Mount Olive, town in North Carolina, United States
Mount Olive is a small town in eastern North Carolina straddling Wayne and Duplin counties. It features a mix of older homes, small shops, churches, and quiet streets bisected by an active railroad line that still carries freight trains through the downtown area.
The town emerged in the 1850s around a railroad depot built on land purchased from prominent Black landowner Adam Winn. Growth accelerated with the railroad's arrival, and the town was officially incorporated in 1870 as a trading and transportation center.
The name Mount Olive references the Biblical Mount of Olives, though the town itself is flat and grows no olives. Residents take pride in their pickle-making heritage and celebrate it each April with a festival that has become central to how the community sees itself.
The town is flat and easy to walk through, with a manageable downtown centered on Center Street where most shops and points of interest cluster together. The compact layout makes it simple to explore the main areas on foot without difficulty.
The town celebrates its pickle industry with an unusual New Year's tradition where a 3-foot-tall pickle is dropped down a pole instead of a ball. This quirky custom makes Mount Olive one of the few places in America that marks the new year with produce rather than a sphere.
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