<P> The Neuse flows through parts of seven counties . Major cities and towns in proximity to the Neuse are Durham, Neuse Township; Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina; Smithfield; Goldsboro; Kinston; and New Bern . </P> <P> For thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, different civilizations of indigenous peoples lived along the river . Many artifacts found along its banks have been traced to ancient prehistoric Native American settlements . Archaeological studies have shown waves of habitation . </P> <P> The river has one of the three oldest surviving English - applied placenames in the U.S. Colonists named the Neuse River after its name by the American Indian tribe known as Neusiok, with whom the early Raleigh expeditions made contact . They also identified the region as the "Neusick". Two English captains, Arthur Barlowe and Phillip Armadas, were commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 to explore the New World . They landed on North Carolina's coast July 2, 1584 to begin their research . In their 1585 report to Raleigh, they wrote favorably of the Indian population in "...the country Neusiok, situated upon a goodly river called Neuse ...", as it was called by the local population . </P> <P> In 1865 during the American Civil War, the Confederates burned one of the last ironclad warships which they had built, the Ram Neuse, to prevent its capture by Union troops . The level of the river had fallen so that it prevented the ship from passing downriver . Nearly a century later, during another period of historically low water, the remains of the ship were discovered . It was raised in 1963 . Later the ship was installed beside the river at the Governor Caswell Memorial in Kinston . </P>

Where did the neuse river get its name