As a native of the City of Oaks, the Capital City of the Old North State, FUBeAR is uniquely qualified to opine regarding Buies Creek, NC and its proximity to a figurative, but contextually very real place called “Nowhere.”
At one time and/or viewed from a certain perspective, Buies Creek is/was most certainly and truly smack dab in the middle of Nowhere. Literally, Buies Creek is almost in the middle of Harnett County, NC which abuts Wake County, NC’s (the county in which Raleigh lies) southern border and Cumberland County’s (the home of Fayetteville & Fort Bragg (soon to be Fort Liberty), one of the largest military installations in the world) northern border.
Framed by a couple of counties with large “Somewheres” in them, Harnett County is as good an example of Nowhere as you will find anywhere. It’s county seat is the aforementioned Lillington (pop. 4735) and it’s largest city is the also aforementioned Dunn (pop. 8,446). Thus, sitting almost in the middle of a county that can clearly be described as Nowhere, it is certainly fair to characterize Buies Creek as being in the middle of nowhere.
BUT…if we expand our field of view out just a wee bit, our perspective might change. If we haven’t already, we also need to update our reference point to June 29, 1990, when the final section of I-40 connecting California to the East Coast in Wilmington, NC was opened. This extended from Raleigh (AKA “Somewhere”) and crossed I-95 (Miami, FL to Maine) about 14 miles from Buies Creek. So, this nearby access to a network of interstates that span the length and breadth of the United States and a slightly expanded field of view brings Buies Creek from accurately being described as the “middle of nowhere” to also fairly being termed as residing on “the outskirts of somewhere.”
In fact, FUBeAR recently entered, “Buies Creek, we’re on the outskirts of somewhere…really” as his submission to a tagline contest for Buies Creek that the local Chamber of Commerce is holding. Pretty sure that submission is in the finals. Please go here and vote for FUBeAR’s entry
https://youtu.be/xvFZjo5PgG0
