Pettigrew. Established in 1939, the park preserves notable natural, archaeological, and historical resources.