Press Releases

Sam Koch has been named superintendent at Mayo River State Park in Rockingham County, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. Koch has served as interim superintendent at the park since September. A state park superintendent manages the operations and administration of a park and has wide-ranging responsibilities including staffing, planning, environmental education, natural resources management, law enforcement and visitor services.

The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is partnering with Hometown Strong and consultancy firm Sound Diplomacy to develop the North Carolina Music Friendly Communities program. Three North Carolina cities were chosen to participate during the pilot program’s first year — Durham, Shelby and Elizabeth City.

North Carolina’s state parks director Dwayne Patterson is retiring from the state agency he has led for the last five years. Patterson will depart early next year. He is the first African American to serve as director of the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation. During his tenure, Patterson helped secure historic funding levels to support both state and local parks. He also served the state as the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ chief financial officer and as chief deputy secretary for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is partnering with Hometown Strong and consultancy firm Sound Diplomacy to develop the North Carolina Music Friendly Communities program. Three North Carolina cities have been chosen to participate during the pilot program’s first year – Durham, Shelby and Elizabeth City. 

Allen Williford has been named superintendent of Medoc Mountain State Park in Halifax County, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. A state park superintendent manages the operations and administration of a park and has wide-ranging responsibilities including staffing, planning, environmental education, natural resources management, law enforcement and visitor services. Williford succeeds Kelley King, who retired last spring.

Bill Stanley has been promoted to lead superintendent at Kerr Lake State Recreation Area in Vance and Warren counties, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. A state park superintendent manages the operations and administration of a park and has wide-ranging responsibilities including staffing, planning, environmental education, natural resources management, law enforcement and visitor services.

Celebrate the holiday season at the Governor’s Western Residence Holiday Open House, Dec. 10-11, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. The residence is located at 45 Patton Mountain Rd., Asheville.  Reservations are not needed to attend the open house. Guests are invited to tour the residence, which has been decorated for the season. For more information, please call (828) 225-0122.  

 North Carolina’s strong literary tradition is celebrated by the 2022 North Carolina Book Awards, to be presented Dec. 2 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 Carolina. The 2022 North Carolina Book Award winners are:

The North Carolina Museum of History will host a special one-day public exhibition of a rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution, Wednesday, Dec. 7. The document is one of just 14 known copies of the official printing of the Constitution produced for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress. It is one of only two copies of the first printing of the Constitution that remain in private hands.

By December of 1756, Fort Dobbs was complete. Its garrison of 50 North Carolina soldiers prepared to spend the first of many winters in the building as they guarded the western edge of settlement in the British colony during the French and Indian War.