Press Releases

The Museum of the Albemarle will host our monthly History for Lunch on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at noon in the Gaither Auditorium. As the 250th anniversary of the United States approaches, Dr. Kathleen DuVal, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will discuss how North Carolina’s men and women responded to and contributed to the American Revolution. From the Edenton Tea Party to the Halifax Resolves to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina played a central role in the war.

The State Capitol will bring back a popular walking tour series centered on protest and civil rights in downtown Raleigh to commemorate Black History Month. The "We've Always Been Out There" tour will be a short (0.5 mile) walking tour that discusses the lengthy history of protest and civil rights demonstrations in Raleigh. The tour covers events from the early 19th century to the 1980s, and includes the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, women's suffrage, Prohibition, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the city’s first ever Pride parade.

The Museum of the Albemarle will host our monthly History for Lunch on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at noon in the Gaither Auditorium.  Dr. Glen Bowman, a professor at Elizabeth City State University, will discuss the history of efforts in the region to restrict voting rights, as well as other efforts to expand suffrage, from the beginning of Jim Crow to the election of W. Kerr Scott as governor.

On Saturday, Jan. 18, the sound of cannons and muskets will once again ring out at Fort Fisher State Historic Site. The event will mark the 160th anniversary of the fort’s capture by U.S. forces in January 1865. This will be the site’s first major event since opening a new 20,000-square-foot visitor center and reconstructed earthworks late last year.

A thwarted religious plot by local farmers to kill Gov. Richard Caswell in 1777 soon will be recognized with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.

Friday at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Pamela Brewington Cashwell took the oath of office as secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Cashwell was joined by her husband, David Cashwell and sons as N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls administered the oath. Cashwell will serve as a member of Governor Josh Stein’s cabinet and oversee the department’s nearly 2,400 employees and more than 100 locations across the state.

At its December meeting, the North Carolina Trails Committee selected 13 trail development projects and five safety and education projects to receive matching federal grants, the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation announced. In addition, the committee recommended the official designation of the first access points on the new Haw River State Trail and four accesses on the Yadkin River State Trail.

The Mountain Gateway Museum has opened to the public at its temporary location at

The North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island has rehabilitated and released 399 sea turtles with the aid of several long-standing community partnerships on the Outer Banks. The turtles were initially brought to the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation (STAR) Center at the Aquarium because of cold-stunning, a hypothermia-like condition that occurs when the water temperature drops quickly before the sea turtles can migrate to warmer water.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has received a $75,000 award through a grant from the PNC Foundation to Friends of Fort Fisher.