Press Releases

The North Carolina Museum of History is excited to announce a calendar full of events as the long summer days fade into the cozy glow of autumn!Come and celebrate the last few weeks of the museum building being open with live music performances like no other! Our fall schedule includes three more Tar Heel Troubadours concerts, a celebration of Americana, roots, bluegrass, and traditional music performed by artists from North Carolina or currently living and working in the state.Read on for all our fall events. Programs are FREE unless otherwise noted.

An American Indian tribe linked to a settlement primarily in the northern Piedmont region straddling Person County, N.C.,  and Halifax County, Va., soon will be recognized with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.

The North Carolina Zoo and its original elephant, C’sar, have officially marked 50 WILD Years together. C’sar’s journey from the wild plains of Kenya to his home in Asheboro is a story of survival, adaptation, and the enduring spirit of one of nature's most magnificent creatures.

The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation announced that Erin Brown has been named a superintendent at Falls Lake State Recreation Area. Brown has moved into the position that Crystal Lloyd vacated last year when she transferred to Carolina Beach State Park. Brown joins David Mumford, the lead superintendent.

Thanks to a $75,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the Charlotte Hawkins Brown State Historic Site will hire a financial sustainability advisor. This advisor will guide the historic site in developing a new strategic financial plan to support future preservation efforts and to grow its African American history and educational programs for the statewide and local community.

 The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has been awarded a $100,000 Battlefield Restoration grant from the National Park Service to produce a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) to guide the restoration of key portions of the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Johnston County.

The North Carolina Zoo has claimed the top spot in a nationwide contest for “Best Zoo” in the United States. The North Carolina Zoo was first nominated in the Newsweek Readers’ Choice Awards in July 2024, with public voting open daily from July 3-31.Contest nominees were proposed and vetted by a panel of travel writers and tourism experts before a final voting selection was made by Newsweek editors. Top-10 results were made public on Aug. 8, with North Carolina Zoo ranking #1: 

Jacob Brown is the new park superintendent at Raven Rock State Park in Harnett County, the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation announced. Brown succeeds John Privette, who became the division’s law enforcement specialist last year.Park superintendents manage operations and administration at a park and have wide-ranging responsibilities that include staffing, training, law enforcement, planning, resource management, interpretation and education, and visitor services.

The North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, in collaboration with The Conservation Fund and 130 of Chatham, LLC, announced the completion of an acquisition that protects 238.14 acres of high-elevation land that has long been identified as critical acreage in Mount Mitchell State Park’s land protection plan.

 An American Indian tribe linked to settlements primarily in Sampson and Harnett counties soon will be recognized with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.