Press Releases

The Aycock Community Yard Sale scheduled for Saturday, April 14, has been cancelled. The event may be rescheduled for this summer. Spring is still a great time to visit and see the sheep grazing and Rhode Island Red chickens at Aycock.

Prohibition was a unique period in our country’s history, beginning in 1918 with the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act, a federal amendment and subsequent law that prohibited the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol throughout the United States. But did you know that North Carolina enacted state-wide prohibition nearly a decade earlier? Learn more at “Inflamed by Spirits: North Carolina’s Role in Temperance and Prohibition,” a new, free exhibit opening Thursday, April 19 at the North Carolina State Capitol.

The “N.C. Digs!” traveling archaeological exhibit features artifacts from the Berry site in Burke County and other western North Carolina sites. The Western Office of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will host the exhibit April 16 to May 30. The exhibit features five different types of archaeological sites found across North Carolina: Native American, battlefield, plantation, trash pit and industrial. “N.C. Digs!” includes interpretive panels explaining each site type, and reviews techniques and methods used to excavate and analyze the materials discovered.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announces that six 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 were subsequently approved by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register.

Visitors are invited to experience the ongoing conservation of the infamous pirate Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, at the fourth annual Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab Open House, Saturday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free for this fun and educational event, “Blackbeard: The Science of Pirates, 300th Edition.” 

Spring is here and often that means renewal, sorting and taking inventory. It’s the perfect time for the Somerset Yard and Market Sale Saturday, April 14, 10 a.m.to 2 p.m. Community members, civic clubs, local churches and organizations are invited to bring gently used household items, jewelry, baskets, food, pottery, artwork, crafts and baked goods to sell. The event is a great way to enjoy homemade goods and buy local, meet neighbors and support community creativity. Vendor spaces near the visitor center will rent for $15.

Due to potentially inclement weather, two of the four state historic sites planning Park Day for April 7 have rescheduled. Park Day will go on at Historic Edenton and Fort Fisher April 7 as planned. Park Day at Bennett Place is rescheduled to April 14; Park Day at Bentonville Battlefield is rescheduled to April 28. Thousands of volunteers across the country participate in the Civil War Trust organized event, and this year will be the largest ever involving more than 155 historic sites in 32 states.

Raleigh, N.C. - The North Carolina Historical Commission Confederate Monuments Study Committee has set a deadline for the acceptance of public comments on a petition to relocate three Confederate monuments from the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Four Oaks, N.C. The public comment period will close at midnight, Thursday, April 12 (Eastern Standard Time).

Parents, there are fun, interactive, educational activities waiting for your little ones at the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center this spring and summer. Every second Wednesday, April through August, the CSS Neuse will present “Storytime and Craft Morning,” with a different book and craft each month. The first program, Wednesday, April 11, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., costs $1 per person and includes all materials.

The meeting of opposing generals inside the humble parlor of James and Nancy Bennett was a small part of making peace and ending the Civil War. Why did the negotiations take days longer than those at Appomattox? How did the ending impact black and white civilians, the free and enslaved? What role did the cavalry play? These are among questions to be explored Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22, at Bennett Place State Historic Site in Durham.