JONES LAKE STATE PARK: OUTSTANDING FIELD LOCALITY FOR CAROLINA BAYS

Carolina Bays are prominent, if subtle, features of the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas. In North Carolina, they occur in the thousands principally between the Orangeburg Scarp and the coast. Most bays are hard to see at ground level because they are such shallow geomorphic features, making field examination difficult. Consequently, they have seldom been included historically on geologic trips. The bays with lakes, however, are more obvious and Jones Lake State Park (Bladen County, North Carolina) contains two such bay lakes (Jones Lake and Salters Lake). These Carolina Bays exhibit many of the important features to understanding bay development and their effect on the local environment and ecology. Examples of these key features that can be seen at Jones Lake include lakes filling part, but not all of the bay with trail accessibility to the entire bay margin, development of the sand rim along the southeast margin, cross-cutting bays demonstrating multiple times of generation, peat development on the edge of bays, and pollen data showing the changing climate and vegetation of the Coastal Plain since the interglacial before the last glacial maximum. These Bay lakes are in an accessible State Park, ensuring their continued availability to field trips, and the park has an exhibit on Bays in its headquarters to provide context for visitors.

New techniques like ground penetrating radar and OSL dating of sand rims from the Jones Lake Bays are adding new information on the multiple generations of bay formation and mechanisms of development. These developing datasets provide additional geologic insight for the casual visitor to the serious geologist.

In addition, there are neighboring Carolina Bay lakes in Bladen County just north of the Cape Fear River that are also accessible and provide additional examples and detail, particularly Singletary Lake (State Park).