Part of an ongoing series on North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

More than 40 stops in eight southeastern North Carolina counties are being highlighted as part of the 250th commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The program, “The Roadmap to Freedom: Your NC First in Freedom Celebrations Guide,” is a passport booklet featuring historical, cultural and natural destinations, including the Wilmington Railroad Museum, Missiles and More Museum, N.C. Maritime Museum in Southport, Duplin County Veterans Museum and Flying Machine Brewing Co.

Moores Creek Battleground Association and the First in Freedom Festival have coordinated the program launched during the inaugural North Carolina First in Freedom Festival held the last week in February, which culminated with a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County.

“The passport, which is valid through Dec. 31, offers day-trip adventures to the region’s hidden gems,” said Jim Buell, president of the Moores Creek Battleground Association in a statement. “Each destination highlights a piece of America’s 250th anniversary.”

Moores Creek Battleground Association formed in 1857 and was chartered in 1899 to preserve the significance of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge. The battle in the early hours of Feb. 27, 1776, was the first decisive victory by patriots in the American Revolution.

“The passport program launched during the First in Freedom Festival kickoff in February,” Buell said. “I have a First in Freedom Passport, and it has been an enjoyable experience to be a tourist in our own backyard.”

Related: Rainy remembrance marks Revolution’s first decisive win

The passport functions like a traditional travel passport, Buell explained.

At each location, visitors receive a stamp and signature verifying their visit. After visiting most or all sites, participants may return their passport to the battlefield to become eligible for prizes at the end of the year, which include America 250 items based on the number of sites visited, from a commemorative pin to a T-shirt.

Jason Collins, chief of interpretation, education and volunteers at Moores Creek National Battlefield, said they’ve had their first participants to complete passport program.

“This couple traveled to more than 40 sites in southeastern North Carolina and explored more than 250 years of American history represented at these locations,” he said.

The Roadmap to Freedom Passport is available at participating destinations, Moores Creek National Battlefield, the Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism, and members of the Wilmington Area Hospitality Association.

For more information, visit the webpage at ncfirstinfreedomfestival.com/passport. The effort is supported by America 250 NC, the state’s official commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary under the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Sites by County

Bladen

• Harmony Hall
• Lu Mil Vineyard
• Jones Lake State Park
• Singletary Lake
• Turnbull Creek
• Cape Fear Winery and Distillery
• Goldston’s Beach and Pier
• Bladenboro Historical Museum

Brunswick

• Bald Head Lighthouse
• Brunswicktown/Fort Anderson State Historic Site
• NC Maritime Museum at Southport
• Museum of Coastal Carolina
• Ingram Planetarium

Columbus

• NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Whiteville
• Lake Waccamaw State Park

Duplin

• Cowan Museum
• Liberty Hall
• Duplin County Veterans Museum

New Hanover

• Bellamy Mansion
• Battleship North Carolina
• Wilmington Railroad Museum
• Fort Fisher State Historic Site
• Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens
• Cameron Art Museum
• Latimer House
• Airlie Gardens
• Children’s Museum of Wilmington
• Flying Machine Brewery

Onslow

• Hammocks Beach State Park
• Onslow County Museum
• Onslow County Parks and Recreation
• Swansboro Historical Association
• Sturgeon City Environmental Education Center
• Jacksonville City Hall

Pender

• Missiles and More Museum
• Moores Creek National Battlefield
• Sara Beasley Turtle Center
• Pender County History Museum
• Poplar Grove Plantation

Sampson

• Sampson County History Museum
• Coharie Tribal Center

It’s the day after Halloween. What are you going to do with all those pumpkins on your porch? Blow them up using Civil War technology, of course, with the staff of Brunswick Town and Fort Anderson historic site in Winnabow.

The Great Pumpkin Blowout scheduled for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, is the “unique experience” of detonating a pumpkin with the same technology used to launch Civil War-era torpedoes, according to organizers.

Visitors will be able to observe different types of torpedoes from the time period and learn the technology behind black powder and the torpedo itself.

Load up those jack-o’-lanterns and be prepared to pay $10 to detonate each pumpkin. Proceeds supports educational programming at the site. Pumpkins with minimal carving offer the best explosions, but all types will work, staff said.

Admission to the site and watching the fun is free.

The Brunswick Town and Fort Anderson State Historic Site was a major pre-Revolutionary port on the Cape Fear River, but was abandoned and burned during the American Revolution. During the Civil War, Fort Anderson was built on top of the old village site, and served as part of the Cape Fear River the Confederacy fell, according to North Carolina Historic Sites, a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Visitors can get a sense of what the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site was like in colonial times and the Civil War during two different living history programs being offered at no charge.

Before the American Revolution, Brunswick was a major port on the Cape Fear River in what is now called Winnabow. British troops destroyed the village in 1776 and it was never rebuilt, according to the state. Fort Anderson was constructed on top of the site during the Civil War, and was part of the river’s defenses south of Wilmington before the Confederacy fell.

The first program for the fall, “The Carolina Blues: Indigo on the Cape Fear” is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27.

The program is to illustrate how enslaved African laborers extracted dye from indigo plants, and the science behind dye production. Visitors will be able to watch and work an active fermentation vat during the day’s dyeing demonstrations. The Friends group that supports the site plan to sell shirts for $25 each to visitors to try their hand at dying material.

During the next program set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, costumed historic interpreters will explore colonial life and trades at the port with blacksmithing, woodworking, cooking, baking and candle dipping demonstrations. The event will feature a demonstration of an active tar kiln, which was essential to the production of valuable naval stores in the colony, and colonial games throughout the day.

The site is managed by North Carolina Historic Sites, a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The National Park Service has awarded the state a $75,000 grant to perform an archaeological assessment at the Brunswick Town-Fort Anderson State Historic Site in Winnabow.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced the award this week that is to go toward an “up-to-date, all-encompassing study of the site’s waterfront where a significant colonial port once operated,” using the latest technology such as digital mapping, drone photography, ground-penetrating radar and shoreline monitoring.

Only a quarter of Brunswick Town, which was established in 1726 as the state’s colonial seat of government, has been archaeologically excavated, according to the state. The previous archaeological investigations were limited and intermittent, preventing a comprehensive understanding of the historic artifacts and resources on the property.

Related: NOAA awards Brunswick Town shoreline project $2.5M grant

“Not since the archaeological investigations of Stanley South in the 1960s has a comprehensive assessment at the colonial capital and port of Brunswick Town been possible,” State Archaeologist Chris Southerly said in a statement. “With the modern tools and technology available, this grant will allow us to collect new and consistent data to better manage, steward, and protect this invaluable resource.”

The project was awarded under the National Park Service Semiquincentennial Grant Program, which commemorates the 250th anniversary of the American Revolutionary War in 2026.

“Particularly as we reflect on Brunswick Town’s complex and important role in the founding of this country, we are excited by the possibilities of what this full assessment may reveal,” N.C. Historic Sites Director Michelle Lanier said. “We are extremely grateful that the National Park Service recognizes the urgency of this work and is investing in the long-term preservation of North Carolina’s cultural heritage.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded the state a $2.5 million grant for shoreline restoration and coastal resiliency at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site in Winnabow.

The site along the Cape Fear River “has experienced significant shoreline erosion due to severe weather and daily tidal forces from increased vessel traffic on the river. The rapidly diminishing shoreline has resulted in the loss of habitat and worsening flooding conditions in the area,” the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources said this week in a release.

Brunswick was once a major prerevolutionary port on North Carolina’s Cape Fear River but was razed by British troops in 1776 and was never rebuilt. During the Civil War, Fort Anderson was constructed atop the old village site, and served as part of the Cape Fear River defenses below Wilmington before the fall of the Confederacy.

The federal funds will enable the state to continue with a project to build and install a system of wave attenuators to protect the shoreline from erosion. The nature-based approach has proven to reduce wave action, mitigate shoreline erosion, protect wildlife, facilitate the growth of natural habitat, and safeguard historical resources still buried at the site, according to the state.

“It is important to protect both our state’s rich history and its cultural resources. I am proud to have worked with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to secure this federal funding, protecting the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson site for generations to come,” Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., said in a statement. “By investing in these shoreline restoration and resiliency efforts, we’re not only preserving important history, but also better protecting this historic shoreline and the surrounding community from future natural disasters.”

Rouzer represents North Carolina’s 7th congressional district, which includes Wilmington and much of the southeastern part of the state.

The shoreline restoration project is a collaborative effort between the state’s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management.

“In the last 81 years, Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson has lost over 12 acres of shoreline from accelerating erosion, endangering an untold number of historical and cultural resources,” said North Carolina Historic Sites Director Michelle Lanier. “The good news is, since 2017, Brunswick Town’s living shoreline has become a national model for coastal resiliency. We are thrilled that this critical project will continue thanks to the support of our partners at NOAA.”

Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site in Winnabow is set to commemorate in February the 160th anniversary of Fort Anderson’s capture by U.S. forces with a day of living history reenactments.

The commemoration of the 1865 events begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, with a day of living history offered at no charge. At 6 p.m., a ticketed nighttime reenactment of the bombardment and evacuation of the fort is offered.

Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site is a major prerevolutionary port on the Cape Fear River.

“Brunswick was abandoned and burned during the American Revolution and never fully recovered. During the Civil War, Fort Anderson was constructed atop the old village site and served as part of the Cape Fear River defenses below Wilmington before the fall of the Confederacy. Colonial foundations dot the present-day tour trail, which crosses the earthworks of the Confederate fort,” according to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages the site.

During the living history demonstrations scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., visitors will be able to interact with Civil War camp life and view interpretive displays. The 19th-century weapons demonstrations are scheduled for 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Speaker Wade Sokolosky will present at noon “Disaster on the Lower Cape Fear: The Role of Confederate Hospitals through the Fall of Wilmington.”

Sokolosky is a graduate of East Carolina University, a 25-year Army veteran and author of several books about the Civil War.

“He is one of North Carolina’ s leading experts of the 1865 Carolinas Campaign. Wade has lectured throughout the country speaking to roundtables, various societies and organizations, and at historical sites. He is the recipient of the Raleigh Civil War Round Table’s 2017 T. Harry Gatton Award for his important efforts to study, preserve, and share the Civil War heritage of his native North Carolina,” according to his publisher.

Brunswick Site Manager Jim McKee will lead a tour of Fort Anderson at 4 p.m.

The program, “Plunging Shot and Screaming Shell,” organizers promised, will make the night sky “come alive with a realistic reenactment of the bombardment and evacuation of the fort. This event will be a rare opportunity to witness a heavy artillery duel after dark.”

Parking for the living history event is available at the visitor center in Winnabow. Food trucks will be onsite from 11 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.

Admission for the nighttime program is $10 for those 16 and older and attendees 15 and younger will be admitted at no charge. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at the Friends of Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson’s website.

A full event schedule will be available on Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site’s website and social media channels.

The 158th anniversary of the fall of Fort Anderson will be commemorated Saturday, Feb. 18, at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site.

The free activities showing what life was like for soldiers and civilians during the American Civil War are scheduled for 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Visitors will be able to see infantry demonstrations, medical and embalming interpretations, and presentations throughout the day.

From 6-7:30 p.m., visitors can witness a reenactment of the final hours of Fort Anderson during the “Plunging Shot and Screaming Shells” program.

Admission for the evening event is $10 for ages 16 and up when bought in advance online or $15 if purchased at the gate. Ages 15 and under will be admitted free. Tickets purchased in advance online should be shown at the gate to be admitted for the program.

A major pre-Revolutionary port on North Carolina’s Cape Fear River, Brunswick was partially burned during the war and never fully recovered. During the Civil War, Fort Anderson was constructed atop part of the ruins of the town and served as part of the Cape Fear River defenses below Wilmington before the fall of the Confederacy. Colonial foundations dot the present-day tour trail, which crosses the earthworks of the Confederate fort, according to the the Division of State Historic Sites, which oversees Fort Anderson.

Today, visitors to the site can see the archaeological ruins of the foundations of the colonial kitchens, home sites and various outbuildings that once stood as a colonial port town, along with the shell of St. Philip’s Anglican Church.

Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site is administered by the Division of State Historic Sites in the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The Revolutionary War-era Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site in Winnabow was recently awarded a $500,000 federal preservation grant.

Administered by the Historic Preservation Fund, the grant is through the Semiquincentennial Grant Program, a program Congress created in 2020 to honor the nation’s 250th anniversary by restoring and preserving state-owned sites and structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, sites that commemorate the nation’s founding.

The Brunswick Town-Fort Anderson site is one of 17 historic sites from across the nation chosen for the first $7 million round.

Brunswick Town was a major pre-Revolutionary port on the Cape Fear River before it was razed by British troops in 1776 and never rebuilt. Fort Anderson was built on top of the old village site during the Civil War, and served as part of the Cape Fear River defenses below Wilmington before the fall of the Confederacy. Colonial foundations can be seen along the present-day tour trail, which crosses the earthworks of the Confederate fort, according to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Grant funds will be used on preservation work, including the use of ground-penetrating radar to identify unmarked graves of Colonial residents, preserve known graves still standing, repoint the masonry of St. Philip’s Anglican Church, and preserve the foundational ruins of private residences, a tavern and a courthouse.

The grant is to also go to create three panels that interpret history and help visitors learn about the importance of preservation. Signage is to feature a QR code that links back to a project website with in-depth historical info and links to data, photographs and maps relevant to the people who shaped Brunswick Town, including the English, Spanish, Africans and Native Americans.

Established in 1977, the Historic Preservation Fund uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf to assist with preservation projects.

WINNABOW – The first installment of structures designed to keep waves from eating away shoreline rise out of the Cape Fear River along a section of the already battered banks of the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site.

Like sentries standing post, a line of structures described as wave attenuators stretches 200 feet just offshore of Dry’s Wharf, one of three wharves on the grounds of a once bustling Colonial port town that was later turned into a Civil War fort as part of the Confederate army’s river defense of Wilmington.

The “reefmakers,” created by Alabama-based Walter Marine, the largest artificial reef builder in the U.S., look simple enough. Each structure is made using a series of square, concrete discs stacked together that create large, slotted blocks. Each disc is topped with embedded rocks that jut up like eggs in an egg carton.

This design does the complex job of taking the brunt of wave energy while allowing water to flow through, protecting the shore and, at the same time, offering habitat for marine life. Each block sits about a foot off the riverbed.

“There’s already schools of bait fish coming around this thing,” said Randy Boyd, an engineer with Atlantic ReefMaker, which installed the wave attenuators.

The wall-like structure rising about 4 feet above the river is the first in a multi-phase project to protect the site’s more than 5,000 feet, nearly a mile, of shoreline.

Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson is roughly halfway between the mouth of the Cape Fear River and the North Carolina Port of Wilmington.

Large ships traveling to and from the port create wakes, or turbulent waves that crash onto shore. This high-energy wave environment paired with storm surge from hurricanes and other coastal storms has severely eroded the shoreline, damaging and destroying irreplaceable artifacts.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina Wilmington have reviewed and compared aerial photographs of the site dating back to the 1930s. Those photos show that since 2006, the historic site’s waterfront has receded upward of 70 to 120 feet.

The multi-million-dollar shoreline protection project was designed by a team of experts, including Boyd, with environmental engineering firm SEPI Engineering and Construction. It took SEPI more than a year to obtain the state Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, major permit for the project, which combines the protection of reefmakers with the construction of a living shoreline. Living shorelines use plantings and constructed oyster reefs to stabilize and protect the actual shoreline from erosion and restore marine life habitat.

Original plans to place wave attenuators along another section of shoreline were altered after Hurricane Matthew, which hit North Carolina nearly a year ago, cut about a 14- to 15-foot gap out of Dry’s Wharf. The wharf is named after Capt. William Dry, a Colonial merchant, justice of the peace and militia captain.

“We were limited per linear foot by what we would have been able to have done per funding,” Boyd said.

The total price tag ran about $750,000.

Boyd said he hopes to eventually connect the existing structure to more wave attenuators. The next structures, Boyd said, will be octagonal and installed not side-by-side, but rather like a zipper pattern.

“We’re really looking forward to putting in the octagonals,” he said. “We think it’s going to make a hell of a difference. The beauty of this site is that I’ve got four completely different shorelines.”

While wave attenuators will front some of the more than mile-long shore, the living shoreline will be constructed along other portions.

In the meantime, researchers at UNCW are monitoring the project using sensors to track wave activity in front of and behind the structure.

“We’re going to look at these things through hurricane season,” Boyd said.

It is unclear when the next phase will get underway.

“We’re applying for various grants and hoping we’ll be able to get a significant amount,” said Jim McKee, Brunswick Town site manager.

McKee has said he prefers a living shoreline to a hardened erosion-control structure because the former is a natural method of protecting valuable resources.

McKee kept a close eye on the reefmakers as the remnants of Hurricane Irma swept north after making landfall in southern Florida.

“Where the reefmakers are, it did great,” he said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, McKee said he had not had the opportunity to check whether Irma’s driving winds and rain had damaged other areas of the shore.

As he took stock of how the shoreline had fared, McKee said he was also keeping an eye on Hurricane Jose, which was on a wobbly track well off the East Coast on Wednesday.

Learn More

• Atlantic Reefmaker

MOREHEAD CITY – A new design of artificial oyster reef-maker could buck the trend on where living shorelines best work.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, or IMS, are introducing a type of reef that may withstand high-energy wave action areas typically deemed unsuitable for natural shoreline stabilization.

Living shoreline projects are built with various structural and organic materials such as plants, submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster shells and stone. They generally work best along sheltered coasts such as estuaries, bays, lagoons and coastal deltas, where wave energy is low to moderate.

This month, researchers will put to the test a series of reef platforms that are going to be installed as part of what is, to date, the longest state-permitted living shoreline project in North Carolina.

The Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site’s battered mile-long shore along the Cape Fear River will be a significant test on how well the oyster reefs hold up in a high-energy wave environment.

“One thing we have, I think, the ability to do with our new material is really get into high-energy environments and do quite well,” said Niels Lindquist, an IMS professor and researcher.

Construction will begin this month along about a 100-foot section of the historic site’s waterfront, where contractors will install about 200 feet of artificial oyster reef-makers.

The reefs are constructed of concrete smoothed into panels that are used to create different forms and shapes, the end result of which is a netted, open structure.

These platform structures will be fastened to rods anchored in the sediment, elevating the reef slightly above the riverbed.

“We tend to see sediment buildup in and behind our reefs,” Lindquist said. “We get some very high oyster densities so we get a lot of the good services from oysters. I think if we can really get into that area and grow a good oyster reef there will be a lot of benefits.”

These reefs will be placed between the shore and a series of wave attenuators, which will take the initial brunt of waves created during storms and the large cargo ships routinely sailing to and from the North Carolina Port of Wilmington.

For the better part of 10 years, officials at the historic site have been trying to figure out how to best combat shoreline erosion, which has damaged and destroyed irreplaceable artifacts.

“We’ve done a few stop-gap measures that have bought us time, but we have run out of time,” said Jim McKee, Fort Anderson’s site manager.

McKee prefers a living shoreline to a hardened erosion-control structure because the former is not only more aesthetically pleasing, he said, but also a natural method of protecting valuable resources.

“We’re revisiting the underwater cultural resources surveys and, as it stands, we have an opportunity to lessen the impact on those cultural resources and we’ll definitely lessen the impact on our environmental resources,” McKee said. “What we’re proposing is a very, very aggressive project and the scope is massive. I don’t think something on this scale has been attempted in North Carolina and I don’t know if it’s been attempted anywhere else.”

Designed by a team of experts with environmental engineering firm SEPI Engineering, which has an office in Wilmington, the massive project will be completed in various phases.

The first phase, construction of which McKee said he hopes will begin this week, concentrates on section of shoreline devastated by Hurricane Matthew, which hit North Carolina last October, causing massive flooding throughout southeastern parts of the state.

The storm cut out about a 14- to 15-foot gap, causing a bluff to collapse, sending trees sliding from where they had been rooted for years.

This section will be filled, the bluff restored and armored with riprap. Once that’s complete, the reef-makers will be installed.

“It should break up a lot of that heavy action and start allowing that section of shoreline to start renewing itself,” McKee said. “Then we’ll be able to start monitoring.”

There has been better than a 50-percent survival rate of oysters placed on a small pad researchers installed for monitoring purposes, he said.

Oysters were showing promise growing on the riprap shredded away during Hurricane Matthew, McKee said.

“If we can break down that wave action then the oysters should establish themselves,” he said.

That’s the hope, Lindquist said.

“I’m hopeful that we can get into that area and have our material grow and survive oysters,” he said. “Our goal with our material is to really stop shoreline erosion but to also regrow some of the marsh. It’s a pretty substantial plan, but I think we can handle it.”

The project has been drawing interest from the likes of everyone from environmental engineers, researchers, coastal scientists and state officials, McKee said.

If the oyster-maker platforms perform well in such a high-energy wave environment, they could help broaden the use of living shoreline projects as erosion-control methods.

In the past several years, living shorelines have been gaining national attention.

Just this year, the Army Corps of Engineers authorized its first nationwide permit for living shorelines.

The new permit is designed to help streamline the permitting process. Living shoreline advocates hope that translates into a tipping of the scales where requests for permits to build living shoreline projects outweigh hardened erosion-control methods.

At least 14 percent of the country’s shoreline is armored by hardened structures, according to the first nationwide survey of artificial coastal erosion-control methods conducted by a group of researchers in 2015.

That’s more than 14,000 miles of hardened shoreline.

One of the benefits the oyster reef platforms offer is that they’re made of biodegradable materials.

“That has some advantages because if you make a mistake and you don’t really grow oysters you’re not left with this legacy of material there that you don’t want,” Lindquist said.

Lindquist said the oyster reef-makers are gaining traction, drawing the attention of researchers in Florida and Washington.

He said researchers have applied for a patent for the name, materials and applications used to make the reef-makers. Their goal is to commercialize the technology.

They are currently looking into the possibility of adapting their design to “bio-cement,” or cement created using bacteria between grains of aggregate – a brainchild of the Raleigh-based start-up company bioMason.

“If we really can do that then our material will be entirely green,” Lindquist said. “I think manufacturing a situation where we’re sequestering CO₂ and then use that material to prevent the erosion of salt marshes and then regrow them is great for the environment.”

 Learn More

• Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson
• UNC Institute of Marine Sciences
• SEPI Engineering & Construction