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The state's Department of Cultural Resources recently announced its new “History Happens Here” theme. Christina Gordon, Eco-heritage tourism manager for the Halifax County Tourism Development Authority, hopes the theme will help “reintroduce people to what is right in their own back yard.” In an interview with the Daily Herald, Gordon discussed a wide variety of local sites and museums sure to provide something for everyone.
The Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Center in Hollister is a source of some of the region's oldest history, according to Gordon. Some “amateur archaeologists” have uncovered arrowheads, pottery shards and other artifacts over the years.
“You can still find a lot of that stuff in our area, so it just proves that we have a rich heritage along those lines,” Gordon explained.
Historic Halifax offers information on the colonial settlement and the signing of the Halifax Resolves. The Resolves, adopted on April 12, 1776, were a precursor to the Declaration of Independence.
“That date's on our state flag and a lot of local residents really don't give that much thought anymore,” she said, adding even up to the 1960s and '70s, the day was marked with ceremonies and celebrations throughout the county.
The Roanoke Canal Museum highlights the region's main method of transporting goods after the Revolutionary War.
“We're talking to formation of our economy, we're talking transportation history, and we're talking industrial history.”
Halifax County also has three sites on the North Carolina Civil War Trail, which designates areas significant to the war.
One, located on the river in Halifax, indicates the area where the ironclad C.S.S. Albemarle was outfitted.
Another marker, on the site of the Roanoke Canal Museum, signifies the importance of the canal in transporting supplies to Lee's army in Virginia.
A third marker, located in Weldon on Highway 301, commemorates the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, which was the longest railroad in the world at the time, and was nicknamed “the lifeline of the confederacy.”
Gordon also mentioned a Confederate cemetery which includes a mass grave and some small markers near the aqueduct system in Weldon. The area will be the site of the county's fourth Civil War Trail marker.
Medoc Mountain State Park offers fresh air along with its history. The park was named after a province in the Bordeaux region of France, and is considered North Carolina's first vineyard. The land once belonged to Sidney Weller, a wine-maker who produced Weller's Halifax wine on the site. Though Weller's vineyards are long gone, the park offers hiking, canoeing, camping and fishing opportunities.
The Remembering Tillery project includes exhibits related to African-American history, particularly related to the New Deal and Resettlement.
Events like the Hobgood Cotton and Enfield Peanut festivals, as well as Halifax Harvest Days, are centered around the region's agricultural history.
Gordon said she is concerned that the old-fashioned skills some people continue to learn today will disappear. The state Department of Cultural Resources is sponsoring living history demonstrations at the Halifax Visitor Center on Saturdays, where audiences can learn about quilting, colonial toys, lace tatting, quill writing and other subjects.
While there's a lot to be learned from the area's sites and museums, Gordon said she worries most about the smaller, more recent pieces of history that are beginning to disappear.
“Unfortunately, some of the stuff from the 1950s is going to be lost, too,” she said, “not to mention the stuff from the 1770s.”
For example, Weldon, known as the “rockfish capital of the world,” used to hold a rockfish festival and name a rockfish queen. People used handmade bownets to capture the fish, which eventually became scarce in the area.
“You don't want to completely lose so-and-so's recipe for rockfish muddle,” she said. “You want that to be preserved and make sure it's going to be there.”
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