Press Releases

WHAT:

Fort Dobbs State Historic Site will commemorate North Carolina’s military history with a “Military Timeline” Nov. 9. Visitors will learn about the experiences of soldiers and support personnel from the past 450 years. The educational program will offer a sample of soldier life through history.Re-enactors dressed as soldiers and support personnel from the Civil War, World Wars, American Revolution, and many other time periods will present scheduled historic weapons firing demonstrations, along with ongoing displays of camp life, equipment, and cooking.

Opening Nov. 16 at Historic Stagville, Maya Freelon: Whippersnappers will premiere large-scale sculptures, archival photographs, paintings, and collages that transform the former plantation. Fully titled Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States, Freelon’s first large-scale installation featuring portraiture was born from her research of enslaved children highlighted in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

 North Carolina’s strong literary tradition is celebrated by the 2024 North Carolina Book Awards, which will be presented Dec. 6 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 CarolinaThe 2024 North Carolina Book Award winners are:

Crowders Mountain, Gorges, Grandfather Mountain and Lake Norman state parks, as well as Rendezvous Mountain, will reopen at least partially on Nov. 1, the Division of Parks and Recreation announced. These parks were temporarily closed through October after impacts from Hurricane Helene.The following areas are open at each park:    • Crowders Mountain — trails and day-use will reopen, all camping will remain closed through November

 The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will receive $750,000 to replace the roof of the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse at Historic Edenton State Historic Site. The project is being supported in part by a Semiquincentennial Grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service.

The life and accomplishments of Governor Richard Caswell, North Carolina’s first state governor, will be commemorated Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Governor Richard Caswell Memorial in Kinston, N.C.

The North Carolina Zoo is now officially accredited as a Botanical Garden, marking a significant milestone in the institution’s memorable 50-year history. The North Carolina Zoo is one of only a handful of zoos nationwide to earn this distinction.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that three historic districts and twelve individual properties across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and subsequently nominated by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register for consideration for listing in the National Register.

Do you have what it takes … to live and work in space? Find out at “Journey to Space,” a new exhibition opening at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on Saturday, Nov. 2.This special exhibition, developed in partnership with NASA's Johnson Space Center, invites visitors to explore the extraordinary environment of space, including the dangers that astronauts face during their missions above Earth and the adaptations that engineers have developed to help them survive while in space.