Press Releases

Reed Gold Mine is celebrating another North Carolina treasure with its inaugural Barbecue Festival Saturday, April 13, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The festival is in conjunction with the traveling exhibit “The Story of Barbecue in North Carolina,” on display at Reed Gold Mine April 2 through June 15. Experience a taste sensation as five local restaurants showcase their gastronomic delights!

State officials have notified families that a man who previously worked at summer camps and other programs run by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has been charged in North Carolina and other states with alleged crimes involving children. None of the current charges stem from activities at the Museum.

 A glimpse of 18th century life comes to Fort Dobbs as visitors will meet soldiers and settlers during the “War for Empire” program April 6-7. They can enjoy special performances of period music as part of the 2019 “Year of Music” organized by the N.C. Arts Council within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The State Archives of North Carolina is developing a program that showcases some of its collections while engaging the public with hands-on activities that will increase the accessibility of archival records. “Transcribe NC” is recruiting volunteers to spend a little time helping to transcribe its first projects—county draft board records of those men who were drafted or enlisted during World War I, and the travel writings of those North Carolinians fortunate to travel the nation and the world.  

The North Carolina Arts Council will offer three regional writing workshops this spring in Cary, Asheville and Wilmington that will be taught exclusively by North Carolina Arts Council literary Fellowship recipients.

When most people think of the first landing of a man on the moon, they don’t think of a behind the scenes bureaucrat, but there was James E. Webb. Born in Tally Ho, in Granville County, raised and educated in Oxford, N.C., Webb was picked by President John Kennedy to take control of the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration in early 1961. Four months later he charged Webb and NASA to land a man on the moon within a decade and safely return him. He did.

Gaston County has been awarded a 2018 federal Historic Preservation Fund grant administered by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (HPO). The grant award is $6,000 and is matched by the Town of Dallas for a total project budget of $10,000. The funds will be used to resurvey historic properties within the National Register of Historic Places Historic District in Dallas, and to conduct a new survey of historic buildings outside the district.

History buffs, community leaders and preservationists will aid in the preservation of Civil War sites in North Carolina this spring. Historic Edenton holds its Park Day Saturday, March 30. Three other venues will have Park Day events Saturday, April 6 and one will be held Saturday, April 13. Thousands of volunteers across the country participate in the American Battlefield Trust organized event.   

The State Archives of North Carolina is excited to announce the establishment of an Oral History Unit within its Special Collections Section. The unit is headed by oral historian Ellen Brooks, a graduate of the Oral History Master of Arts program at Columbia University. She was previously the oral historian at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. 

Join Town Creek Indian Mound and the Montgomery County Public Library in Troy in celebration with the North Carolina Science Festival’s Statewide Star Party April 13! “The Moon and Beyond” is the theme for 2019 in commemoration of the Apollo moon landing and the “giant leap” that left the first human footprints on the moon.