Press Releases

The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology (OSA) is completing two projects supported by Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (ESHPF) grant, money appropriated by Congress in response to hurricanes Florence and Michael in 2018 and administered by the National Park Service. These projects sought to identify resources and communities impacted by the 2018 hurricanes that are at risk of damage from future storm events. The two OSA ESHPF research projects occurred on state-owned and managed lands along the coast including Hammocks Beach State Park.

Fort Dobbs State Historic Site will hold a special “Highlighted History” event on June 1.  Visitors will learn about the June 1761 invasion of the Cherokee’s homeland by a British army commanded by James Grant.  Re-enactors will illustrate life on campaign as experienced by British and colonial soldiers.  Featured outdoor activities include scheduled musket firing demonstrations and a presentation about the campaign by Historic Interpreter Jason Melius. Ongoing displays of camp life include cooking, woodworking, and blacksmithing demonstrations.

Two North Carolina state historic sites — Historic Edenton and Historic Halifax — will enhance education and preservation activities thanks to grants from the Charles A. Cannon Charitable Trust Number One. Established upon Charles A. Cannon’s passing, the Trust provides funding for capital and equipment projects across North Carolina.

The Museum of the Albemarle will host History for Lunch on Wednesday, June 19, at noon in the Gaither Auditorium for an informative talk by Barbara Snowden, Currituck County Historian. 

A pair of beach resorts for Black families organized in North Carolina before desegregation will be recognized with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.Seabreeze and Freeman Beach were two pioneering beach resorts established in New Hanover County in 1922 and 1951, respectively. Closely related to each other geographically, and consequently considered by some to be the same, they provided summertime leisure for thousands of Black visitors from North Carolina and other parts of the country during the Jim Crow era, when beach resorts were racially segregated.

An American Indian tribe linked to settlements along the Eno River in central North Carolina soon will be recognized with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.

The North Carolina Zoo is excited to celebrate National Trails Day at Ridge’s Mountain on June 1.The North Carolina Zoo invites visitors to celebrate National Trails Day by hiking Ridge’s Mountain, located at 504 Summit Court, Asheboro, N.C. On June 1, Zoo staff will be available at the trailhead from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. to greet hikers and talk about the history of the dramatic landscape.

The North Carolina Museum of History is excited to announce a calendar full of free events as we get ready to start the summer!At the beginning of May, the museum announced the upcoming redesign of the museum and exhibits. To prepare for the renovation, the third-floor exhibits will close on June 3, 2024. The first-floor exhibits and the physical museum building will close on October 7, 2024.

Flowers are blooming, and birds are building nests, which means it’s time for the Mountain Gateway Museum’s “Birds & Blooms Bonanza.”

The Museum of the Albemarle will open the exhibit Who Can Vote: Brief History of Voting Rights in the United States on June 4, 2024. This traveling exhibit from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History “examines voting rights with an emphasis on the role of the US Constitution and the interplay between the states and federal government in determining who is allowed to vote. Beginning with the founding era and going up to the election of 2000, this exhibition explores the complex history of the right to vote that forms the core of our nation’s democracy.