Press Releases

North Carolina’s state parks director Dwayne Patterson is retiring from the state agency he has led for the last five years. Patterson will depart early next year. He is the first African American to serve as director of the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation. During his tenure, Patterson helped secure historic funding levels to support both state and local parks. He also served the state as the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ chief financial officer and as chief deputy secretary for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Allen Williford has been named superintendent of Medoc Mountain State Park in Halifax County, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. A state park superintendent manages the operations and administration of a park and has wide-ranging responsibilities including staffing, planning, environmental education, natural resources management, law enforcement and visitor services. Williford succeeds Kelley King, who retired last spring.

Bill Stanley has been promoted to lead superintendent at Kerr Lake State Recreation Area in Vance and Warren counties, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. A state park superintendent manages the operations and administration of a park and has wide-ranging responsibilities including staffing, planning, environmental education, natural resources management, law enforcement and visitor services.

Celebrate the holiday season at the Governor’s Western Residence Holiday Open House, Dec. 10-11, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. The residence is located at 45 Patton Mountain Rd., Asheville.  Reservations are not needed to attend the open house. Guests are invited to tour the residence, which has been decorated for the season. For more information, please call (828) 225-0122.  

By December of 1756, Fort Dobbs was complete. Its garrison of 50 North Carolina soldiers prepared to spend the first of many winters in the building as they guarded the western edge of settlement in the British colony during the French and Indian War.

 North Carolina’s strong literary tradition is celebrated by the 2022 North Carolina Book Awards, to be presented Dec. 2 during the annual meeting of the N.C. Literary and Historical Association. The annual awards recognize significant works by North Carolina writers. Since its founding in September 1900, the N.C. Literary and Historical Association has pledged to stimulate the production of literature and to collect and preserve historical material in North Carolina. The 2022 North Carolina Book Award winners are:

The North Carolina Museum of History will host a special one-day public exhibition of a rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution, Wednesday, Dec. 7. The document is one of just 14 known copies of the official printing of the Constitution produced for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress. It is one of only two copies of the first printing of the Constitution that remain in private hands.

Historic Bath State Historic Site will open a new exhibit, “Along the Banks of Bath Creek: A Story of People and Place,” with a ribbon cutting Friday, Dec. 9 at 11 a.m. This immersive exhibit tells the stories of Bath, from its history as an American Indian homesite through the 20th century.

The North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites, part of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, will hold a ceremony Tuesday, Dec. 13 to recognize the state’s acquisition of 246 acres along the Yadkin River in Forsyth County as the first step in creating the Shallow Ford State Historic Site.

Students at the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will have the opportunity to learn and earn next summer through a 10-week paid summer internship within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.