Grifton, in Pitt County, is OUR STATE magazine's featured Tar Heel town of the month. Comer discusses the town's history, its surviving the flood in the wake of Hurricane Floyd, and its well-known Shad Festival.
Grifton’s population grew four fold from 1950-1960, with Kinston’s DuPont plant as the recognized factor. In the shadow of an industrial giant, a family owned business can be easily invisible. An exception was Cox’s Trailers. Location was an obvious factor, but offering quality service and products played just as much a role in its local popularity the past four decades.
Students from East Carolina University, Pitt Community College, and Pitt County Schools can now study the stars, thanks to the new observatory in Grifton collaboratively created by two local philanthropists and two North Carolina community colleges.