A Craven County-based sand and limestone mining company seeks to modify its state permit to more than double its acreage, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources has set a public hearing on the proposal for May 27.

The applicant, R.J.’s Bushhogging Inc. with a registered address of 1185 Winn Circle, in Vanceboro, and registered agent, Robin McDaniel, is looking to add 58.8 acres to its permitted area, with 50.08 acres to be mined. The area is in a flood hazard area, already a point of frustration for its neighbors, who have filed with the county planning department a petition opposing the expansion.

“The quarry currently operates close to our homes and has already caused a range of problems for residents, roads, children, animals, and Wildlife,” according to the neighborhood petition, which cites dust that affects public health and property and “lasting effects such as noise, traffic, fragmented wildlife habitat, water pollution and water that fills excavated areas. Further expansion would bring excavation activity even closer, increasing the disruption to our daily lives.”

The operation known as Willis Neck Mine is near Swift Creek, a tributary of the Neuse River. The applicant says the change to its permit will not involve mine dewatering nor will it require changes to its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System outfall permit. NPDES is a program under the Clean Water Act and regulates point-source discharges of pollutants to waters of the United States with enforcement at the state level.

R.J’s Bushhogging’s 2026 modification application for mining permit 25-75 also includes “smaller areas,” tracts of 8.78 acres, 2.79 acres and 1.89 acres, on the west side of Winn Circle, intended for shallow sand mining.

“Therefore, these areas will not be dewatered,” according to McDaniel’s application cover letter.  

The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. in the Craven County Community College Auditorium at 800 College Court in New Bern. Those who wish to speak during the hearing can sign up to do so starting at 5:30 p.m. 

Public comments are to be limited to the following seven denial criteria listed under the Mining Act of 1971:

1. That any rule or regulation would be violated by the proposed operation.
2. That the operation will have unduly adverse effects on potable groundwater supplies, wildlife, or fresh water, estuarine, or marine fisheries.
3. That the operation will violate regulated standards of air quality, surface water quality, or groundwater quality.
4. That the operation will constitute a direct and substantial physical hazard to public health and safety or to a neighboring dwelling house, school, church, hospital, commercial or industrial building, public road or other public property, excluding matters relating to use of a public road.
5. That the operation will have a significantly adverse effect on the purposes of a publicly owned park, forest or recreation area.
6. That previous experience with similar operations indicates a substantial possibility that the operation will result in substantial deposits of sediment in stream beds or lakes, landslides, or acid water pollution.
7. That the applicant hasn’t violated any rule or regulation that resulted in a permit revocation of a permit, forfeiture of part or all of a bond or other security, conviction of a misdemeanor under the Mining Act, or any other court order, final assessment of a civil penalty or failure to pay the required application processing fee.

The public can submit comments in writing to Assistant State Mining Engineer Kelly Jonas, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources, Department of Environmental Quality, 1612 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1612.

Comments may also be sent via email to ncminingprogram@deq.nc.gov with the subject line “Willis Neck Mine.”   

For more information on the permit, visit the DEQ website.. 

Four new historic districts and 19 properties across the state, five of which are on the coast, have been added to the National Register of Historic Places in the last year, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced this week.

Part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources, the National Historic Register is the “official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation,” that was authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and is under the National Park Service.

“Each addition to the National Register of Historic Places represents another step in preserving North Carolina’s unique story,” said the department’s Secretary Pamela Cashwell in a statement Thursday. “These sites help connect our communities to their past while supporting cultural tourism and local economies.” 

In Beaufort County, Pantego School No. 2 was listed Feb. 24. The Rosenwald-funded school building was completed in 1926 and remained operational as an integrated school after 1968, until it closed in the spring of 2001, the application states.

Winnabow is an 1845 Greek Revival frame house with a double-pile center-passage plan at 677 Governor Road, in Brunswick County that was was Dec. 29, 2025.

Clubfoot and Harlow Canal in Carteret and Craven counties, which was listed Feb. 23, is a roughly 3-mile artificial channel dug that opened July 1827 across a peninsula connecting Clubfoot Creek and the Neuse River at the north to Harlow Creek and the Newport River to the south.

The 1850 Adam Dough Etheridge House in Dare County was listed Aug. 11, 2025. The two-story, single pile, vernacular dwelling features a side-gabled roof and partially enclosed full-width porches on the façade, common among houses on Roanoke Island in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Located in Pasquotank County, Oak Grove Cemetery, which was listed Aug. 11, 2025, is Elizabeth City’s oldest extant Black cemetery. The Black community formally established it on 2.53 acres in 1886, expanded it twice in 1921, and again in 1955 to approximately 8 acres, which it remains today within a 14-acre parcel, according to documents.

The listing of a property in the National Register places no obligation or restriction on a private owner using private resources to maintain or alter the property.

Over the years, various federal and state incentives have been introduced to assist private preservation initiatives, including tax credits for the rehabilitation of National Register properties.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, there have been 4,455 completed historic rehabilitation projects with private investments of $4 billion statewide.

Millions will be awarded to broadband providers across rural North Carolina to connect homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions to high-speed internet access.

The governor’s office announced last week that $26 million will go to bring 5,161 rural homes, businesses and community anchor institutions in 66 counties access to high-speed internet infrastructure by the end of the year through the Stop-Gap Solutions program.

A part of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity, the program administers funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to coverage gaps in internet access. This is done by targeting broadband line extensions to reach individuals and small pockets of homes and businesses in hard-to-reach areas.

“These broadband projects will ensure more families can soon access telehealth, students can complete their homework, businesses can compete in larger markets, and communities can thrive,” Gov. Josh Stein said in the release. “I am committed to improving broadband access across the state and making sure no community is left behind.”

On the coast, FOCUS Broadband, also known as Atlantic Telephone Membership Cooperative, has been selected to receive $1.65 million to connect 145 locations in Duplin and Pender counties.

Connect Holding II, LLC, doing business as Brightspeed, will be awarded $1.68 million to connect 2,439 locations in Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Hertford, Hyde, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Tyrrell and Washington counties on the coast. Other counties to benefit from this award are Alamance, Bladen, Caldwell, Caswell, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Franklin, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Jones, Martin, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, Northampton, Orange, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Rockingham, Sampson, Stokes, Surry, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wayne and Wilson counties.

HarvestBeam Inc., a broadband provider for rural North Carolina, will receive $413,260 for 95 locations in Craven and Pitt counties.

Roanoke Connect Holdings, operating as Fybe internet provider, will be awarded $2.4 million to connect 826 locations in Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton counties. 

Wilkes & RiverStreet Networks has been selected to receive $959,828 to connect 306 locations in Camden, Currituck, Stokes and Wilkes counties.

Other providers to be awarded serve customers in Alexander, Bladen, Buncombe, Durham, Henderson, Hoke, Iredell, Forsyth, Jackson, Macon, Orange, Robeson, Rowan, Sampson, Scotland, Swain, Transylvania and Yadkin counites.

“High-speed internet access is the foundation for health care delivery, public safety operations, workforce development, and economic growth in our state,” Teena Piccione, NCDIT secretary and state chief information officer, said. “This program allows us to move with urgency and precision to connect more North Carolinians.”

Fishing for striped bass by hook and line will be allowed in sections of the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse rivers April 1-30.

The season for harvesting striped bass by this fishing method is being allowed under a temporary rule amendment and proclamation the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission approved this month.

Areas open to harvest include inland and joint fishing waters of the Tar-Pamlico River and its tributaries upstream of a line between Gum Point near Mixon Creek and Fork Point near Durham Creek in Beaufort County.

Inland and joint fishing waters of the Neuse River and its tributaries upstream of a line between Cooper Point near Good Creek in Pamlico County and Fisher Landing Point in Craven County will also open to harvest striped bass.

Inland water tributaries to both rivers downstream of the boundaries established by the Wildlife Resources Commission are closed year-round for striped bass and striped bass hybrid fishing.

Striped bass and striped bass hybrids creel limits are one fish in aggregate with a minimum size limit of 18 inches. However, no fish between 22 and 27 inches long may be harvested.

Anglers who keep any striped bass caught in the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse rivers must report their harvest electronically through an online webform or iPhone app provided by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

The regulatory change is part of the cooperative striped bass management between the Wildlife Resources Commission and the division, both of which recently determined that most striped bass using these areas of the rivers are hatchery fish.

“These rivers have been stocked for over 30 years and despite this effort, recovery goals have not been met,” Assistant Chief of the Division of Inland Fisheries Ben Ricks stated in a release. “There appears to be a bottleneck in an early life stage of naturally reproduced striped bass that limits survival. While we investigate this issue, striped bass stockings in the Tar and Neuse rivers will provide angling opportunities similar to reservoir striped bass stockings.”

Proclamations to open a similar harvest season and provide regulatory consistency in Coastal and Joint Fishing waters of the same area have also been approved by the Division of Marine Fisheries.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality State Energy Office has set a public hearing next month on a state program that provides free weatherization services for income-eligible households.

Comments will be accepted on the proposed adoption of the New North Carolina Project, a nonprofit founded to increase civic engagement among underserved communities and to act as the service provider to a regional territory that includes Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender and Wayne counties. 

The N.C. Weatherization Assistance Program, funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aims to reduce energy bills and increase home comfort and safety by providing free weatherization services for eligible households.

The state program in 2021 was appropriated $89 million for enhancing energy efficiency in income-eligible households throughout the state. In March 2023, DEQ held a hearing on the proposed plan, which was approved by the U.S. Department of Energy in August of that same year.

DEQ has conditionally approved the New North Carolina Project to be the region’s service. The organization will be awarded about $5 million to be the regional service providers until 2029 or funds are depleted.

The hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. April 8 at the DEQ Green Square Office Building, training room No. 1210, 217 West Jones St. in Raleigh.

To join the hearing by Webex link to https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=m21fb07102030a6f681df2f99a5537f0c and use meeting number/access code 2438 254 6635. You may also join by phone at  +1-415-655-0003 with meeting password ncwap (62927 when dialing from a phone).

The hearing officer may limit speaking times to accommodate all speakers.

The agency is also accepting public comments by mail to DEQ Weatherization Assistance Program, 1613 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1613, or by email to seo.publiccomments@deq.nc.gov, with “2026 NNCP Comment” in the subject line.  

All comments must be postmarked, emailed or hand-delivered no later than April 10.

Additional hearing documentation is available at www.deq.nc.gov/wap-hearings. 

A hand-stitched replica of George Washington’s sleeping and office tent, which served as the command center for the Continental Army, will be on display March 26-28 at Tryon Palace historic site in New Bern.

The First Oval Office Project travels the country providing interactive education and outreach programming that brings George Washington’s wartime headquarters to life. The full-scale replica of Washington’s Revolutionary War tent, often referred to as the “First Oval Office,” is the centerpiece of the project.

“Tryon Palace will be the only site in North Carolina to host the First Oval Office Project during 2026,” North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said in a release. “This immersive living history program can provide us a deeper understanding of the Revolutionary War by telling the story of General Washington and all those who served alongside him.”

The Museum of the American Revolution’s First Oval Office Project and its adjoining educational programming is a signature event for DNCRs’ America 250 NC initiative that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrates the state’s important role in the American Revolution.

A team of interpreters from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, where the original sleeping and office tent is on permanent display, will be on site to guide visitors and answer questions about Washington’s military life while on campaign.

Tickets to tour the First Oval Office Project are $20 for adults and $10 for youth, and may be purchased online or at the North Carolina History Center Ticket Desk on Front Street or at the Waystation Ticket Office just across from the Palace’s front gates on Pollock Street.

Travelers using U.S. Highway 70 to cross the Trent River should expect nightly closures through the next six weeks while North Carolina Department of Transportation crews replace bridge joints.

Work began Sunday on U.S. 70 East near mile marker 417 and will continue for about three weeks from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Friday. After the eastbound lanes are complete, crews are expected to begin March 29 maintenance work on U.S. 70 West, also near mile marker 417.

Work on each section of the bridge is expected to take about three weeks on each side of the highway, with the road fully reopened by late April, transportation officials said. This work is weather-dependent and could be rescheduled.  

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

Motorists planning to travel along N.C. 101 near the primary entrance for Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point should expect delays and detours the remainder of the month.

In total, lane closures are expected to last about two weeks on the 20-plus mile roadway that connects Beaufort and Havelock, bypassing Morehead City, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials said Monday.

Plans are to close both lanes of N.C. 101 between Roosevelt and Cunningham boulevards for milling and resurfacing work starting Tuesday. The road is expected to reopen 5 p.m. Thursday.

Beginning Friday, travelers can expect intermittent lane closures on N.C. 101 between Cunningham and McCotter boulevards while additional milling and resurfacing work is underway. One lane will remain open to through traffic.

There will be signed detour route along McCotter Boulevard.

Use caution when traveling near the area and seek alternate routes to avoid delays, officials said.

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

Hatteras-Ocracoke, Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach and Southport-Fort Fisher ferry routes will be on an adjusted schedule for the Christmas holiday.

All other state-run ferries will be on their regular schedules over the Christmas holidays, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday when the revised schedule was announced.

The routes will adhere to the following schedule:

Hatteras-Ocracoke Dec. 24-25

• From Hatteras: 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m., midnight.
• From Ocracoke: 4:30 a.m., 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m.

Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach Dec. 25

• From Cherry Branch: 5 a.m., 5:45 a.m., 6:45 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
• From Minnesott Beach: 5:25 a.m., 6:15 a.m., 7:15 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Southport-Fort Fisher Dec. 25

• From Southport: 5:30 a.m., 7 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
• From Fort Fisher: 6:15 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1:45 p.m., 3:15 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.

An aggregates and heavy building materials supply company has received a revised permit to release millions of gallons per day of mine dewatering and stormwater discharge into unnamed tributaries of Blounts Creek.

The North Carolina Division of Water Resources issued Martin Marietta Inc.’s Vanceboro Quarry a revised wastewater discharge permit on Wednesday, according to a release.

“The revised permit requires an assessment of biological integrity, or the condition of the organisms such as fish and insects in a waterway, once every two years through sampling for benthos, or small aquatic organisms that live in water, with the first sampling event to occur between Feb. 1 through March 15, after the discharge begins,” the release states.

The permit also requires the company to monitor monthly for pH levels, total suspended solids and turbidity in the discharge, or effluent, from the mine.

The permit allows for the discharge of 12 million gallons per day from two outfalls into unnamed tributaries of the creek, which is classified as a Class C, swamp, nutrient sensitive waterbody in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.

Waterways classified as Class C are protected for uses that include aquatic life survival and fish and wildlife maintenance, and agricultural and recreation such as wading or boating.

The division initially approved a permit to the company last February, then rescinded the permit following the March ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided with San Francisco’s challenge to water quality regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Editor’s note: The following is from historian David Cecelski’s “Working Lives: Photographs from Eastern North Carolina, 1937 to 1947.” The Carteret County native introduced the nearly 20-part photo-essay series earlier this year on his website, explaining at the time that the images he selected from the N.C. Department of Conservation and Development Collection were taken in the late 1930s into the early 1950s of the state’s farms, industries, and working people.

In this photo-essay in my “Working Lives” series, I am looking at several photographs that feature workers on a railroad that old timers, when I was a boy, still called the “Old Mullet Road.”

The real name of the railroad was the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad (A&NC). First in business in 1858, it ran from the coastal port of Morehead City, west to New Bern, Kinston, and finally Goldsboro.

Owned by the state of North Carolina, the railroad was usually leased to private operators and it played a vital role in opening the economy and communities of the North Carolina coast to the outside world.

In Goldsboro, at the railroad’s western end, other lines connected the A&NC’s passengers and freight to Raleigh and to distant markets and cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

Local people referred to the A&NC as the “Old Mullet Road” because of the seemingly endless barrels of salt mullet that its freight cars carried out of Morehead City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

With the opening of the railroad in 1858, the local fishery for striped mullet — what we’ve always called “jumping mullet” — grew into the largest saltwater fishery anywhere in the American South.

Long a staple in local pantries, barrels of salt mullet were soon as common in the country stores of eastern North Carolina as pickled pigs feet and rounds of farmers cheese.

-2-

The construction of the A&NC and the building of the coastal town of Morehead City went hand in hand.

The town’s resort trade, its famous charter fishing business, the state port, the local menhaden industry (one of the largest fisheries in the U.S.), and really the region’s entire wholesale seafood industry — none would have been imaginable without the “Old Mullet Road.”

The same could be said for the truck farming business throughout that whole central part of North Carolina’s coastal plain.

Over the years, the A&NC’s trains became part of daily life in the towns and crossroads through which it passed.

For people who lived along the tracks, the coming and going of the train, its whistle, and the sense of curiosity and wonder about what lost soul might be coming home, or what trouble might be arriving, became measures of time passing as much as the tides and the changing of the seasons.

-3-

Taken in Morehead City or New Bern in 1942, this photograph introduces us to one of the railroad’s employees who was something of a legend in that part of eastern North Carolina.

His name was J. B. Davis, people called him “Captain Davis,” and he was a conductor on the railroad for close to half a century.

On Nov. 30, 1924, the Raleigh News & Observer referred to Capt. Davis and the railroad’s three other conductors as “the most popular quartet in this part of the State….”

The paper went on to say, “They know more people than all the politicians in Wayne, Lenoir, Craven, and Carteret counties.”

A railroad conductor saw the best and worst of humanity. Capt. Davis came to know the high and mighty and the utterly defeated, those that were good, and those that were set on evil, people anxious to get back home, and those desperate to get away from home.

Along the railroad’s path, people often sought him out to get the latest news from other towns. Many a day, he was the first to bring word of births and marriages, shipwrecks, hurricanes and floods.

His own life on the railroad was far from uneventful: Capt. Davis was injured in a derailment in 1933, and he and the train’s brakeman were usually the first to reach the poor souls who were killed on the railroad tracks.

In 1939, when a new company, the Atlantic & East Carolina Railroad Co., took over the railroad’s lease, Capt. Davis was fired for allegedly not collecting fares from some of his passengers.

His discharge made headlines across eastern North Carolina, and he was eventually rehired, but there has to be story there.

Maybe he was just looking out for his friends. On the other hand, times were hard in the 1930s and I like to think that maybe now and then he looked the other way and let a penniless soul or two ride for free.

-4-

I assume that this gentleman was one of the train’s firemen, whose job it was to maintain the fire in the engine’s boiler by shoveling coal and watching the boiler’s water levels as well.

A 1947 newspaper article concerning a derailment mentions an A&NC fireman named Henry Peterson. This may be him, but I cannot be sure.

Judging from the way he holds himself, I might have thought that he was the train’s engineer, but that was not possible in eastern North Carolina in the first half of the 20th century because he was African American.

At the turn of the 20th century, the A&NC’s president was a New Bern banker and real estate mogul named James A. Bryan.

Bryan was one of the leaders of the white supremacy movement that swept North Carolina in the period from 1898 to 1900. To attract New Bern’s white working class men to the white supremacy cause, he promised to discharge all of the railroad’s black employees and give their jobs to white workers.

After the Wilmington Massacre and the victory of the white supremacists in November 1898, Bryan lived up to his promise.

According to documents preserved in the Bryan Family Papers at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Southern Historical Collection, he discharged dozens of A&NC conductors, porters, brakemen, mechanics, blacksmiths, and other skilled railroad men in 1899 and 1900.

He also fired many of the company’s lowest level black employees, including the night watchman at the company’s rail yard.

In exchange for white workingmen’s support for a state constitutional amendment that took all voting rights from the state’s black citizens, Bryan also pledged to embed white supremacy in the railroad’s labor policies into the future.

In practice, that meant: the A&NC’s managers would hire and promote whites preferentially, regardless of qualifications or experience; would never pay a black worker as much as a white worker; would never employ a black individual in a management role; and would never hire or promote a black man or woman into a job–such as locomotive engineer– that gave them supervisory responsibilities over any white employee.

The railroad’s policies with respect to race were still in place in 1942.

You can learn more about James A. Bryan’s leadership in New Bern’s white supremacy campaign, and see some of the manuscripts related to his firing of the A&NC’s black workers, in my essay, “The Other Coup D’Etat: Remembering New Bern in 1898.”

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Only a few years before these photographs were taken, the railroad had seemed on its last legs.

The private railroad company that had leased the track from the State of North Carolina since 1904, the Norfolk & Southern, had defaulted in 1934, a victim of the Great Depression.

After the Norfolk & Southern’s default, state coffers could not keep up with the railroad’s maintenance and repair needs. Years of neglect began taking their toll: broken railroad ties abounded, embankments needed reinforcement, and much about the old railroad seemed frayed and worn out. Reports of derailments grew more common.

Things began to look up in 1939 however, when the state finally found a new private company to take over the railroad’s lease.

The new company, the Atlantic & Eastern North Carolina, invested in new engines and track repairs, updated at least some depots, and even repainted the cars a perky “Spanish blue” instead of the old dull black.

-6-

Then the war came. Everybody was on the move. Soldiers, sailors, defense workers, and civilians of all kinds.

A new prosperity was in the air, heightening the demand for carrying passengers and hauling the region’s agricultural products and other freight.

Probably most importantly, the federal government began constructing two massive new military installations on the central part of the North Carolina coast in 1941 and ’42. To build the two bases, the railroad’s freight cars would carry enough lumber, brick, piping, and other construction materials to build two good-sized cities from scratch.

The railroad ran a short spur from Havelock Station into the construction site for the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station (originally called Cunningham Field). To the south, the railroad carried construction materials to Camp Lejeune via a track that ran from New Bern to Jacksonville, then along a short spur owned and operated by the Navy.

By the time these photographs were taken, the railroad was making a profit again for the first time in recent memory.

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The war changed the railroad and the North Carolina coast in a thousand ways, some easy to get used to, and some that probably haunted the workers that we have met here — Capt. Davis, the fireman, the mail clerk, the brakeman, and the porter in the photograph above — for their rest of their lives.

More than 25 years ago, I interviewed an elderly woman named Gretchen Brinson in Morehead City.

During the early part of World War II, Ms. Brinson had been a nurse in the burn unit of the town’s little hospital when German U-boats were sinking merchant vessels off that part of the North Carolina coast.

This is an excerpt from that interview:

“I married Bull Brinson in 1937. While my daughter was still an infant, I started working at the hospital. Very shortly, we began hearing depth charges and if they had a strike we could see the fires, the ships burning.

“The debris washed up on the ocean front, and there were several years we couldn’t swim up there because of the debris and the oil slicks.

“We could see the ships burning.

“When there was a strike out there at night, we knew this had happened and that next morning there would be casualties come in. Bodies, corpses did wash in on the beach. And they were brought into the hospital: burns, all manner of traumatic situations. The hospital was full. It was only a 30-bed hospital. They lay in the hall on cots. We were not prepared for the onslaught.”

She continued:

“Many of the young men who came here, son, did not live. When the 3 o’clock train left town, the baggage car doors were most always open, and you could see several coffins in their wooden boxes, being shipped to other places. There was seldom a day for months, maybe a year or more, when there were not one or two or three or possibly more that went out on that 3 o’clock train.”

-End-

My story “Gretchen Brinson: A Born Nurse” originally appeared in my “Listening to History” series in the Raleigh News & Observer on June 14, 1998. You can find a copy of the story here. 

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has a full schedule of holiday events planned at sites across the state, several of which are in eastern North Carolina.

From candlelight tours of historic sites like Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site to programs at state parks, the department that manages, promotes, and enhances the state’s diverse arts and culture, rich history, and natural areas provided a schedule of festive festivities through the next month.

Tree lighting at Historic Bath 6-7:30 p.m. Nov. 29. Enjoy light refreshments, music with soloist David Harragin, and Santa. Free. 

Holiday Pops with the North Carolina Symphony at Riverfront Convention Center in New Bern, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2. Tickets start at $50 and can be purchased online or at the New Bern Visitors Center on Front Street.

History of Santa Claus, Patron Saint of Sailors 11 a.m. Dec. 4 at Fort Macon State Park. During this family friendly presentation, N.C. Maritime Museum Associate Education Curator Christine Brin will try to answer some questions about the jolly fellow without taking away any of the magic. Visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com/virtual to attend the program online.

Yuletide by Lantern at Historic Halifax 4-8 p.m. Dec. 5. Visit homes, public buildings, and taverns decorated for the season with festive, all-natural décor, experience interactive historical vignettes and enjoy a warm fire in the Tap Room tavern. Tickets are required for this event on Eventbrite or at the site.

Holiday Open House: A Colonial Christmas by America 250 NC at the Museum of the Albemarle 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Dec. 6. Watch the Albemarle Express model train stop at each of the 13 counties represented at the museum, and receive a keepsake bell. A petting zoo with farm animals is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., holiday face painting from 12:30-2:30 p.m. and visits with Santa Claus from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Candlelight Christmas at Somerset Place 4-5:30 p.m. Dec. Take a self-guided tour of traditional holiday decorations illuminated by candlelight inside the historic Collins House in Creswell. Admission is $5 for adults $2 for children.

Friends of the Maritime Museum Holiday Flotilla evening of Dec. 6. Join the Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort for their annual Holiday Flotilla! Yachts, oars, kayaks and commercial vessels decorated for the season can be seen at 5:30 p.m. on the Morehead City waterfront and at 6:15 p.m. on the Beaufort waterfront. 

Island Jingle at Roanoke Island Festival Park 5:30 p.m. Dec. 6. Free event is follows the annual Town of Manteo Christmas Parade. Music will start at 6:30 p.m. with The Tilet Sisters hosting. Music by That Guy Shane, Doug Dino, The Lion Band, Jeremy Russell, plus the Mustang All Stars and Mustang Kids bands. All proceeds from concessions run by the Friends of Elizabeth II go to support the Mustang Outreach Program.

Somerset Place’s 35th Christmas Open House 1-4 p.m. Dec. 7. Explore the plantation on a self-guided tour with staff members and volunteers available to answer questions. mingle with Saint Nicholas from 2-3:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcome. https://events.dncr.nc.gov/event/somerset-places-35th-christmas-open-house

Holiday Pops with the North Carolina Symphony at Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community in Wilmington 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 11. Tickets available on the symphony’s website.

A Light in the Darkest of Night at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site 4-7 p.m. Dec. 12. Self-guided exploration of the ruins of St. Philips Church. The site’s visitor center and gift shop will remain open during the evening for holiday shopping. 

The John Costlow Christmas Train Show at the Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center in Beaufort Dec. 12-14. The annual train show, hosted by Beaufort Lions Club and the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, offers a glimpse into the past with antique working model trains and model trains of all sizes. Admission is free. Children ages 12 and younger will need to be accompanied by an adult. 

Holiday Hike to the Light at Jockey’s Ridge State Park 5:30-6:30 p.m. Dec. 13. Join Ranger Paul Austin for a fun and festive evening hike to the light. Experience the dunes at night with an educational tour up to the solar powered Christmas tree. Email austin.paul@ncparks.gov to register. 

Santa by the Sea at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 13. Games and activities will be stationed throughout the aquarium. Tickets available on the aquarium’s website.

Candlelight at Tryon Palace, Farewell to our Royal Governors 4:30-9:30 p.m. Dec. 13 and Dec. 20. The Governor’s Mansion will be illuminated by candlelight while costumed interpreters present a story that relates to back to the Palace’s colonial history.

An 18th Century Christmas at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site 1-5:30 p.m. Dec. 14. Participate in an authentic period candlelit service in the ruins of St. Philips Anglican Church from 5-5:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the gate upon arrival at the site located in Winnabow.

Holiday Pops with the North Carolina Symphony at Northside High School in Jacksonville 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17. Tickets available on the symphony’s website.

Cookies and Crafts: Christmas Open House at CSS Neuse Museum 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Dec. 18. Enjoy Christmas lights, cookies, crafts, and activities at the site in Kinston.

Holiday Cheer at Historic Bath 4-7 p.m. Dec. 20. Visit Bonner Point under the marquee tent to enjoy wassail and hot cider, ginger muffins and festive music. There will be 20-minute tours of the Bonner House focusing on the 19th-century household, and a chance to visit Carrow Cottage that portrays a family of fishermen.

Twelfth Night at Roanoke Island Festival Park 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 27. Black-powder demonstrations, carols aboard the ship, archery, scavenger hunts, and more activities happening throughout the park in Manteo. Included in cost of admission.

New Year’s Eve Cannon Blast at Fort Macon State Park Dec. 31. Live entertainment starts at 6 p.m., and the cannons will go off at 7 p.m. at the site in Carteret County. Bring folding chairs and a picnic meal. Come early as parking is limited. 

The Indian Woods historical marker at the intersection of St. Francis Road and U.S. Highway 17 in Bertie County is easily missed while cruising at 55 or 60 miles an hour.

Located at the edge of a farmer’s field after the fall harvest of cotton, the sign leans to the north, and hints of the story and its aftermath of an almost forgotten war between Native Americans and colonists in the early 18th century.

It is the northernmost of at least seven signs that are found throughout coastal North Carolina from Wayne County to Bertie County that trace the story of that conflict.

The Tuscarora War was brutal and horrific. Launching a coordinated attack on the morning of Sept. 22, 1711, Tuscarora warriors slaughtered 140 men, women and children throughout eastern North Carolina.

“The Tuscarora devastated white settlements in the Pamlico Neuse region and raised serious fears for the continuance of English occupation in North Carolina,” Thomas Parramore wrote for the North Carolina Historical Review in 1982.

Unable to defend its own people, the North Carolina colony’s general assembly begged Virginia and South Carolina for help.

Virginia refused to send troops, but put pressure on neutral Tuscarora villages in its colony to remain out of the conflict. South Carolina sent combined white and Native forces.

In the end in March of 1713, when the last pitched battle of the war was fought at Fort Neoheroka, which is present day Snow Hill in Greene County, at least a thousand Tuscarora were dead and another thousand sold into slavery in South Carolina.

In North Carolina, as many as 200 colonists were killed and the combined white and Native combatants provided by South Carolina suffered an additional 200 deaths.

Tuscarora lineage

The Tuscarora were part of the Iroquois, whose original lands stretched from New York state into Canada. The migration to North Carolina most likely occurred sometime around the 1500s, Dr. Arwin Smallwood, dean of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at North Carolina Central University, told Coastal Review.

Smallwood, who traces his lineage to the Tuscarora people, grew up in Indian Woods and has studied the history of the Tuscarora extensively.

“In the 1500s they’d already moved down from (New York) and settled North Carolina,” he said, adding that “they never broke their blood ties to the five nations,” which are the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca.

By the 1580s, when Sir Walter Raleigh’s doomed expeditions landed on Roanoke Island, the Tuscarora were well established in eastern North Carolina and probably were the dominant Native nation of the region. They may have been the ones who decided the colony’s fate.

“Tuscarora oral traditions say they were the ones who destroyed the Lost Colony,” Smallwood said. “They always had large numbers of people who had European characteristics like red and auburn hair, even sometimes blonde hair, but definitely what (Native Americans) called the Tuscarora eye, which was blue-green, kind of a hazel eye, that was prevalent throughout the Tuscaroras and that distinguished them.”

War: Longtime complaints

At its simplest, the Tuscarora War was about long-established complaints of the Tuscarora: Encroachment on lands they had traditionally controlled and unfair and dishonest trading practices.

But, Smallwood noted, there were other factors at play.

It was “trade routes. The Tuscaroras controlled the Piedmont and the coastal plains of North Carolina. They controlled all the major trade routes between North Carolina and Virginia,” he said. “Anyone who needed knives, axes, guns, gunpowder, whatever they had to trade through them, including rum. They had to trade through the Tuscaroras. For the southeastern Indians, it was a way of eliminating them as the people who monopolized trade.”

It is possible that, after at least 60 years of observing the internal politics of the North Carolina colony, the Tuscarora were aware of the internal rivalries that were threatening to tear the colony apart, and that may have played a role in the timing of the initial attack.

Cary’s Rebellion pitted Thomas Cary, the Quaker-leaning former governor of the colony, against Edward Hyde, who the Lords Proprietors had selected to govern the colony. The rebellion exposed the deep political divisions within the colony that led to open warfare with Hyde finally taking the reins of the governorship in 1711.

At that time, the colony was divided into two counties: Albemarle in the north and Bath in the south. Although in 1711 the nominal capital of the colony was Bath. There was no government office there and it’s doubtful if the population of the town ever reached 300 people.

The northern Albemarle colony was dominated by the supporters of Hyde and the resentment from Cary’s attempt to wrest control of the colony permeated the region.

“The Cary Rebellion had pitted Albemarle against Bath and had left the colonists of the two counties somewhat at odds with each other. It was by no means clear that Albemarle would rush to the defense of Bath County and, in fact, it did not,” Parramore wrote.

If there was a proximate cause of the war, it was the settlement of New Bern by Swiss immigrants and members of the Palatine religious sect escaping religious persecution in Europe.

“New Bern was built on what (the Tuscarora) considered to be part of their capital city,” Smallwood said.

Baron Christopher DeGraffenreid, the founder of New Bern, in his “Account of the Tuscarora War,” touched on many of the issues that have been cited as causing the conflict.

“What caused the Indian war was firstly, the slanders and instigations of certain plotters against Governor Hyde, and secondly, against me, in that they talked the Indians into believing that I had come to take their land,” he wrote. “Talked them out of this and it was proven by the friendliness I had shown them, as also by the payment for the land where I settled at the beginning (namely that upon which the little city of New Bern was begun), regardless of the fact that the seller was to have given it over to me free.”

Captured with surveyor John Lawson, DeGraffenreid was able to talk his way out of imprisonment and possible death.

It is possible Lawson could have avoided his fate, but, Smallwood said, “he quarreled with the chiefs. You’re being held prisoner, and you’ve been put on trial, and then you go argue with the prosecuting attorney and the judge who decides whether you live or die.”

Lawson, whose book “History of North Carolina” gave accurate and clear-eyed accounts of Native life in the colonies, was not so lucky, and may have had a hand in his own undoing. Accused by his captors of surveying the Tuscarora land for the purpose of selling it, he was tried and convicted and sentenced to death.

Like the North Carolina colony, the Tuscarora had internal divisions. Parramore described the Tuscarora as “not a nation and probably not even a confederacy though colonial perceptions of them had not traditionally recognized any significant internal divisions.”

Smallwood, however, paints a different picture.

“The whole structure was family based,” he said. “With that being said, they were all united because the whole nation is united by blood.”

Within that nation family, there were specific ways to make decisions that would affect all members for the Tuscarora nation, Smallwood said, describing the decision-making process as “a democracy.”

Smallwood explained that Lawson was convicted after “all of the chiefs met in the war council. In that council, they all agree to execute Lawson.”

War: First conflict

When the war first broke out in 1711, South Carolina sent military aid. Col. John Barnwell left South Carolina with “30 white men and nearly 500 Indians,” the Carolana website states.

Although Barnwell may have included giving military aid to North Carolina in his reasoning, by his actions and those of the men under his command, the profit that could be realized from the bounty on scalps and selling Native Americans into slavery was an important part of why he made the trip.

Thomas Peotta in his 2018 doctoral dissertation, “Dark Mimesis: A Cultural History of the Scalping Paradigm,” at the University of British Columbia, describes how profitable scalps and prisoners could be.

“Virginia and Carolina offered scalp and prisoner bounties to militiamen and allied Indians. Virginia…offered £20 per scalp to British colonists, while uninvolved Tuscaroras on Virginia’s frontier were offered a bounty of 6 blankets apiece…for the scalps of Hancock’s warriors, and market prices for enslaved women and children,” he wrote.

For Barnwell, the scalps had an additionally benefit, Peotta wrote, noting that “scalps and prisoners also offered a way to tally the dead: Barnwell’s forces recorded 52 scalps and 30 captives after (his) victory at Torhunta in 1712.” Torhunta is present day Pikeville in Wayne County.

After a series of battles with the Tuscarora including a 10-day siege at their main settlement in Craven County, Barnwell reached an agreement with the Tuscarora combatants to pay tribute and lay down their arms. After signing the agreement, he invited some of the local Indians, who had not attacked the colonists, into his camp. They were then seized, DeGraffenreid wrote, and sold into slavery

“He thought of a means of going back to South Carolina with profit, and under the pretense of a good peace he enticed a goodly number of the friendly Indians or savage Carolinians, took them prisoner at Core Town (to this his tributary Indians were entirely inclined because they hoped to get a considerable sum from each prisoner) and made his way home with his living plunder…This so unchristian act very properly embittered the rest of the Tuscarora and Carolina Indians very much, although heathens, so that they no longer trusted the Christians,” he wrote.

War: Conclusion

The action reignited the war, with King Hancock again leading the Tuscarora aligned with him. Renewing the conflict may have been justified, but it was not sanctioned by the war council, allowing the northern Tuscarora to remain neutral.

It would take another military expedition from South Carolina, this one led by Col. James Moore to end the war, but it also led to an open rift between King Hancock and the northern Tuscarora.

King Hancock was captured by northern Tuscarora at the orders of Chief Blunt (or Blount) in November of 1712 and turned over to North Carolina authorities who executed him.

The war did not end with Hancock’s death, however.

The agreement with Blunt was that he was to deliver the scalps of key leaders to North Carolina authorities by the end of the year. When he failed to do so, Moore renewed his campaign.

Finally, following a three-day siege at Fort Neoheroka the war came to an end, although there were sporadic raids and fighting until 1715.

Aftermath

For the tribal nations that had aligned with the South Carolina expeditions, their participation sparked “a continental war in the back country,” Smallwood explained.

“Because of the role,” Smallwood continued. “Those Indians in that area played in the war, it set off a continental Indian War. he Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondaga, the Senecas, and (allied tribes) came south, and they completely obliterated the (the southern tribes).”

In North Carolina, the war was a harbinger of extraordinary change. Initially the war’s end brought brought economic hardship to what was then called Bath County, an area that now includes Beaufort, Hyde, Bladen, Onslow, Carteret and New Hanover counties.

“The concentration of Indian attacks on frontier settlements during the war and the continuation of raids after the peace of 1713 stifled economic growth in Bath County and contributed to temporary food shortages throughout the colony,” Christine Styrna explained in a 1990 doctoral dissertation at the College of William and Mary.

But if the initial effect was to wreak havoc on the colony’s economy, the war also “provided certain colonial leaders with the opportunity to reinforce their economic and political power while serving as a catalyst for economic development,” Styrna noted.

Bath and New Bern had taken the brunt of the Tuscarora raids, and there, Styrna wrote, “colonists slowly rebuilt their homes and fortunes.”

The rest of the colony, though, experienced a “boom period” in which coastal and local trade increased dramatically. According to the shipping reports Styrna cites from the Boston Newsletter, “the number of vessels sailing to and from ports in North Carolina ports elsewhere between 1716 and 1720 increased fourfold in comparison to the five-year period before the war.”

If, however, North Carolina was on the road to recovery, the fate of the Tuscarora was one of enslavement and exile, leading to a diaspora of the tribal nation that stretched from North Carolina to Canada.

Most of the southern Tuscarora emigrated north. The largest group returned to the Iroquois in New York, becoming numerous enough that in 1722 the Tuscarora became the sixth nation of the Iroquois Confederacy.

As they moved north, some settled in Pennsylvania. There is today, a Tuscarora Mountain in south central Pennsylvania.

Many of them, though, settled in small communities throughout North Carolina and other states east of the Mississippi.

“It’s like you take a plate or mirror and you drop it on the floor and it shatters and shards go everywhere,” Smallwood said. “There’s some big chunks, and then there are lots of little chunks. And those little chunks, are scattered all over eastern North Carolina. They’re at least today, seven different factions of Tuscaroras that are (in North Carolina). And larger groups of them who are in Virginia, and even over into eastern Ohio.”

Coastal Review will not publish Thursday and Friday in observation of the Thanksgiving holiday.

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A gull keeps watch from atop the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division’s vehicle ferry Kinnakeet as it plies the Neuse River between Minnesott Beach and Cherry Branch. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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The N.C. Division of Water Resources has released for public comment a revised discharge permit for a quarry operation in Vanceboro.

Martin Marietta Material Inc.’s revised wastewater discharge permit for it’s Vanceboro quarry requires a biological integrity assessment once every two years through sampling for benthos, or small aquatic organisms that live in water.

The permit also includes a monthly monitoring requirement for pH, total suspended solids and turbidity in the discharge, or effluent, from the mine.

Permit revisions were made after the permit the division issued last February to the company was rescinded based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “end-result” requirements imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in permits were not allowed under the Clean Water Act.

Mining activity has not occurred at the Vanceboro site since the original permit was issued in 2013, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality release.

The proposed permit would regulate 12 million gallons per day of mine dewatering and stormwater from two outfalls to unnamed tributaries of Blounts Creek. The creek is classified as a Class C, Swamp, Nutrient Sensitive Waterbody in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.

The first benthic sampling would occur after the discharge begins between Feb. 1 and March 15, according to the release.

Public comments on the revised permit will be accepted through Oct. 29 by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject line “NC0089168 Vanceboro Quarry,” and by mail to Wastewater Permitting (NC0089168), 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1617.

Details about the permit and a technical fact sheet are available at online DWR Vanceboro Quarry permit file.

MOREHEAD CITY – Keep telling your story.

That was the message to those who attended the first meeting of the North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition held Tuesday afternoon in the Crystal Coast Civic Center.

Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard, who initiated the coalition to be a voice for the commercial fishing industry, welcomed elected officials and staff from Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Hertford, Hyde, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties, and 10 coastal legislators or their representative.

“We’ve got a lot of folks here today concerned about this coalition, and this effort,” Woodard said, adding that many of the more than 100 in the audience were in Raleigh to protest House Bill 442.

But the head of the state’s recreational fishing association called the group’s goals “disappointing.”

‘No due process’

First introduced in March to open up the recreational season for flounder and red snapper, the Senate amended the bill in mid-June to include a trawling ban in the state’s inland waters and within a half-mile of the shoreline.

The proposed ban was met with both outcry and support, but when the Senate kicked the amended bill back to the House, representatives chose not to advance the bill. Since June 25, the bill has been parked in a House committee.

Woodard set the coalition in motion July 3 with a letter to the 18 other coastal counties that border bodies of water from which licensed commercial fishermen are required to report their catch, representing 20% of the state’s counties, he explained.

“That should send a clear voice to our legislators, that we got 20% of the entire counties in the state of North Carolina, and hopefully we will grow up more for people that believe in eating the fresh local seafood from clean, clear waters in our state, rather than foreign food that comes into our country. I don’t know about you, but I want to eat fresh, seafood,” he said.

When Woodard began the meeting Tuesday, he told the crowd that he was “appalled to see that (proposed trawling ban) went to the House,” and wrote a letter June 30 to Senate Leader Phil Berger.

Woodard read the second paragraph of that letter aloud: “Our democratic system, established by our forefathers, was designed to ensure that every voice in leadership could be heard-whether in support or opposition. At its core, our Constitution is built on mutual respect and, most importantly, due process.”

Woodard said, “everyone in this room sitting here today certainly knows there was no due process,” and then explained how he pitched the idea to form the coalition to a fellow commissioner.

“I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ I’ve been a chairman in Dare County for the last 10 years. I’ve been on the board the last 12 years,” Woodard said. “Every single year, we have to fight the regulatory agencies. We have to fight the leadership.”

It was time “to come together, not just counties, not just fishermen, but stakeholders all over the south and this entire state. We need to educate those legislators that aren’t living on the coast.”

Once given the board’s blessing, Woodard sent the letter proposing the North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition.

“The goal of this coalition is to bring together county leaders from coastal regions to address these critical issues with a unified voice. By coordinating our efforts, we can better advocate for the long-term health and sustainability of our fisheries, our local economies and our fishermen’s way of life,” Woodard said.

About the coalition

Members agreed that the coalition would be a public body and have its next meeting at 1 p.m. Sept. 16 in the civic center, ahead of when the legislature is expected to convene.

After that, the coalition will meet quarterly in Carteret County because of its central location.

Woodard emphasized he wanted the coalition to be “as transparent as humanly possible,” adding he wanted the “public to be here.”

The coalition adopted a mission statement to support commercial fishermen and fishing communities, protect their livelihoods, preserve coastal heritage, “and safeguard the economic vitality of our working waterfronts. Together, we work to ensure the continued harvest of high-quality North Carolina seafood—feeding families, strengthening communities, and ensuring North Carolina Catch remains a priority for consumers to enjoy throughout our state and beyond.”

During the discussion, Pamlico County Commissioner Candy Bohmert said that the coalition should focus on promoting — rather than stating it’s out to save — the commercial fishing industry.

“We don’t need to save these people. They save themselves. We need to empower them,” Bohmert said. “We really need to kind of change that language. We’re promoting them. We’re promoting our commercial history. We’re promoting all of that because they’re important.”

Bobby Outten, Dare County’s manager and attorney, is to serve as staff to the board.

Outten explained that the intention with the coalition is to act as a governmental body.

“The fisheries groups have for years been working hard to deal with fisheries issues, and what we found is the legislators aren’t listening, and it’s a hard road, and it’s a tough time,” Outten said.

The idea is to get the governmental entities of the affected counties together and “then be the voice for the political side of this,” Outten said.

Fisheries groups will still be the resource to disseminate the information, but the coalition will be “the voice of the political counties.”

From the legislators

There were nearly a dozen coastal legislators at the meeting, including Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck. Hanig has been a vocal opponent of the trawling ban since it was first proposed at a Senate committee meeting June 17.

“We’ve never had the opportunity to tell our story. Well, guess what God brought us? He brought us H442, and you know what that did? That wasn’t the shot heard around the world. That was the backfire heard around the world. Let me tell you why. Now we have the ability to be on the offense, and we have to keep that ability to be on the offense,” Hanig said.

That bill “is allowing us to tell our story,” he said, adding that it led to the coalition and got 700 people to Raleigh in about three days.

The turnout in Raleigh brought together various aspects of the industry, such as commercial fishermen, packing houses, “everybody. You know why? Because what’s the first thing they went after? The shrimp, right? They’re going after everything,” Hanig said. “Because that’s what they’re after, folks, they make no qualms about it. They’re after our industry.”

In response to an audience member asking who “they” are, Hanig said “Pick someone. The CCA, the Wildlife Federation, certain legislators, you know, their efforts. They’re after this industry. They make no bones about it. They’ve been telling the wrong story, the false story, for too long, and we haven’t stopped that.” The CCA is the Coastal Conservation Association North Carolina.

“I implore you, tell your story. Do not be afraid to tell your story,” Hanig said. “Let them know where you’re coming from, because those stories matter.”

Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, told the crowd that people in Raleigh think there’s no fish, no crabs, no shrimp, that “our fishery is completely depleted, because that’s what the Marine Fisheries Commission is telling them.”

He added that this message is what he feels pitted recreational against commercial fishing, and “they think that the shrimp trawl has killed all the fish.”

Smith suggested two resolutions: Ask the “General Assembly to completely redo the Marine Fisheries Commission,” and “tell the Wildlife Resources Commission, ‘hey, stay in your lane.’ You count the trout in the mountains, but don’t use state resources” to try to close the commercial fishing industry down.

Sen. Bob Brinson, R-Beaufort, said the best way to educate folks in Raleigh is by “getting them on your boats, getting them in your oyster beds, getting them in your fish houses, and showing them what it is you do and how you do it.”

Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Carteret, explained that when the Senate voted on House Bill 442 June 19, four voted against, but 40-plus voted in favor, which he didn’t expect.

He later found out that the votes for the amendment were for the “environmental side because they claim that shrimp trawling was destroying the environment in our sound. That it was going to destroy all kinds of fishing. Well, that’s one of the talking points that the CCA has used for the last 20 years,” he said.

Sanderson said that he was also upset about how the bill was amended in the Senate, “because the process stunk to high heaven.”

He explained that he was co-chair in the Agriculture Committee when the amendment “first came about, and that is the last thing that you ever do to a committee chairman,” he said. “If you’ve got something that’s going to be contentious, if you’ve got something that’s going to cause a lot of outcry or pushback,” you should go to them before the meeting. But Sanderson said that’s not what happened in this case.

“Let’s stay strong. Keep helping us. Keep telling your story, spreading this message across and around this state, so that the next time this happens, there’ll be an outcry from all over this state,” he said.

Response from CCA-NC

Coastal Conservation Association-North Carolina Executive Director David Sneed told Coastal Review in an email that “it is disappointing to read the goal of this new coalition is apparently to create a vehicle only for ‘battling issues that affect the state’s commercial fishing industry’ (fewer than 2,000 people who profit from a public trust resource) rather than acting in the public interest for the 11 million citizens of North Carolina who own our public trust resources and would benefit enormously from a healthy, sustainable coastal fishery.”

The coalition would be better served by recognizing the foundational, bedrock principles established by the public trust doctrine and the state’s constitution. “That North Carolina’s coastal fisheries resources belong to all 11 million citizens of this State and must be managed, preserved, and protected for the overall benefit of those citizens and future generations.  In addition, the coalition’s approach only divides and disenfranchises the not-for-profit fishing public that lives in and visits our coastal counties,” Sneed continued.

“There are more than 91,000 Coastal Recreational Fishing Licenses sold across the state’s 19 coastal counties each year, and it is reliably estimated that more than 300,000 people spend nearly $1.5 billion annually across the three Congressional Districts that encompass these 19 coastal counties—people who not only live in our coastal counties but also people from inland counties who visit our coast and spend money supporting our coastal fishing communities,” he said. “Our hope would be that any efforts by this coalition will be focused on building a true coalition in the public interest—one that will support the sound management of our coastal fisheries resources to achieve the long-term sustainability that all North Carolinians deserve and are entitled to under the law.”

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The North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division vehicle ferry Avon prepares to dock at the Minnesott Beach Ferry Terminal in Pamlico County, making one of the service’s numerous daily, 20-minute trips each way, back and forth between here and the Cherry Branch terminal across the Neuse River in Craven County. The Avon is one of 21 state ferries serving commuters and visitors on seven routes across the Neuse, Cape Fear and Pamlico rivers, and the Currituck and Pamlico sounds, and their schedules vary seasonally. Photo: Dylan Ray

A handful of coastal communities have been awarded a chunk of state funding to be used for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects.

Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday an award of more than $204 million in funding for 48 projects that include addressing PFAS and other chemical compounds in drinking water, identifying and replacing lead pipes, and improving resiliency following storms.

“When you turn on the faucet in your home, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether that water is safe for your family,” Stein said in a statement. “These investments will help ensure North Carolinians have access to clean drinking water and will help keep people safe when disaster strikes.”   

The funding is being dispersed to projects across 27 counties, including four along the North Carolina coast.

In Beaufort County, the town of Aurora is receiving more than $3.06 million to replace a force main and rehabilitate a lift station and lift station wells. Belhaven has been awarded more than $4.7 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements. And, Chocowinity will receive more than $4.8 million for water treatment plant and waste discharge improvements.

River Bend in Craven County is set to get $6.3 million in drinking water state revolving funds for phase II drinking water improvements.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in New Hanover County has been awarded $35 million to replace its southside wastewater treatment plant.

And, Carolina Water Service, Inc. will receive $5.5 million for six projects focusing on PFAS, lead service line identification and water lines across multiple counties, including Pender.

“This funding will address aging infrastructure and improve public health for communities large and small,” N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson said in a statement.

More than 130 applications requesting $1.57 billion in funding were reviewed by the agency’s Division of Water Infrastructure.

The projects that were selected were approved by the State Water Infrastructure Authority, an independent body responsible for awarding federal and state funding for water infrastructure projects, during its July 16 meeting.

Funds awarded this month came from the State Revolving Funds, which are funded by federal capitalization grants and revolving loan repayments and provide low-interest loans that may be partially forgiven for drinking water and wastewater projects, according to a release.

Funding rounds for Fall 2025 begin July 29 and applications are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 30. Funds for this round will come from programs to include evaluating options to address PFAS contamination, identifying and replacing lead service lines, and Viable Utility Reserve grants. 

The division is hosting in-person funding application training for the fall 2025 funding round in Clyde, Hickory, Boone, Fayetteville, Winterville, and Research Triangle Park/Durham. A virtual option will also be available as well as a recording of the training, which will be posted on the division’s training webpage.

Craven County Farm Life School in Vanceboro, the first farm life school in the state, is being commemorated with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker.

A ceremony is planned for 4 p.m. Thursday to dedicate the marker, located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Farm Life Avenue in Vanceboro.

The North Carolina General Assembly in 1911 authorized an appropriation to build farm life schools, which were required to offer a standard high school education in addition to classes and practical experience in vocational agriculture and home economics, according to the state.

If a local governmental unit provided facilities, including dormitories for boys and girls, for $25,000 and then pledged $2,500 for operating expenses each year, the state would match the latter amount. By 1916, 21 farm life schools were in operation, with the first being the Vanceboro facility that opened Nov. 4, 1913.

Students within walking or horse-riding distances paid no tuition, but students staying in the dorms paid $12.50 a month. The boys cut wood for fires, and the girls cooked and waited tables. Crop rotation, contour plowing, selection of nutritious foods, and improved homemaking practices were emphasized along with the academic curriculum. 

The Highway Historical Marker Program is a collaboration between the state departments of Natural and Cultural Resources and Transportation. 

Several coastal counties are expected to experience unhealthy heat levels over the weekend.

Chowan, Perquimans and Washington counties are expected to have a maximum heat index of 96 degrees or higher on Saturday.

Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender counties should plan for the same on both Saturday and Sunday.

The National Weather Service explained that the heat index, also called the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature.

The North Carolina Health and Human Services Climate and Health Program sends out the heat-health alerts when the forecast is projected to reach or exceed the heat index threshold for the region.

Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub established the region-specific thresholds by using historical heat index data and state records to determine when emergency room visits increased for heat-related illnesses.

“Heat of this magnitude can be dangerous to your health, particularly for people who are more exposed to extreme heat or more sensitive to extreme heat,” which includes those who are pregnant, living with disabilities or underlying health conditions, are without access to air conditioning, who work or exercise outdoors or are older adults, the department stated in a release.

To prevent heat-related illness, the health department recommends drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding caffeinated, sugary or alcoholic drinks, staying in air conditioning as much as possible, watch for symptoms and stay informed, the department continued.

Visit the health department’s website to sign up for the heat alerts, or for more information on heat-related illnesses and tools to prevent it.

Eastern and coastal North Carolina are home to some truly enormous trees. Towering bald cypresses with buttressed trunks, ancient live oaks with branches spreading out almost endlessly. The kinds of trees that leave people stunned. And though the person beholding the tree might not know it, the magnificent thing in front of them could be, or one day become, a champion.

Designated giants

The “Champion Tree” designation is a simple concept with a big purpose. The idea is to find the largest individual specimen of any given tree species, which is then named the champion of that species. The purpose goes far beyond measurements and rankings, however.

As first envisioned by the American Forestry Association in 1940, the Champion Tree Program, previously called the National Register of Big Trees, was intended to identify and conserve the nation’s largest remaining trees, which were at risk during an era of economic expansion and aggressive timber harvesting. It was also hoped that the program would increase the public’s appreciation for trees and encourage community science in forestry.

Today, anyone can nominate a tree for the National Register of Champion Trees, the annual publication of the Champion Tree Program. Nominated trees are reviewed and measured by an expert under the supervision of the University of Tennessee’s School of Natural Resources, which assumed official responsibility for the Champion Tree Program in 2024, and the champions are thereby sorted out for each species.

As of last year, when the most recent national register was published, North Carolina boasted 10 national champion trees, two of which are in the coastal plains: a pond pine in Bladen County, and a silky camellia in Gates County.

In order to find champions within their borders, state forestry services eventually established their own champion tree lists, such as North Carolina’s, which took shape under the auspices of the North Carolina Forest Service in the 1970s.

This means that North Carolina has a state champion tree for each species native to the state, and any state champion tree that is not bested in size by one of the same species in another state can be named the national champion.

Looking for the big ones

For 25-year-old Luke Ferreira, a big-tree hunter originally from New Bern, the sense of appreciation and the scientific mindset that spurred the original Champion Tree Program are always close at hand when he goes looking for giants.

“In some of the pretty remote places we go, I wonder, has anybody ever even seen this tree before?” Ferreira said in a telephone interview. “That’s what makes it worth it to me. Sometimes you come across something that takes your breath away.”

Ferreira, who now lives in Clayton, frequently ventures back to eastern North Carolina to look for and measure large trees.

“I’d say we definitely have more champions or potential champions east of I-95 than west of it,” he said.

When Ferreira finds a large tree, he calculates its size according to the method prescribed by the national Champion Tree Program. Each inch of a tree trunk’s circumference, as measured 4.5 feet above the ground, counts as one point, as does each foot of the tree’s height. The average spread in feet of the tree’s crown is divided by four, and this score is added to the point score for trunk circumference and height, yielding the overall score by which tree sizes can be compared.

Using these methods, Ferreira determined that a water hickory he and a friend discovered in a Craven County swamp was championship material. They nominated it to the state champion list, which prompted the N.C. Forest Service, following its protocols, to send out a county ranger to verify the tree’s dimensions. The ruling? With a 210-inch circumference, a height of 124 feet, and a 71-foot crown spread, it was the new state champion water hickory.

It should be noted, however, that those measurements yield 352 points according to the official Champion Tree Program method. The current national champion water hickory is listed at only 330 points, so Ferreira says he will be nominating the tree to the national list soon.

It might sound straightforward, but in reality, measuring tree sizes is a tricky business. The National Register of Champion Trees publishes a Measuring Guidelines Handbook that is 86 pages and includes two appendices and countless diagrams, so it may deter some beginners.

Luckily for Ferreira, trees aren’t just his hobby, they’re also his profession. Ferreira is a safety coordinator with Bartlett Tree Experts, so he has plenty of experience identifying, measuring and even climbing trees.

“I use a reel tape to measure the crown spread and the circumference, and then we use clinometers for height,” Ferreira said, referring to a device that calculates the height of distant objects with the help of a little trigonometry. “But if the tree isn’t too remote, I will sometimes tape drop it, where I climb up and drop the tape all the way down.”

Dying down, growing back

North Carolina’s big-tree database was taken offline in recent months before being made accessible again in early May. Andrew Pleninger, urban and community forestry program head at the N.C. Forest Service, oversees the state’s champion tree list. Pleninger said that the access issues stemmed from coinciding technical difficulties and the regular, laborious review such a program requires.

On the technical side, Pleninger said the web application hosting the database with the champion tree list was malfunctioning, prompting him to take it offline. Meanwhile, he and his staff have been working to reinspect all the existing state champions, to make sure everything on the list is accurate and up to date — a task delayed by staff shortages.

“It’s a good, popular program, and I’d like to continue to support it,” Pleninger said by telephone. “Tuning it up is one of our tasks right now.”

Maintaining champion tree registers with any kind of regularity is surely a large undertaking. Hundreds of trees, some of them in isolated mountain hollers or remote and unnavigable swamps, have to be checked to make sure none have fallen to storm, disease or axe.  

As Ferreira put it, “Once something becomes big enough to be a champion, it’s already close to the end of its life anyway.”

Even the loss of a limb can cost a tree its champion status. In a cemetery in Clinton, there stands a flowering dogwood that as recently as 2021 was the undisputed national champion.

“I was amazed at how big it was,” Pleninger said of the graveyard sentinel, which was once 33 feet tall and boasted a 40-foot crown spread. “I saw pictures of it before I went, and I thought, this is not a dogwood.”

However, the old tree has since lost one of its two main limbs, reducing its size significantly. It is no longer the national champion, and is likely not even the largest flowering dogwood in North Carolina anymore. However, a recent visit to the cemetery off of N.C. Highway 24 in Sampson County proved that the tree is still alive and still impressive. Time and decay may have robbed it of its title as champion, but it’s not yet too old to bloom in spring.

Caring for champions

The graceful leviathan at the heart of Wilmington’s Airlie Gardens isn’t just North Carolina’s state champion live oak, it’s probably one of the state’s best-known trees. It has served as a backdrop for hundreds of weddings and many thousands of photos, and it is frequently the object of concerned check-ins from the public.  

“The number one question we get after every storm is, ‘how’s the Airlie Oak?’” said Janine Powell, Airlie’s director of donor relations. “After Hurricane Florence, the first thing we did was put a picture of her up, and you could see Spanish moss and branches all over the lawn, but she’s still there.”

In an interview conducted in the shade of the sprawling oak, which is thought to have sprouted sometime around the 1540s, Powell spoke affectionately of the tree, as if it were a grande dame. That sense of care is reflected in the way Airlie Gardens looks after their champion.

When a large branch sagged to the ground in 2019, arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts were hired to thoroughly evaluate the Airlie Oak’s health and recommend measures to protect it for future generations. A customized brace to stabilize the sagging limb, support cables for the other limbs, a grounded copper wire to protect the tree from lightning strikes, removal of Spanish moss to let in more light, aeration and fertilization of the soil. The list of treatments the tree has received reads like a testament to the love of its caretakers.

“It’s amazing how much it revitalized her,” Powell said. “She just looks better. If I look at photographs from 2014 to now, oh my gosh.”

When asked what it means for Airlie Gardens to contain a state champion tree, Powell didn’t hesitate. “For the Gardens, it means the world to us,” she said. “Just knowing that it’s been around for so long.”

To raise funds for the care of their champion and the rest of their grounds, Airlie Gardens has partnered with Penderlea Farms to sell saplings grown from the acorns of the Airlie Oak.

These “historic live oaks,” according to Powell, are intended to help educate the public on the natural shape that live oaks require to be resilient (and beautiful) in their natural coastal environment.

Through the recognition of a specific remarkable tree, they are encouraging people to think about all trees a bit more deeply. Appreciation, protection, education — they’re all there, the original hallmarks of the Champion Tree Program.

A temporary traffic pattern is going to be put in place over the weekend for a section of U.S. Highway 70 in James City ahead of road work that will close the highway’s median to travelers.

Intersections along U.S. 70 in the city bordering New Bern are being converted to interchanges without traffic signals to improve traffic flow and reduce travel times. Constructing the bridge that crosses the highway is the final stage before the interchange is complete and is set to begin for the first of five, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday.

Travelers starting at 7 p.m. Friday can expect a series of U.S. 70 lane closures to shift both eastbound and westbound traffic near Grantham Road to newly widened portions of the highway and interchange ramps.

Officials expect the temporary traffic pattern to be fully implemented by 6 a.m. Monday and will remain in place during bridge construction. In the event of weather delays, all work will take place the following week.

While the new traffic pattern is being set up this weekend, Grantham Road on both sides of U.S. 70 will be closed between the highway and roundabouts. During this time there will be signed detour routes to access Grantham Road.

Reduced conflict intersections with temporary traffic signals are to be installed near the Grantham Road intersection with U.S. 70 to facilitate traffic flow. These intersections will allow drivers to make U-turns on the highway and access side streets while the median crossover at Grantham Road is closed during bridge construction, officials said.

The project team is available to answer questions. Send an email to US70-JamesCity@publicinput.com or call 855-925-2801 and enter code 7872 when prompted. The public may also visit the new site office at 118B Market St., New Bern.

The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council recommends residents in coastal counties that are experiencing severe drought conditions cut out nonessential water use.

The council, which monitors drought conditions throughout the state, last week classified eight counties in eastern North Carolina, including five on the coast, as experiencing severe drought.

Those counties include Beaufort, Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Columbus, Martin and Washington.

Water users in counties experiencing severe drought should implement Water Shortage Response Plans, participate in regional and local coordination of water resource management, reexamine water delivery systems to minimize water loss and maximize efficiency, and eliminate nonessential users of water, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality release.

Fifty counties in the Piedmont and western part of the state have been classified as experiencing moderate drought conditions and another 32 counties are experiencing abnormally dry conditions.

“The effects of a very dry winter and early spring are starting to be seen,” council Chair Klaus Albertin said in a release. “Some areas are seeing a rainfall deficit of 6 to 10 inches since October. Impacts from ongoing drought conditions were limited in winter months, but will become more noticeable as we enter the growing season.”

The council is organized by DEQ’s Division of Water Resources and includes drought experts from government agencies in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. The council meets weekly. Drought maps are updated every Thursday.

Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern will bloom with potential for green thumbs Friday through Sunday during its annual spring heritage plant sale and Spring Garden Lovers’ Weekend.

Part of its celebration of National Gardening Month, the plant sale is set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday on the Daves House Lawn just inside the palace’s main gate.

Organizers said that there will be a selection of plants grown locally and in the historic site’s nursery yard, as well as a wide variety of annuals, heirloom vegetables, perennials, herbs and other spring favorites.

Admission to the gardens is being waved as part of Spring Garden Lovers Weekend from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Also on Saturday, the Craven Consort woodwind group are scheduled to perform under the palace colonnades. The five-piece woodwind group performs pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments.

Plein air artists will be painting in the gardens on both Saturday and Sunday, as well.

Tryon Palace was built in 1770 and served as the first permanent capitol of North Carolina and was home to Gov. William Tryon and his family. The Georgian-style structure was the site of the first sessions of the General Assembly after the American Revolution and housed state governors until 1794. In 1798, fire destroyed the original building. The palace was rebuilt in the 1950s, opening in 1959, according to the historic site’s website.

Of the more than $265 million that will go to fund 99 drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects in 45 counties, about $60 million will go to the coast, the governor’s office announced last Friday.

“When we invest in our infrastructure, we build a stronger and safer state for every North Carolinian,” Gov. Josh Stein stated in a release. “This funding will help ensure more North Carolinians have access to safe and clean drinking water and will strengthen our communities for decades to come.”

The awards that are to fund projects include $500,000 to Nags Head to finance repairs and replacements for about 400 malfunctioning residential septic systems. This is the first award from the Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System Pilot Program.

“We’re excited to be the first recipient of funding from the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System Pilot Program,” officials said on social media. “This funding aligns with our Todd D. Krafft Septic Health Initiative, which has helped Nags Head residents maintain their septic systems for over 20 years. By offering free septic inspections, low-interest pump-out loans, and financial assistance for system repairs, this initiative plays a vital role in protecting our water quality.”

New Hanover County will receive $3 million in funding to install 1.3 miles of water lines and connect 50 occupied residential units to the water system.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, also in New Hanover County, will receive $35 million for the ongoing southside wastewater treatment plant replacement project.

Opened in 1972, “much of the Southside Plant’s infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life,” according to the the public utility that provides drinking water for the Wilmington area and New Hanover County.

This is the fourth low-interest loan of $35 million the utility has been approved for through the state since summer 2023, totaling $140 million. The project is expected to be around $450 million, according to the utility’s website.

River Bend in Craven County will receive $10.4 million to complete improvements to water treatment systems and water supply wells.

Murfreesboro in Hertford County will receive $3.8 for townwide lift station improvements.

Plymouth will receive close to $2.5 million to inventory and replace lead and copper service lines, and $1.87 million for lift station improvements.

Bay River Metropolitan Sewage District in Pamlico County will receive $2.6 million for wastewater treatment plant Improvements.

Elizabeth City will receive $300,000 for sewer and water management plan updates.

Askewville, First Craven Sanitary District, Windsor and Winfall will each receive $150,000 for asset and inventory assessment projects.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure reviewed 203 eligible applications, totaling a request of $1.63 billion. The State Water Infrastructure Authority approved the awards during its Feb. 19 meeting. 

“Every family expects and deserves clean water when they turn on the tap,” NCDEQ Secretary Reid Wilson said in the release. “These investments will provide critical infrastructure to help improve public health and quality of life for North Carolinians in communities large and small across our state.” 

Funding came from the drinking water and clean water state revolving loan funds, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Emerging Contaminants funds, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Lead Service Line Replacement fund, the Drinking Water and Wastewater State Reserves, the Viable Utilities Reserve, and the Community Development Block Grant-Infrastructure program.

The State Water Infrastructure Authority is an independent body with primary responsibility for awarding federal and state funding for water infrastructure projects.

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Fall colors, the reds, yellows, browns and copperheads. An eastern copperhead crosses a path recently at the New Bern Civil War Battlefield in Craven County. Watch your step! Photo: Doug Waters

Dare, Brunswick, New Hanover, Carteret, Currituck and Onslow are the coastal counties to break into the Top 20 out of 100 for visitor spending in 2023.

Following a record-breaking increase of 15% in 2022, spending statewide rose 6.9% to $35.6 billion in 2023, setting another record year in visitor spending, according to data the North Carolina Department of Commerce released Tuesday.

The total spending is the amount spent on lodging, including second home spending, food and beverage, recreation, retail and transportation, and both ground and air transportation added together.

Mecklenburg County topped the list with $5.85 billion in total visitor spending, up 9.6% since last year. Though Camden had an 11.3% increase between 2022 and 2023 with a total spending of $4 million, the third highest increase of 100 counties, the county was at the bottom of the list for total spending.

State officials noted that last year, 98 of the state’s 100 counties saw increases in spending compared with 2022. Orange, Wake, Camden and Warren counties, in that order, led the state’s 6.9% growth in visitor spending. Dare ranked 10 in growth rate at 8.8%.

The two counties that had a decrease in spending are Alexander at -3.4% and Cleveland at -1.6%.

“It’s great to see increasing numbers of people continue to flock to North Carolina to see all we have to offer,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in the press release from his office. “Visitors are investing record amounts of money bolstering our booming tourism industry, and that brings good jobs and income to North Carolina businesses and families.”

The preliminary findings from an annual study commissioned by VisitNC, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, reflect the economic impact of tourism on local economies across the state.

The visitor spending study, commissioned by Visit NC and conducted by Tourism Economics, provides preliminary estimates of domestic and international traveler expenditures as well as employment, payroll income, and state and local tax revenues directly generated by these expenditures.

The statistical model draws on detailed data from Visit NC as well as data derived from federal and state government sources, nationally known private and non-profit travel organizations, and other travel industry sources.

Coastal counties by rank out of the 100 counties, total visitor spending, and growth rate:

• 4. Dare: $2.15 billion, 8.8%
• 6. Brunswick: $1.17 billion, 7.5%
• 8. New Hanover $1.12 billion, 5.9%
• 11. Carteret: $732.29, 5.3%
• 14. Currituck: $573.35 million, 4.3%
• 18. Onslow $412.12 million, 8.5%
• 35. Pender $199.12 million, 5%
• 39. Craven: $178.11 million, 4.4%
• 44. Beaufort: $142.48 million 5.9%
• 57. Pasquotank: $90.21 million, 6.7%
• 67. Hyde: $61.87 million, 6.1%
• 83. Pamlico $37.76, million, 3.7%
• 87. Hertford: $31.21 million, 6.7%
• 88. Chowan: $30.11 million, 4.8%
• 90. Bertie: $24.47 million, 4.5%
• 92. Perquimans $20.43 million, 3.1%
• 94. Washington $18.41 million, 3.3%
• 97. Gates: $9.89 million, 1%
• 98. Tyrrell $6.94 million, 3.1%
• 100. Camden: $4 million, 11.3%

Other tourism facts for 2023 provided by the state include the following:

• Total spending by domestic and international visitors reached $35.6 billion, a 6.9% increase over 2022 expenditures. 
• Direct tourism employment increased 4.8% to 227,200. 
• Direct tourism payroll increased 6.6% to nearly $9.3 billion. 
• Visitors generated nearly $4.5 billion in federal, state and local taxes, a 5.8% increase from 2022. 
• State tax receipts from visitor spending rose 5.6% to $1.3 billion. 
• Local tax receipts grew 5.4% to $1.2 billion.
• Visitors spend more than $97 million per day, adding about $3.7 million in state taxes and $3.4 million in local taxes.
• Each household saved $518 on average in state and local taxes as a direct result of visitor spending in the state. Savings per capita averaged $239.

Full tables can be accessed at partners.visitnc.com/economic-impact-studies.

Tryon Palace is launching a new Community Class Series “that reach beyond the pages of history books.”

The first of three educational programs on eastern North Carolina is scheduled for Thursday evening at the North Carolina History Center at Tryon Palace.

Nancy Strickland Fields-Chavis, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, will present “North Carolina Before Tryon: Eastern North Carolina’s Indigenous Communities.”

Director and curator of The Museum of the Southeast American Indian at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, and a commissioner for the North Carolina American Heritage Commission, Fields-Chavis will begin the program with a moment in 1491, long before any European explorer set foot on what was to become Eastern North Carolina.

The land was the home of the Tuscarora, Secotan, Chowanoke, Aquascogoc, Neusiok, Dasamongueponke, Pamlico, Chesapeake, Roanoke, Weapmeoc, and many other Algonquin, Iroquoian and Siouan speaking peoples. Fields-Chavis will go into the politics, lifeways, and culture of a people who governed this land for time immemorial.

A light reception is to kick off the evening at 5:30 p.m., featuring a menu influenced by the food sources known available to the Indigenous peoples, followed at 6 p.m. by a call to order and cultural presentation by Reggie Brewer of the Lumbee Tribe. The main presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Cullman Performance Hall.

All are welcome to attend. Community Class is free, but advance registration is required as seating is limited. Plan to arrive by 6 p.m. to secure a seat. To register, call 252-639-3527, or go to www.tryonpalace.org/events.

The next Community Class Series will be on Sept. 26 on “A Tangled Web of Trade: 16th and 17th Century Atlantic Trade and American Indians in Eastern NC” and on Nov. 19, “Tuscarora: The Indian War that Reshaped Eastern North Carolina.”

NEW BERN — An estimated 41,418 gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged Sunday from a manhole into a storm drain that leads to Renny’s Creek, a tributary of the Neuse River.

The overflow at the manhole located at 213 Trappers Trail is the “result of the influent pumps at the wastewater treatment plant becoming completely disabled from excessive debris in the sanitary sewer system,” New Bern officials said Monday.

The city notified the North Carolina Division of Water Resources of the discharge on Sunday and the division is reviewing the matter.

The news release distributed Monday fulfills a state requirement for an owner or operator of any wastewater collection or treatment works to issue a press release when an untreated wastewater discharge of 1,000 gallons or more reaches surface water.

For more information, contact New Bern at 252-639-7526.

The United States’ 250th anniversary is July 4, 2026, and Tryon Palace is jumpstarting the celebration.

“Rev War Day: Here Comes the 250th!” is set to start at 10 a.m. Saturday with a parade that will begin at the intersection of George and Broad streets, in downtown New Bern onto the Tryon Palace grounds and to the South Lawn.

The 1st Regiment of the North Carolina Continental Line will lead the parade followed by the Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps, and area chapter members of Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution.

After the parade, the Fife and Drum Corps will perform, and the 1st Regiment will fire the Verbruggen 3-pound cannon. Attendees will be able to engage with soldiers at the military encampment on the North Lawn, watch and participate in musket drills, and about the horseracing that was going on in New Bern and vicinity during the 1770s.

At the neighboring North Carolina History Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there will be crafts and activities for all ages, including mapmaking, watch spinning, weaving, knitting and sewing demonstrations, as well as apothecary and medicinals in the American Revolution, which took place in the 1770s.

Two lectures are scheduled for that afternoon in Cullman Hall inside the center.

Frank McMahon, assistant site manager for Historic Halifax site, will present at 1 p.m. “North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the American Revolution.” Hank Parfitt, Chair, Farewell Tour Bicentennial Planning Committee of Fayetteville, will speak at 2:30 p.m. on “Lafayette, the French, and Yorktown.” 

For more information, visit Tryon Palace’s website.

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Lines of clouds move over Askin near New Bern and the power lines overhead as part of a weekend weather front. Photo: Dylan Ray

CRAVEN COUNTY — The advisory to avoid fishing and recreational activity in a section of Swift Creek has been lifted now that sample analysis shows the water quality contamination from an animal waste spill reported April 30 has cleared. 

The discharge has resulted in the swine farm in Grifton that raises pigs for Smithfield to receive a notice of violation from the state, and possibly a civil penalty.

Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources regional office advised the public on May 1 to avoid the several-mile stretch of Swift Creek, from Honolulu Road to Highway 118 west of Vanceboro. Staff identified the waste spill at Saint John Farm, 320 St. John Road, which as of its April 19 compliance inspection, had 1,863 pigs of the permitted allowable count of 2,873.

Investigation of the animal waste spill is ongoing, and any files related to the facility, including any enforcement documentation, can be viewed online, officials said.

Among those documents is the notice of violation issued May 9.

Officials state in the notice that the farm has a non­discharge permit for the subject animal waste disposal system, and lists the following four violations and the required corrective action:

• For the discharge of wastewater to surface water, corrective action includes taking the necessary additional steps to ensure that wastewater does not run off from any part of the facility.
• For failure to notify the state of the discharge, the corrective action is to notify the state about any permit violation.
• For failure to maintain fields and irrigation equipment, the corrective action is to make sure that the irrigation system is properly functioning before irrigation occurs and that there is a suitable crop to use the nutrients.
• For excessive ponding and runoff, the facility should irrigate for shorter durations and monitor irrigation events to prevent ponding and runoff.

The company has to provide a written response to the notice within 10 days.

DEQ has several ways to report environmental concerns to staff. Members of the public who wish to report their concerns can contact a regional office closest to the incident, and DEQ maintains an anonymous comment tool that is routed to the appropriate staff member based on concerns raised. 

This year’s North Carolina Association of Metropolitan Planning Organization annual conference will have a twin-riverfront view.

The conference scheduled for April 17-19 is to be held in the downtown New Bern Riverfront Convention Center at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers.

It comes as highway projects appear to be happening at almost every turn in Craven County, though a study on flooding appears to be on the backburner because of funding challenges.

A Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, is a transportation policymaking organization composed of local government representatives and governmental transportation authorities.

The 2024 state MPO conference theme is “Gridlock to Green Lanes Transforming Urban Transportation.”

“Emerging technology is transforming how planners identify and plan projects. Planning now for the future is imperative for successful integration and connectivity between all modes of transportation while maintaining continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning,” according to the association’s website.

The conference is presented by the New Bern Metropolitan Planning Organization, the North Carolina Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, in cooperation with North Carolina Department of Transportation. Organizers said the conference “will attract a diverse range of transportation planning and engineering professionals,” including planning organizations, transportation, consultant firms, transit agencies, and other organizations.

Online registration closed March 20 but those interested can still register at the conference. Government, association and public sector cost is $450, and attendance is $550 for those in the private sector.

New Bern Area MPO Administrator Deanna Trebil told Coastal Review that the conference is an opportunity for elected officials, transit administrators, land use planners, public health professionals, students, and others to learn more about transportation.

Trebil explained that the Metropolitan Planning Organization in Craven County was established in 2013 as a result of the 2010 Census.

“The New Bern Area MPO is responsible for regional transportation planning for all modes of transportation within the urbanized area,” Trebil said. That area includes Trent Woods, River Bend, Bridgeton, New Bern and other parts of Craven County. “Most of our work is focused on long-term improvements.”

The creation of MPOs is required by federal law to ensure that existing and future expenditure of funds are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive transportation planning process, Trebil said.  The 1962 Federal Aid Highway Act mandated the formation of an MPO for any urban area with a population greater than 50,000.

“We use this philosophy when working on any plans or projects by encouraging public engagement and comment throughout the entire process,” said Trebil.

The town had planned to apply for a grant to conduct a New Bern rail corridor planning study. Trebil said it would supplement the city’s hazard mitigation and resiliency planning efforts and provide needed documentation of infrastructure that may be influencing flooding.

“In addition, it would identify the locations of culverts and other stormwater systems that could be better served by the incorporation of stormwater best-management practices and green infrastructure measures such as rain gardens, bioretention basins, or simple grassy swells,” she said.

The information gathered from this study would have been incorporated into the city’s geographic information system, or GIS, and utilized to develop strategies to eliminate flooding within the city and the adjacent residential communities immediately contiguous to the rail corridor.

“Initially, the city estimated the cost of the study at $200,000 with a federal grant that would fund about $150,000 of that,” she said.

The New Bern Board of Aldermen in November gave the go-ahead to apply for federal funding, but as staff worked to finalize the grant application, the revised project cost significantly increased. That resulted in the city’s decision not to apply.

Trebil explained Wednesday that staff continues work to improve stormwater runoff, as evidenced by the Henderson Park Project. She said the area was identified in New Bern’s Resiliency and Hazard Mitigation Plan as experiencing tidal flooding while susceptible to other floodplain hazards.

“Restoring the Duffyfield canal while also improving the recreational area will allow the neighborhood to truly enjoy this space. Engineering and design efforts are underway to implement the Board of Aldermen approved plan,” she added.

The plan is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.

Trebil said that the New Bern Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has several opportunities for the public to get involved, including joining one of its committees that help guide activities and efforts.

The technical coordinating committee is made up of staff from member agencies as well as subject-matter specialists. The other committee, the transportation advisory committee, includes elected officials from member agencies. It serves as the organization’s policy board.

Projects underway

There are a handful of transportation projects going on in the area, according to the New Bern MPO website.

Work includes improvements to a 5.1 mile stretch of U.S. Highway 70 from east of Thurman Road to the Neuse River Bridge in James City.  Expected completion date is late this year.

Construction continues on the U.S. 70 Havelock bypass, beginning north of the Havelock city limit and extending south about 10 miles to north of the Craven-Carteret County line. Expected completion date is also late this year.

There’s also an ongoing effort to upgrade a 6-mile stretch of US 70 to interstate standards, the final connection from New Bern to the Havelock Bypass.

NCDOT proposes the final phase of improvements to N.C. 43 between U.S. 17 Business and existing N.C. 43, south of U.S. 70/U.S. 17 in Craven County. N.C. 43 will be a four-lane divided highway with a grass median. Construction is to begin next year.

Two beachfront state parks had more than a million visitors each in 2023, contributing to the total 20.1 million who visited the 42 sites in the North Carolina State Parks system last year.

Fort Fisher State Recreational Area in New Hanover County was the second most visited park in the state with 1.37 million visitors, behind Jordan Lake State Recreation Area in Chatham County, which had 2.5 million visitors.

The statewide park system had an overall increase of 4% in visitation since 2022, with the nine sites on the coast bringing in a quarter of those visitors, around 4.9 million, officials recently announced.

Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County brought in 1.05 million visitors last year. Other coastal sites that saw growth are Carolina Beach, Dismal Swamp, Hammocks Beach, Merchants Millpond and Pettigrew state parks while numbers for Goose Creek and Jockey’s Ridge state parks show a decline in visitors.

Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson said in a statement that the growth in park visitation “puts an exclamation point on an incredibly successful Year of the Trail in North Carolina.”

The Great Trails State Coalition celebrated the Year of the Trail in 2023 as a way to promote supporting and investing in North Carolina trails.

“We were excited to welcome more visitors to enjoy our naturally wonderful state parks, especially as several of our parks have recently added new campgrounds and visitor centers and as we celebrated the Year of the Trail,” State Parks Director Brian Strong said in a statement.

Fort Fisher sees growth

Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, located 18 miles south of Wilmington, has a beach access and allows beach driving.

“It’s nice to see that people are really enjoying Fort Fisher State Recreational Area, so much so that it was the second busiest state park,” Superintendent Jeff Owen told Coastal Review, referring to the 1.38 million visitors to the New Hanover County attraction in 2023. The site had 1.11 million visitors in 2022.

“All areas of our park saw more people, particularly the four-wheel-drive beach and the pedestrian beach,” Owen said. “It has created a strain on our small staff, we only have four rangers, and has been a challenge on our natural resources. The biggest one being nesting sea turtles as their season coincides with our busiest visitation of the year.”

Rangers ask that visitors, whom Owen said “did a really good job last year,” continue to be vigilant when driving on the beach and look for signs of sea turtle nests that are always marked with signs and reflective tape. 

“Lastly, but most importantly, please check local weather forecasts before entering the water to swim,” Owen said, adding to ask a staff member what the conditions of the water are when you arrive before swimming or use the pedestrian beach monitored by lifeguards 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Fort Macon numbers steady as park turns 100

Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach is built around a restored pre-Civil War fort and offers beach accesses and a bathhouse.

Superintendent Randy Newman told Coastal Review that, “Overall, we’ve had great numbers.” The Bogue Banks state park averages a million visitors annually and 2023 with its 1.06 million was no different. The park saw 1.02 million visitors in 2022.

“This summer we had great weather and no storms, which always helps with visitation,” Newman said, explaining that much of Fort Macon’s numbers depend on the weather.

Upcoming events at the park include the Mosquito Endurance Run, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 23. The 12-hour race is to raise money to help the park preserve a North Atlantic right whale calf for educational purposes. It will also go to the upkeep of park trails and park enhancements. Register for the race via the Friends of Fort Macon website.

Newman said that the Bonehenge Whale Center in Beaufort is going to articulate the skeleton of the calf found dead in January 2023 near Morehead City so it can be displayed in the park’s visitor center, if feasible. Bonehenge focuses on research and education for whales, dolphins and porpoises found in North Carolina.

Because there’s so few of this endangered species, Newman said they’re hoping to use the skeleton as an education tool.

Looking ahead, the site will soon celebrate a century as a state park.

Fort Macon “will be 100 years old June 4 as a state park,” Newman said, and officials have planned several celebrations.

Starting June 1, there will be a Military Through the Ages event, when the grounds will be filled with reenactors from different periods.

This is the first event of its kind for the park and “Hopefully that’s going to be a success so we can build on in the future,” Newman said.

Newman added that a military band has been invited to perform June 4, and there will be an artillery barrage with cannon June 8.  Fort Macon will host a car show June 9 with 100 classic cars representing the 100 years. The regularly scheduled ranger-led programs will take place as well

Also in the works is a Halloween “haunted fort” event to take place the last two weekends of October, hosted by the nonprofit Friends group. Organizations and businesses can make a donation to decorate a casemate for the fundraising event that will support fort preservation.

Newman said last year was the first and this year will be even better.

Two exceptions

State Parks Public Information Officer Kris Anne Bonifacio told Coastal Review that all coastal parks saw small increases in visitation, except Goose Creek and Jockey’s Ridge state parks.

Bonifacio said Goose Creek dropped from 146,155 visitors in 2022 to 125,933 last year. She’s still looking into why that happened.

Rangers at Jockey’s Ridge, which had 982,328 visitors in 2022 but only saw 745,022 in 2023, according to the official count, mentioned that they were having issues with the vehicle counters.

Bonifacio said staff at the Outer Banks site estimate that their actual visitation was equitable or even greater than 2022 numbers, based on what they saw daily throughout the year.

“Visitation data for all of our state parks are estimates, since we have no way of counting every single person who visits each park,” Bonifacio explained.

North Carolina State University is working on a visitation study to review the formula used for vehicle counters. “That study will look at a few different sources of data to get a better idea of trends over the last few years. For our purposes, we are primarily focused on the trends, and we look at visitation numbers holistically and with other things such as reservations, annual pass sales, and events and programming,” she said.

Revenues

The nine coastal parks saw growth in reservations revenue from $690,529 in 2022 to $730,909 in 2023.

Bonifacio reiterated that the state parks system is “designed for the enjoyment of all and revenue generation is not a priority, it does reflect the overall trends” of more visitors coming to state parks.

“Even at our parks that may have gone down in visitation, like Goose Creek State Park, show an increase in overnight reservations, which makes sense given the improvements we have made in their camping facilities over the last few years,” Bonifacio added. “We hope to see the same at Hammocks Beach’s new RV campground for this year and the coming years.”

Hammocks Beach State Park in the Swansboro area is in the process of adding a recreational vehicle, trailer and tent campground as well as backpacking sites on the mainland.

“We anticipate we will open the campground in the summer,” Bonifacio said. The campground will include 12 full hookups sites, four camper cabins, similar to what is at Carolina Beach and Goose Creek state parks, seven drive-up tent sites, and will be three hike-in primitive sites. There will also be a centrally located bathhouse with hot showers.

“We are very excited to offer additional camping facilities at Hammocks Beach State Park, especially ones that are easier to access than the primitive campsites at Bear Island,” Hammocks Beach Superintendent Sarah Kendrick said. “We know our backpack-by-ferry and paddle-in campers have enjoyed the coastal overnight experience for many years, and we look forward to providing that opportunity to those who camp by RV, trailer, or car as well.”

Bonifacio said the former Teachers Building, which has been under restoration since early 2023, that African American educators used as a meeting place in the mid-20^th century, is to open this summer as well, “So we are very excited to have that reopen, and we hope our visitors will enjoy those new facilities.”

Growing park system

Also in 2023, the state parks system acquired more than 2,890 acres in the Piedmont and mountains. The system ended the year with 262,074 total acres.

“It was a productive year for the division by all accounts — land protection, planning, natural resource management, operations, safety, and interpretation and education,” stated Strong, the state parks director. “We look forward to the year ahead as we continue our stewardship of these beloved places in North Carolina.”

Bonifacio explained that the system did not have any land acquisitions in 2023 at any of the parks on the coast.

“Due to a multitude of factors, most of our land acquisitions are in the Piedmont and the mountains,” she said. “Land protection plans for many of our coastal parks have limited acreage, and some state recreation areas and state natural areas are at the max planned acres.”

There are some exceptions, notably Merchants Millpond and Pettigrew, which have thousands of acres in future needs as identified in their land protection plans. “We closed last month on three land parcels at Merchants Millpond actually,” she said.

A new airline has committed to offer nonstop flights from the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport in New Bern.

Representatives from Breeze Airways and the New Bern airport, whose code is EWN, announced Tuesday plans to begin offering flights to Orlando, Florida, and Hartford, Connecticut. The flights are aboard the airline’s 137-seat Airbus A220, starting May 24. Fares are to start at $49 one-way, the company said.

The addition of Breeze Airways, which began flying in 2021, “creates a one-of-a-kind opportunity for EWN to offer the only nonstop, ‘Nice Low Cost Carrier’ flights in the region,” airport officials stated Tuesday.

Breeze President Tom Doxey stated that the company “seeks to connect underserved markets and city pairs without existing nonstops” and travelers from New Bern can “enjoy affordable and convenient new service to Connecticut and Florida.”

Coastal Carolina Regional Airport, Craven County Government, the Craven 100 Alliance and the Craven County Tourism Development Authority worked together on the project.

A Civil War-era community in Craven County, where thousands of formerly enslaved people found sanctuary, will be the first “site of significance” for the new African American Heritage Tour of eastern North Carolina. 

Still in the early stages, the tour to highlight the area’s African American heritage is a partnership of the nonprofit Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality and the National Park Service.

“During the Civil War, more than 10,000 refugees from slavery came to Union-occupied New Bern seeking freedom,” according to the James City Historical Society, which was founded in 1991 to honor this community and act as caregivers for the onsite cemetery and mid-19^th century slave quarters.

“By 1865, there were nearly 3,000 formerly enslaved people living in the Trent River Settlement opposite New Bern in Craven County. The community was renamed James City, after Rev. Horace James, Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the North Carolina District. In the decades to come, James City residents created a proud history of fighting for self-determination,” the society website states.

Planners of the African American Heritage Tour have scheduled an official site of significance dedication for the James City settlement at 11 a.m. Saturday at 911 Howell Road, New Bern. The ceremony should last about 45 minutes and will be followed by a reception and time to visit the grounds.

At the James City Historic Site, there is the 1850 slave quarters that was renovated and moved from its original location on an antebellum farm, now the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Neuse boulevards.

The society also cares for the Far Cemetery, used by freedmen in the area during the Civil War. “The Far Cemetery was used by freedmen in the area during the Civil War. Its location is marked on an 1866 U.S. map as quite large, and burials continued until 1930. An archaeological investigation in 1979 revealed the location of 522 graves – about half belonging to children under the age of 13,” the society states.

James City Historic Site is the first to be dedicated as part of the African American Heritage Tour, Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality Executive Director Heather Walker told Coastal Review. 

Society Chairperson William Hollowell said that having the African American Heritage Tour begin at James City is in line with the organization’s mission to preserve the history and legacy of the community.

“This is something big,” he said, adding that with so much history in the New Bern area, he hopes more markers for the tour will be established in the vicinity.

The tour partners have gathered enough data and research for 20 sites to add to the trail. These will likely be established in Beaufort, Edenton, Elizabeth City, New Bern, Plymouth, Portsmouth Village, Washington, Wilmington and other coastal towns.

“We’ve actually been collaborating with different sites for about two years now,” Walker said, and everyone’s energized and ready to kick the project off. 

The plan is to have tour markers along the entire coast, both on the mainland and on the barrier islands, Walker explained. Once more sites are dedicated, a website with tour information will be launched and there will be maps available. 

Walker said that the Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality organization began a few years ago to get support to install a marker in Beaufort indicating that town was a Middle Passage arrival site. 

The marker dedicated in October 2021 at Topsail Marine Memorial Park on Front Street in Beaufort is part of the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, which honors the 2 million captive Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the 10 million who survived to build the Americas.

The foundation was also the momentum behind a Middle Passage marker at Portsmouth Village, a now preserved, historic site that is part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Related: Event marks Portsmouth Village’s role in Middle Passage

“We started the nonprofit as a way of getting some community engagement, some input and some contributions. And then so from there, it just kind of became a mission to continue to mark significant places,” Walker explained.  

Walker learned about James City’s significance when she began researching eastern North Carolina’s African American history. It was the first site she visited, which will always have a “special place” in her heart. 

Now on the board of directors for the James City Historical Society, Walker said the organization has installed an exhibit with artifacts and furniture inside the slave quarters. While the building has been restored, and not everything is original, “it’s a very special cabin” because it had a wood plank floor, not dirt. 

And at the fireplace hearth, you can put your hand right in the same place where the enslaved person who made the bricks actually left their handprint. 

“It’s an amazing experience. You can kind of live the history for just a minute,” she said.

Walker said her interest in African American history was inspired by her youngest son while he was still in kindergarten.

“He’s mixed, Black and white, and he came home from school one day and he was angry because the Thanksgiving program that they were doing, they wouldn’t allow him to be a pilgrim, and so they made him an Indian because of the color of his skin,” Walker said. “He was angry. He threw his little feather cap down and he said ‘I want to be one of the good guys’ and so I had to have a hard conversation with my 6-year-old at that time, and say listen, just because someone’s skin is lighter, it doesn’t mean they’re better. And from that moment on, I thought it was very important that I fulfill my obligation as a parent to let my children know from whom they came.”

Not only that, she continued, “but also for them to be proud of their ancestors, regardless of the color of their skin. Because there are stories of strength and resilience and hope in those situations that our children need to know so they can kind of push through today.”

Walker said the partnership with Cape Lookout National Seashore began a couple years ago when she shared with the previous chief of interpretation, B.G. Horvat, that she had been researching the region’s African American heritage. Since then, highlighting that history has been a joint effort of the seashore and foundation.  

Cape Lookout Chief of Interpretation & Education Nate Toering, who took on the role after Horvat, told Coastal Review that the National Park Service helped with the Middle Passage marker effort in Beaufort because “it is absolutely relevant to our story, with Beaufort being one of the primary access points for visitors headed to Cape Lookout” and the more recent marker established at Portsmouth Village this June.

The Portsmouth Village marker was the result of research by the foundation that proved through a historic newspaper clipping the longstanding assumption that Portsmouth had participated in the Transatlantic Human Trade. 

This new endeavor, he said of the African American Heritage Tour, stretches farther outside park boundaries but absolutely aligns with Cape Lookout’s historic sphere of influence. 

“James City and the New Bern area were historically fed supplies via the Neuse River during the age of sail. Large shipping vessels docked in and around Ocracoke Inlet and their supplies were offloaded onto ‘lightering’ vessels for transport inland,” he said. “Those supplies were piloted through shallow water in small crafts, often captained by enslaved Black sea captains based out of Portsmouth Village and departing on their way to towns like New Bern and Edenton.”

In addition to the local and park significance, there is national significance. 

The “America 250” National Park Service draft plan for interpreting the agency’s 250th anniversary as a country aims to advance equality and justice for all, acknowledge and honor people of African descent, advance educational experiences, spark lasting connections with youth, and unlock the power of place, which includes establishing new and improving existing park facilities and interpretive infrastructure.

The National Park Service shares America’s stories, Toering said, and these stories don’t end neatly at the borders of the country’s national parks. 

“Partnering with organizations like these allows us to expand and interpret the story of American history in the spaces where it is most important and relevant,” he said, which is an example of one of the anniversary’s themes, Unlocking the Power of Places. 

Additionally, these partnerships allow for National Park Service educators, specialists like those at the foundation and community organizations like the James City Historic Society to come together.  

“Ultimately, the goal is to turn a series of unaffiliated historic sites into a much larger linked cultural corridor, and hopefully share the incredibly moving stories captured within each of these sides to a larger audience,” he said. “Many of these stories are historically under told if not intentionally excluded. If we can share them thematically and accurately to a broader audience, we’ll be doing a great thing, even if it takes a while to get there.”

Contact Walker for questions or to nominate sites of significance at equalityforenc@gmail.com.

The Coastal Land Trust has purchased 105 acres on Brice’s Creek in Craven County for a new nature park.

The property is off County Line Road near Old Airport Road.

Johnny Morris, CEO of Bass Pro Shops, owner of White River Marine Groups, announced in May 2021 the acquisition of Hatteras Yachts brand and manufacturing facility in New Bern, which “brings with it a significant investment in the New Bern community,” according to the land trust.

Morris, along with Bass Pro Shops companies, contributed $100,000 to the park purchase. The funds were combined with those from the Coastal Land Trust and the Richard Chapman Cleve Fund to purchase the land from Overlook Holdings, which the Coastal Land Trust said was sold below market value.

“Conservation and connecting people with their passion for the outdoors lies at the very heart of our company,” Morris said in the announcement. “Like any great conservation accomplishment, the new park became possible through collaboration. People working together. New Bern and Craven County is such a special place. It’s great that the area will have another beautiful place for people to get outside. We are proud to be members of this community.”

This property, along with the 67 acres of neighboring land already owned by the Coastal Land Trust, will be transferred to Craven County to become the new park.

“We look forward to working with the Coastal Land Trust on this new park project. We also appreciate Johnny Morris and the Richard Chapman Cleve Fund for helping make this new park a reality. Stay tuned for news on park planning,” said Billy Wilkes, director of Craven County Parks and Recreation, in a statement.

Janice Allen, director of land protection for the Coastal Land Trust, said that the Land Trust heard the call for more public outdoor spaces to enjoy nature and the organization is responding

“We especially thank Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops and the Richard Chapman Cleve Fund for their funding assistance and are proud to partner with Craven County. The County has done an amazing job with the Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park and we know they will create an equally impressive park on this newly acquired land along Brice’s Creek,” she said.

The new park joins Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park, which was established in 2008 when the Coastal Land Trust purchased 133 acres along upper Broad Creek and transferred it to Craven County.

Projects to preserve and protect habitat and improve water quality in eastern North Carolina have been awarded a total of $866,591 in grants through the Environmental Enhancement Grant program, Attorney General Josh Stein announced Tuesday.

This year, the program is awarding nearly $3 million to 27 grantees across the state.

The grant program began after an agreement made in 2000 between the North Carolina attorney general’s office and Smithfield Foods, which provides $2 million to the state every year to be distributed among environmental projects across the state. Including this year’s grants, listed below, the attorney general office’s has awarded nearly $37 million to more than 190 projects in the state.

Jacksonville

Jacksonville is to receive $175,000 to continue efforts to preserve and protect the New River.

The grant is to help the city expand 12 of the existing New River Estuary Oyster Highway sites, construct 1,850 small patch reefs and add nearly 2.5 million oysters to improve biofiltration.

“The City of Jacksonville is committed to preserving and protecting the New River, a process which began 21 years ago with the close of the City’s Wilson Bay WWTP (waste water treatment plant) and the immediate cleanup efforts utilizing an innovative process called bioremediation,” said Pat Donovan-Brandenburg, stormwater manager for city.

“We continued those efforts three years ago with the “New River Oyster Highway” where we created 12 half-acre artificial reefs or stepping stone habitats for oyster and fish populations in the region between Wilson Bay and Stones Bay within the New River, Donovan-Brandenburg continued. Using funds these funds will enable the city to expand the 12 existing New River Estuary Oyster Highway sites by adding more than 2.48 million oysters and constructing an additional 1,850 or so patch reefs across all sites.

“This grant will help safeguard the New River,” said Stein. “It will help marine life thrive and help improve the quality of water sources.”

New Bern

New Bern is getting $134,000 to build stormwater infrastructure in an underserved neighborhood that has long been subject to flooding. The grant is a part of the city’s larger resiliency and revitalization project.

“The Attorney General’s Environmental Enhancement Grant Program award supports the city’s overall resiliency initiatives and one of the primary goals of our Resiliency and Hazard Mitigation Plan, to improve conditions for our most underserved and socially vulnerable populations,” said Jeffrey Ruggieri, Development Services Director for New Bern.

“Flooding is the biggest concern and most frequent hazard experienced in the Greater Duffyfield Community. The Stormwater Enhancement Project is a representative mitigation solution to retrofit sustainable practices and nature-based solutions in our older neighborhoods that have been plagued with disinvestment. The project will make the neighborhood safer, improve water quality, and add an amenity for the surrounding residents,” he continued. “EEG funds have been imperative to the city’s broader planning efforts, which encompass a holistic approach toward building the resilience capacity of New Bern and being better prepared for the future.”

Stein said in a statement that New Bern is making smart investments in improving water quality and preventing flooding in historically underserved neighborhoods. “I hope this grant will help improve the quality of life for people in New Bern.”

North Carolina Coastal Land Trust

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust is receiving $50,000 for the Hoggard’s Millpond Conservation Project, which will help the trust acquire 348 acres of Hoggard’s Millpond Tract and transfer it to the town of Windsor in Bertie County to create a new public park.

“Coastal Land Trust is ever appreciative of this recently approved EEG grant for our Hoggard’s Millpond Conservation Project which represents a unique community conservation partnership to protect a site with significant wildlife, historic, water quality, and recreational resources,” said Janice Allen, director of land protection, adding that the trust’s primary partner, Windsor, is one step closer to having a new nature, historic park for all to enjoy.

“Public parks make our communities stronger and happier,” Stein said. “I’m pleased to distribute these funds to help the town of Windsor create a new public park that the community can enjoy for decades to come.”

Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited is getting $75,000 to restore wetlands within the Goose Creek Game Lands in Pamlico County, a project to increase water exchanges between Smith Creek and its estuary.

“The Environmental Enhancement Grant award serves as a critical funding source in support of our project to enhance 25 acres of tidally-influenced managed wetlands,” said Ducks Unlimited Regional biologist Ethan Massey.

“The grant funds will be leveraged with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and Ducks Unlimited matching support to complete the project. Wetland restoration projects like these are important to maintain and improve wetland function and water quality in North Carolina,” Massey said, adding that the project will also allow the commission to manage the area more effectively to provide high quality wildlife habitat and public outdoor recreational opportunities.

“Wetlands protect our communities from flooding and enhance water quality,” said Stein. “I’m proud to partner with Ducks Unlimited to preserve this area for more people to enjoy in the future.”

Bertie County Hive House

Bertie County Hive House is receiving $74,350 to improve a 4-acre greenspace in Lewiston Woodville through cleaning, stormwater remediation and planting. The greenspace provides recreational and educational opportunities for the underserved community.

“Public green areas are vital to our community health,” Stein said. “This grant will help create a community space people can visit and enjoy.”

Other EEG awards in eastern North Carolina:

Pollocksville will receive $114,000 to construct publicly accessible wetlands in Riverfront Park to help protect flood-prone properties.

Kinston Cares, a nonprofit organization run by the Center for Community Self-Help, is receiving $95,000 to rehabilitate Federal Emergency Management Agency flood buyout property in east Kinston through research, community planning and environmental education.

East Carolina University will receive $149,241 to identify and evaluate stormwater control measures throughout Greenville. The project will help the city determine which locations are at a higher risk for flooding and poor water quality and take steps to reduce the environmental damage caused by stormwater runoff, especially in underserved communities.

The Coastal Land Trust has completed its fourth conservation acquisition in two years with funds it received from the settlement of the Havelock bypass lawsuit.

The Wilmington-based Coastal Land Trust received $7.3 million in April 2018 as part of the agreement. The latest acquisition, which was purchased from Bate Land Co. of New Bern, covers nearly 350 acres on County Line Road near New Bern. The tract is surrounded on three sides by the 160,000-acre Croatan National Forest and includes pine forest and ephemeral ponds lined with cypress and hardwoods.

The settlement resulted from a challenge filed in federal court in 2016 by the Sierra Club to the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s proposed routing of U.S. 70 Havelock Bypass through the Croatan National Forest.

The Coastal Land Trust said that with an existing residential subdivision east of the property and a nearby golf course development poised to expand, the tract will provide needed buffer for the Croatan.

“Having funds in hand from the Havelock bypass settlement continues to be a key factor in securing property for conservation,” said Coastal Land Trust Director of Land Protection Janice Allen. “Our conservation work in the region is being greatly accelerated due to the availability of these capital funds.”

The Coastal Land Trust said it hopes to eventually transfer the Bate property to the U.S. Forest Service to be managed as part of the Croatan National Forest.

“The Sierra Club is thrilled to see funds from the Havelock bypass settlement used by the Coastal Land Trust to conserve a property with unique conservation values and valuable wildlife habitat that’s connected to the Croatan National Forest,” said Cassie Gavin, senior director of government relations for the Sierra Club’s North Carolina Chapter in Raleigh.

“Bate Land Company has a long history of forest land stewardship in eastern North Carolina. We are pleased that the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust assisted us with identifying the unique characteristics of the Laura Williams Tract. This purchase will insure continued preservation of the Bate forest legacy in Craven County,” said Bate Land Co. Manager Marvin B. “Benny” Mullinix Jr.

The Coastal Land Trust’s previous purchases using funds from the Havelock bypass settlement include a 113-acre tract of longleaf added to Gales Creek Preserve at Camp Sam Hatcher along a tidal creek that empties into Bogue Sound near Newport, completed in November 2018; a 182-acre tract of pond pine woodland, pocosin and bottomland hardwood forest along a tributary of the Trent River in Craven County purchased in May 2019; and almost 250 acres of the Island Creek natural area in Jones County purchased in August 2019.