Singletary Lake State Park in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain centers on one of the largest Carolina bays, a rain-fed lake in a chain stretching from New Jersey to Florida and now understood as an ancient thermokarst feature. Settled in the colonial era under Richard Singletary’s 1729 land grant, the surrounding land was heavily used, but the bay itself escaped drainage. State claims over larger lakes in the 19th century helped preserve it. Modern development began in 1936, when the National Park Service and Civilian Conservation Corps created its core camp facilities. Established as a state park in 1939, it remains focused on group camping amid notable bay forest habitat and wildlife.