Bearpond

… community in S Vance County, named for a local tradition of a celebrated bear hunt there. In 1785 a practical joke was played on Zeke Brown to put an end to his tall tales of bear killing. A mock bear hunt was arranged at the present site of Bearpond in which a local citizen, Jake Sims, dressed in bearskins and gave Brown such a scare he left the county for "Orrapeake." The community is now known locally as Buena Vista, after the plantation of Dr. Robert Christian Pritchard (b. 1812) in nearby S Warren County.