Press Releases

Many opportunities to experience art, history and nature await you on Veteran's Day from the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Most state historic sites are closed, but all state parks are open.  Many DNCR venues are open, and offer free admission to all on Veteran's Day. To salute veterans and their families, we are offering free and discounted admissions to many venues to active military with ID.  Free or low-cost activities across the state include:

Learn more about North Carolina’s role in World War I and join in a salute to veterans at the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Western Office through the current “North Carolina and the Great War” exhibit that focuses on World War I through Nov. 18.

Due to an extremely high risk of wildfire, 14 state parks in western North Carolina have placed temporary bans on campfires, according to North Carolina State Parks. Restrictions on campfires and cooking fires could be expanded to other parks on short notice, depending on local conditions.

The fund has awarded grants that have impacted every county in the state. Two outstanding stream restoration projects involve the Ararat River in Surry County and Little Sugar Creek in Mecklenburg County. 

A new traveling exhibit about The First Gulf War: The War to Free Kuwait, opens Friday, Nov. 4, at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. The Government of the State of Kuwait funded the exhibit to honor the 75,000 men and women, and their units, stationed in North Carolina, who served and sacrificed to liberate Kuwait.

Enjoy an out-of-this-world experience that combines the music of Gustav Holst’s famous symphonic suite The Planets with stunning images from NASA missions sent to explore the planets of our solar system during a performance of the North Carolina Symphony in collaboration with imagery from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

A N.C. Highway Historical Marker will be dedicated Tuesday, Nov. 1, to recognize the 1963 Fourth Circuit Court ruling that receipt of federal funding made private hospitals subject to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Duke Homestead State Historic Site in Durham will be closed for approximately three weeks beginning Monday, Oct. 31 while repairs are made to the Visitor Center roof.

North Carolina State Parks will hold a Special Centennial Celebration, which will include retracing the steps of a citizen march in support of saving Crowders Mountain, Sunday at Crowders Mountain State Park.

The Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C. is one of five new clinical sites for expansion of the Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Department of Defense (DoD).