Editing Hillsborough, North Carolina (section)

===Native American history===
Local [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] groups had lived in the Hillsborough area for thousands of years by the time Spanish explorers entered the region.  The Great Indian Trading Path, used by generations of Native Americans, crossed the Eno River in this area. Historic [[Siouan]]-language tribes such as the [[Occaneechi]] and the [[Eno people|Eno]] were living in the Hillsborough area at the time of European contact. The English explorer [[John Lawson (explorer)|John Lawson]] recorded visiting "Occaneechi Town" here when he traveled through North Carolina in 1701. The tribes suffered high losses due to new infectious diseases brought by Europeans and conflicts with [[Iroquois#Iroquois Confederacy|northern Native American groups]]; most of the survivors were eventually pushed out of their territory by British and other European settlers.

English settlers developed Hillsborough near the site of the former Occaneechi village and its [[Ford (crossing)|river fords]]. In the early 18th century, some Occaneechi left Hillsborough for [[Virginia]], though they returned to the area around 1780.<ref name="southern neighbor">{{cite news |title= Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation |work=Southern Neighbor |date=November 2009 }}</ref>

In the 1980s, an archaeological team from [[UNC-Chapel Hill]] excavated a historic Occaneechi farming village in this area.<ref name="southern neighbor"/> A replica of an Occaneechi village was built close to their original site of settlement near the [[Eno River]].<ref name="southern neighbor"/>