North Carolina Highway Historical Markers

North Carolina Highway Historical Markers The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program was established in 1935.

On June 12, 1838, Gen. Winfield Scott ordered troops to begin rounding up Cherokee Indians for internment at Fort Butler...
06/12/2026

On June 12, 1838, Gen. Winfield Scott ordered troops to begin rounding up Cherokee Indians for internment at Fort Butler near what is now Murphy, leading to their eventual forced relocation to Oklahoma.

The order was part of a larger effort led by Scott at the behest of President Martin Van Buren to remove the Cherokee from Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina as authorized under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Scott was personally involved in the action in southwestern North Carolina because the Army believed the area was the most likely to be a center of conflict.

After a week, the troops had arrested more than two-thirds of the local Cherokee population and, by early July, nearly 2,500 Cherokee were in custody. Those and approximately 12,500 others would ultimately make the journey westward on the Trail of Tears between October 1838 and March 1839.

About 300 or 400 Cherokees hid out in North Carolina, laying the foundation for the purchase of the Qualla Boundary property and the establishment of North Carolina’s Cherokee Reservation.

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee were not formally granted freedom to live in North Carolina until 1866, and the Band was not recognized as a separate entity from the Cherokee living in Oklahoma until 1868.

Marker located in Murphy, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/23/fort-butler-q-11

On June 11, 1937, Eleanor Roosevelt kicked up her heels with the homesteaders at Penderlea. The First Lady visited Pende...
06/11/2026

On June 11, 1937, Eleanor Roosevelt kicked up her heels with the homesteaders at Penderlea. The First Lady visited Pender County to check on the progress at one of her husband Franklin’s premier homestead sites.

During the depths of the Depression, Wilmington industrialist Hugh MacRae conceived the idea of creating a model farm community at Penderlea on a grand scale. He had experimented with similar communities across southeastern North Carolina early in the 20th century.

The intention at Penderlea was to build the “best planned rural community in the world.” A tract of 10,000 acres was set aside, land was cleared, and homes and a community center were built. MacRae disagreed with those in Washington as to how Penderlea should be managed, and, in May 1934, the entire program was federalized.

Though Roosevelt and his New Dealers were pursuing similar programs across the country, no other rural project was as large as Penderlea, though the original goal of 500 20-acre farms was never met. A total of 142 units were leased but by 1941, few of the original homesteaders remained.

Memories of the experiment remain vivid at Penderlea, where a large community building remains.

Marker located at Penderlea: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/11/penderlea-homesteads-d-91

On June 10, 1946, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion boxer, died at St. Agnes Hospital in Ral...
06/10/2026

On June 10, 1946, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion boxer, died at St. Agnes Hospital in Raleigh.

Johnson won the boxing title in 1908 in Australia. Immediately after his victory, the public cried for a “great white hope,” or in other words, a white man to defeat Johnson. In 1910, Jim Jeffries, the champion from 1899 to 1905, was coaxed out of retirement to fight Johnson. In what was one of the most publicized events in the history of sports, Johnson defeated Jeffries easily.

Upon the public outcry that Jeffries was past his prime, Jeffries responded that he couldn’t have beaten Johnson, even at his best. Johnson went on to successfully defend his belt for seven years.

For most of his life, Johnson was passionate about sports cars. Passing through North Carolina in 1946, his car struck a utility pole south of Franklinton. He was taken to the closest hospital that accepted black patients, St. Agnes, where he died of his injuries.

Appropriately, the occupation listed on the 68-year-old’s death certificate was prize fighter.

Marker located in Raleigh, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/28/st-agnes-h-121

On June 9, 1864, the SS Pevensey, a Confederate blockade runner, was run aground at Pine Knoll Shores by the Union suppl...
06/09/2026

On June 9, 1864, the SS Pevensey, a Confederate blockade runner, was run aground at Pine Knoll Shores by the Union supply ship New Berne. At the time, the ship’s crew was disoriented, thinking they were much closer to Cape Fear than they actually were.

To prevent Union capture of the supplies on board, the Pevensey’s crew exploded the ship’s boilers and then escaped to shore, where they were captured and taken to Fort Macon. One crew member was apprehended before even making it that far.
The Pevensey, an iron-hulled sidewheel steamer, was typical of the type of vessel used to run the federal blockade during the Civil War. The ship had successfully run the blockade at Cape Fear four times before she was lost.

Though the Pevensey is less well preserved than other blockade runner wrecks in the Cape Fear region, people can actually see a portion of it from the beach, making it a special curiosity. The wreck has captivated beachgoers for years, and is known locally as the “Iron Steamer.” It was studied extensively by the Office of State Archaeology in 2000.

Marker located in Pine Knoll Shores: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/07/ss-pevensey-c-77

On June 8, 1868, architect Robert R. Taylor was born in Wilmington.Taylor learned construction from his father Henry, th...
06/08/2026

On June 8, 1868, architect Robert R. Taylor was born in Wilmington.
Taylor learned construction from his father Henry, the son of a white slave owner and a Black mother, and a successful builder.

Taylor worked for his father until entering MIT in 1888, where he was the school’s first black architecture student. While at MIT, Taylor met Booker T. Washington. Their friendship drew him to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he went to work after graduating in 1892.

At Tuskegee, Taylor designed and oversaw the construction of 45 campus buildings and drew up plans for many others. The campus chapel, completed in 1898, is considered to be his crowning achievement. He continued to work at Tuskegee as an architect and director of “mechanical industries” until he retired to Wilmington in 1935, except for a brief three-year stint in Cleveland around the turn of the 20th century.

Two highlights of Taylor’s career are his 1929 trip to Liberia to plan the “the Tuskegee of Africa,” and his appointment to the Mississippi Valley Flood Relief Commission by President Herbert Hoover.

Taylor remained active in North Carolina’s civic and religious life until he died in 1942. He is buried at Pine Forest Cemetery in Wilmington.

Marker located in Wilmington, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/11/robert-r-taylor-1868-1942-d-108

On June 7, 1969, Private First Class Dan Bullock, a rifleman in the U.S. Marine Corps, was mortally wounded by a burst o...
06/07/2026

On June 7, 1969, Private First Class Dan Bullock, a rifleman in the U.S. Marine Corps, was mortally wounded by a burst of enemy small arms fire. He was only 15-years-old.

At the time he was killed, Bullock was scurrying about to bolster the ammunition supply of the Second Platoon of Company F at An Hoa Combat Base outside Da Nang in South Vietnam. The base was under active assault by the North Vietnamese.

Raised in Goldsboro, Bullock was big for his age and thus able to carry off a deception when enlisting. His mother died when he was 11 and he moved with his father to New York, to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

At age 14, he altered his birth certificate, changing the year of his birth from 1953 to 1949, and enlisted in the Marines. Training at Parris Island was tough but he survived with the help of fellow Marines. He had been in Vietnam for just three weeks when he was killed.

A week later the New York Times broke the news about Bullock’s age and the Defense Department has confirmed that he was the youngest of the war’s 58,000 American casualties. Public attention came to his story in 2000 when television talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael purchased a headstone for his grave in Goldsboro.

Marker located in Goldsboro, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/18/dan-bullock-1953-1969-f-71

On June 6, 1928, Bascom Lamar Lunsford kicked off the first Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, an annual tradition that c...
06/06/2026

On June 6, 1928, Bascom Lamar Lunsford kicked off the first Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, an annual tradition that continues “along about sundown” to this day in Asheville. That event spawned similar festivals far and wide. Pete Seeger attended the gathering in 1935 and thereafter dedicated his life to folk music.

The festival was initially held in conjunction with Asheville’s Rhododendron Festival but split off to become a separate event in 1930. It was committed to portraying the participants with dignity and to showcasing the authentic culture of the region in a time when popular culture portrayed the music and musicians who created it as “hillbillies.”

Billed as the “Minstrel of Appalachia,” Lunsford was an avid collector and promoter of traditional mountain music, and thus a natural choice to start the festival. In the course of song collecting, he claimed to have spent time in more homes between West Virginia and Alabama “than anybody but God.” It was his native region which he loved and where he sought to preserve the old-time ways. He was born in Mars Hill but moved in 1925 to Turkey Creek in Buncombe County.

Lunsford is widely known for his rendition of “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,” a plaintive tune that has amused and puzzled listeners for generations. He penned “Mountain Dew” and performed for the Roosevelts, King George, and Queen Elizabeth in 1939.

Lunsford recorded his “memory collection” of 350 songs for the Library of Congress in 1949. He was an eccentric, sporting a starched white shirt and black bowtie as a symbol of defiance against the prevalent hillbilly stereotype.

Marker located in Mars Hill, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/22/bascom-lamar-lunsford-p-80

On June 5, 1910, writer William Sidney Porter, known to the world by the pseudonym O. Henry, died. Born in 1862 in Gree...
06/05/2026

On June 5, 1910, writer William Sidney Porter, known to the world by the pseudonym O. Henry, died. Born in 1862 in Greensboro, Porter was raised by an aunt who educated him until he turned 15, when he began work in his uncle’s pharmacy. In 1882, Porter left Greensboro for Texas, where he worked as a rancher, an experience that would later manifest itself in his writing.

Over the next 14 years, Porter worked various jobs in Austin, Texas, including stints as a bookkeeper, draftsman, and bank teller, all the while writing short stories, sketches, and humorous pieces for several newspapers.

In 1896, Porter moved to Houston for a newspaper job. Once there, he was indicted by an Austin court on charges of embezzlement stemming from his tenure as a bank teller. He fled to Honduras but was subsequently arrested, convicted, and ordered to serve five years in prison. While incarcerated, he had time to engage in serious writing, and by the time he was released for good behavior in 1901, Porter had several works published. In 1902, he moved to New York and wrote more than 100 stories in less than two years. He moved to Asheville in 1907, where he lived until his death.

Marker located in Greensboro, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/03/o-henry-j-1

On June 4, 1904, potter Ben Owen was born in Moore County.Owen learned to turn clay from his father, potter and farmer R...
06/04/2026

On June 4, 1904, potter Ben Owen was born in Moore County.

Owen learned to turn clay from his father, potter and farmer Rufus Owen. By the age of 16, he had become a proficient potter, producing lead-glazed utilitarian earthenware for his father and for neighboring shops.

In 1923, Owen was hired to work at the newly built Jugtown Pottery. Under the guidance of Jugtown founders Jacques and Juliana Busbee, Owen developed a classic pottery style that blended old and new forms, incorporating the principles of restraint and simplicity inherent in both native folk and Oriental traditions.

Owen was the sole potter at Jugtown from the early 1930s until 1959, when he left to found the Old Plank Road Pottery. He produced the same forms and glazes until his retirement in 1972. His son and grandson revived his work, opening Ben Owen Pottery to produce pottery based closely on his unique style.

Owen’s work has been widely exhibited across the state, nation, and world. His pieces can be found in the permanent collections of the Mint Museum of Art, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Louvre, among many others.

Marker located in Moore County, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/11/jacques-and-juliana-busbee-k-60

On June 3, 1946, Eliza Jane Pratt was sworn in as North Carolina’s first woman to serve in the United States Congress. B...
06/03/2026

On June 3, 1946, Eliza Jane Pratt was sworn in as North Carolina’s first woman to serve in the United States Congress. Born in 1902 in Morven, Anson County, Pratt’s life reflected the experiences of many North Carolinians in the early twentieth century, from rural agricultural roots to the era’s expanding opportunities in education, public service, and infrastructure development.

Pratt’s early exposure to politics, her work in journalism, and more than two decades of congressional staff experience prepared her for her brief but notable tenure in Congress. After the sudden death of Representative William O. Burgin, Pratt was selected as the Democratic nominee and won a special election with broad support across her district.

During her service, she served on the Committees on Pensions, Territories, and Flood Control, supporting measures important to her constituents, including flood control efforts and post-war initiatives such as the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
After leaving Congress, Pratt continued a long career in federal service before later joining the North Carolina Telephone Company, where she supported efforts to expand rural telephone access. She remained active in civic life until her death in 1981.

Pratt’s election marked an important milestone in North Carolina history. It would be forty-six years before another woman, Eva Clayton, served the state in Congress. Her legacy reflects both the progress made and the challenges faced by women seeking roles in political leadership.

Marker located in Morven, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2026/02/06/eliza-jane-pratt-1902-1981-k-71

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