Somerset Place offers a comprehensive and realistic view of 19th-century life by interpreting the lives of enslaved and free persons on an antebellum North Carolina plantation. Originally, this unusual plantation included more than 100,000 densely wooded, mainly swampy acres bordering the five-by-eight-mile Lake Phelps, in present-day Washington County.
The 850-tree Southern Heritage Apple Orchard features more than 425 varieties of old southern apples, many of which are on the brink of extinction. These old varieties have been sought and collected throughout the south by dedicated "apple hunters" to stem the loss of this unique part of our agricultural heritage.
Thomas Day, a free Black man, came to Milton in the 1820s. There he produced furniture and other wood pieces for esteemed clientele. With help from the enslaved people on his property and free artisans living with him, his influence on other craftsmen is seen around the state.
Thomas Wolfe left an indelible mark on American letters and his mother's boardinghouse in Asheville, North Carolina. Now the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, has become one of literature's most famous landmarks.
For more than a thousand years, Indians lived an agricultural life on the lands that became known as North Carolina. About the 11th century A.D., a new cultural tradition emerged in the Pee Dee River Valley.
Explore daily life on an early 1800s plantation in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Step inside a 1790s slave dwelling and hear the stories of the women and men who were enslaved by the Vances. Take a tour through the reconstructed birthplace of Zebulon B. Vance to discover how the environment and society of Western North Carolina shaped his political career.