America 250: Patriotic salute to small town America

Small town America at its finest. This is Edenton, N.C., located on the Albemarle Sound with a population of 4,440.

The quaint town served as North Carolina’s first capital from 1722 to 1743 during the colonial era.

This gallery was shot during the Bassmaster Elite event whose tournament waters encompassed Albemarle Sound.

The town was showing out during the mid-June event just a few weeks before Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of our great country.

Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford took a walking tour of the town and shot the photos for this gallery.

He discovered a town deep in history, where in 1774 some of the town’s women organized a protest called the Edenton Tea Party in solidarity with the organizers of the Boston Tea Party.

In 1658, adventurers from the Jamestown area drifted through the wilderness from Virginia and found a location on the northern shore of a small natural harbor now called Edenton Bay. Edenton was established there in 1712.

Fast-forward to today, and specifically during mid-June, when the Bassmaster Elite pros were catching bass from the waters near the historic town.