Press Releases

A state park in the migratory path of the monarch butterfly will host a festival to raise awareness about the declining population of this colorful creature.Gorges State Park in Transylvania County will host the second annual Mountain Monarch Festival on Saturday, Sept. 23 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at the park’s visitor center. The festival will celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration south through North Carolina to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, where they overwinter until early spring.

Open your brown bag picnic and join the State Archives of North Carolina for a virtual program, "Lunch & Learn on the Trails."Staff will showcase records in the Archives relating to the 2023 Year of the Trail initiative. A roundtable discussion with the State Archives’ podcast team will explore the origins and evolution of the Great Trails State, tourism, and programs to promote health and environment through documents and imagery. Follow the paper trail through the Archives on a journey of historical discovery!

 In celebration of Constitution Week 2023, the State Archives will partner with the Asbury Station and Samuel Johnston Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution for a “One-Day Wonder” exhibit of original documents.

The Museum of the Albemarle will host our monthly History for Lunch on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, at noon in the Gaither Auditorium.  Frank McMahon, assistant site manager at Historic Halifax State Historic Site, will highlight the contributions of African American soldiers from Halifax, who fought to bring us our independence during the American Revolutionary War.The Museum will offer the History for Lunch in-person and through Zoom.  Register in advance through the Museum’s Facebook page or website to receive a link to attend the lecture virtually.

A North Carolina state historic site, an incubator of civil rights leaders – not only in North Carolina but throughout the world – recently was selected to receive federal preservation grant funding.A $555,334 grant from the National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant Program awarded in June will be used for the preservation of the Tea House at Charlotte Hawkins Brown State Historic Site in Sedalia, N.C.

A North Carolina state historic site, one of only a few known surviving houses from the American Revolution that still bear the scars of the war, was recently selected to receive federal preservation grant funding.A $444,926 grant from the National Park Service Semiquincentennial Grant Program of the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) will be used to do important preservation work at the House in the Horseshoe (ca. 1770) on the Deep River near Sanford, N.C.

The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation is seeking public input on the Pisgah View State Park Master Plan. The Master Plan will be a 20-year plan that covers the entire state park, which contains over 1,600 acres spanning Buncombe and Haywood counties and is sited within the Spring Mountain range and Southern Appalachian escarpment, an ecologically significant region. Pisgah View is the 35th state park added to the North Carolina State Parks System, and the tenth state park in the mountain region of North Carolina.

It’s time to get buggy with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as they host BugFest, the largest one-day bug-centric event in the country. Satisfy all your web weaving, wing flapping, dungball rolling, creepy crawling and (of course) bug munching pursuits in one day: Saturday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. It’s free!

Hikers soon will be able to enjoy a new stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in Johnston County.Visitors are invited to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site on Friday, Sept. 15 at 10:30 a.m. Plan to arrive by 10:15 a.m., to give ample time to park a short distance away from the trailhead. Dress appropriately for the conditions: sturdy shoes and insect repellant are recommended. Light refreshments will be available before the ceremony.

A notorious 1830 state Supreme Court decision often cited by abolitionists in the 1850s soon will be commemorated with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.The marker, which will be placed in Edenton, N.C., near the site of the original offense, chronicles the outcome of State v. Mann. When the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the conviction of John Mann, it gave the absolute right of control over an enslaved person to a slaveowner, and, by proxy, someone in temporary possession of an enslaved person.