- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] There's plenty of history in the state of North Carolina.

From the birthplace of a future president to a colonial era Fort, to a boarding school for African-Americans in the era of segregation and a mound built by native Americans thousands of years ago.

These sites along with many others tell the collective story of the old north state.

We'll hit the road to four of North Carolina's 27 state historic sites to share the history behind each and introduce you to the passionate people who bring these sites alive for visitors.

(gun shooting) All that, and more on "Trail of History."

(bright upbeat music) (upbeat music) Look up the word history and it's defined simply as the study of the past.

And to study our past, you have many options.

There are books, television shows, the internet, of course, or actually visiting the places where history happened.

Here in North Carolina there are hundreds of places, ranging from historical markers, to local museums, each exploring the state's diverse past.

And there are 27 official historic sites around the Tar Heel state, each offering a unique link to the past.

- These sites that we have all around the state, really help weave that fabric of the North Carolina story.

- It's hard to put into words how valuable this is to have a treasure like this available to the public and to come out and to learn.

And not only what's interpreted here, you know, from this great staff, but also just the surroundings and kind of what you feel and how you connect to history and places like this.

- [Narrator] Whether it's exploring a native American village or... - For mind and for gold and - [Kid] Yes.

- Kinda get education on the history of a gold here in North Carolina.

- [Narrator] The things you can experience around North Carolina vary widely, from the region in the state to the time period represented.

(drums beating) - From mountains to sea, as far East as Manteo, the Roanoke Island Festival Park, and as far West as the Thomas Wolf House commemorating the life of the famous writer, Thomas Wolf, who wrote "Look Homeward, Angel."

We have a site that really focuses on the life of indigenous people who would have been a part of a mound building culture.

And we tell that story at Town Creek Indian Mound where we know that people lived in a flourishing society.

We also have sites like the site where we are today, The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum that are from the 20th century.

Other 20th century sites include the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

So and then we have tons of battlefields and structures like The People's House, the State Capitol.

- [Narrator] Michelle Lanier is the director of the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties.

- Each one of our historic sites in my mind functions as a treasure.

It's really an honor for those of us who are public historians or as I would like to say, keepers of memory, to be stewards of these stories.

We have amazing staff experts who can help people understand extremely complicated histories, ranging from histories of war and human bondage.

Issues around race and gender and class, cultural expressions, and many different kinds of people who all at one time or another called North Carolina home.

We can understand by visiting these sites more about what it means to be human, the complexities of the human experience, we can understand more about ourselves.

(bright guitar music) - [Narrator] Historic downtown Statesville sits in the heart of Iredell County, but before it was officially a county, it was just part of the old Carolina back country.

- The Hilltop that we're standing on is the site of a Fort that was constructed 265 years ago during the French and Indian War.

(guns firing) (indistinct chattering) - [Narrator] Known as Fort Dobbs and only three miles as a crow flies from modern day Statesville, it was named for the colonial era governor of the state Arthur Dobbs.

The original Ford is long gone and until just a few years ago, a visit to Fort Dobbs left a lot to the imagination.

- We had a hole in the ground where the archeology had once happened.

And to try to get visitors to get excited and use their imaginations and understand the importance of the history here when you're just walking around a historic hole in the ground is pretty difficult.

- [Narrator] But today standing tall on the original site is a new Fort Dobbs.

Site manager Scott Douglas says getting the project going took years of research.

- In the last decade, as we were gearing up towards rebuilding the Fort, we made sure to complete the archeological surveys of the entire footprint of the building.

- [Narrator] And years of dreams.

- I'm still not fully processed the fact that we have the Fort here now.

It was something that our staff, our volunteers, dreamt about, planned for, thought about for so long.

And, you know, there were times in that process when people maybe thought it wasn't going to be able to be successful.

- [Narrator] The reconstructed Fort Dobbs opened in 2019.

- We had 2000 Visitors that first day and the ability to see all these excited people go into that Fort for the very first time to see it act as a teaching tool that we had planned for it to be for so long, has really been an incredibly fulfilling part of my career.

(bright guitar music) - [Narrator] Now, visitors who step inside the new Fort Dobbs step back in time.

- We try to make it an immersive experience.

It's a museum exhibit, but one that you can walk through and be part of in a way.

We try to avoid having rope lines and do not touch signs.

Everything in the Fort is a reproduction of original items, weaponry, and clothing and stuff like that.

And so during our guided tours, we actually encourage visitors to pick up items, to sit on beds, to feel the warmth of a fire in the fireplace.

And hopefully it lends a sense of actually stepping back in time and being in a real fort that people really are living in and getting a more of an understanding of that, of what it would have been like.

- [Narrator] And several times a year... - We'll have people literally living their lives in that building for a 48 hour period of time.

And visitors walking through that can get an even deeper level of understanding of, you know, how smelly was this place with 50 sweaty soldiers in there.

That's maybe not the most attractive way, but (laughs).

You know, what was it like for people to cook around each other, to have all these soldiers sitting down to eat a meal.

What was it like to be in the building when it filled with gun smoke in battle.

Those are all things that living history programs allow us to experience.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Now, if you're wondering if Fort Dobbs ever saw action, interpreter, Jason Melius has the answer.

- There was a battle here and it was not between French allies and the soldiers here.

It was actually between former British allies, the Cherokee Nation.

And here on (guns shooting) February 27th, 1760, (guns shooting) a party of Cherokee attempted to draw the soldiers out of the Fort at about eight or nine o'clock at night and ambush them about 300 yards down the hill over there.

- [Narrator] The original Fort Dobbs was abandoned and eventually lost at time after the end of the French and Indian War.

But Melius says the new Fort makes his job a job a joy.

- I love this job.

It's fun.

I get to do a lot of research and we use the Fort more as a tool to talk about the people that were involved here.

So it's not a, not necessarily a, like an old house tour.

We go through the rooms and talk about the lives that were going on inside of the rooms.

And then ultimately about the battle, the Cherokee War, and trying to give perspective to both sides.

- This is a crucial piece of American history that isn't really focused on that much in popular culture.

It's something just that happens before the American revolution, but the French and Indian War is a global conflict.

It sets the stage for the revolutionary war.

It creates the path to what is now the United States today.

It has a lot of repercussions that still feel in our modern society.

This is the only state historic site in North Carolina, where we have the opportunity to tell the story of our state's role in the conflict.

- [Narrator] So the next time you're near Statesville, consider a visit and immerse yourself in the North Carolina back country and journey to the mid 1700s at Fort Dobbs State Historic Site.

(bright guitar music) Each of the 27 historic sites in North Carolina offers a unique snapshot of the state's past.

Just east of Greensboro, there's a one of a kind site that tells a unique story of a woman on a mission to change the world through education.

- Dr. Brown, what she did just at the turn of the 20th century at a time when racial terror was certainly at one of its heights, historically.

She created an Oasis space.

A space where if you are in a desert-like social climate, that is not welcoming to you and your kin, how can you create a place where you can flourish, learn, grow, develop, create, make connections.

She contributed to the larger sense of human equality, social justice, as well as a sense of self-determination for African-Americans, not just in North Carolina, but really she had an international impact.

It's quite a miracle that she was able to do this as a black person, but certainly as a black woman and a black Southern woman, in a Southern community during an era of intense and legal segregation.

- [Narrator] But exactly, who was this pioneering woman?

- Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown was born in Henderson, North Carolina.

And with one of the great migration stories North, her family did end up making home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

And one moment of inspiration resulted in her coming back South, to work, to educate young people here in in what is now Sedalia, North Carolina.

- [Narrator] This is where Dr. Brown founded a school to educate young African-Americans.

- Here are the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, we are telling several stories.

One of the stories that we're telling is of historic Palmer Memorial Institute, which was a college preparatory boarding school for African-Americans.

- [Narrator] The Palmer Memorial Institute named after former Wellesley College president, Alice Freeman Palmer, opened its doors in 1902.

It operated as a boarding school with students and some faculty living on campus.

- This was a place that was extremely vibrant.

We had students from all over the world.

- [Narrator] According to Lanier, the education received at the institute was world-class with many of its students going off to do great things.

- We had students that certainly went on to become educators, just like Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown.

Some students went into medicine, some students went into military careers, some went into music careers and some went into politics.

(bright guitar music) - [Narrator] But the impact of the institution went well beyond the campus.

- We can see the influence of Dr. Brown on, you know, black land ownership, entrepreneurship, business ownership.

A sense of leadership and autonomy in determining how one lives a life.

And then we see that ripple effect all over the world.

- [Narrator] Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown led the school for a half a century.

During that time, she showed some hardcore determination to build a unique learning environment for students.

- The legacy that she built is really on par with many small colleges.

She was someone who attracted the attention of donors and artists, civic leaders, educators, politicians.

Eleanor Roosevelt visited the campus.

The poet, Langston Hughes spent time here working with students.

Josephine Baker came here.

- [Narrator] And much of that fundraising was done right here in Canary Cottage, Dr. Brown's home.

- When you walk into the home, you will immediately get a sense of the purpose of the home.

It was a place for hosting.

It was a place for talking to donors.

It was a place where she could have her mother, maybe some students, visiting artists and dignitaries stay.

- [Narrator] And at times one particularly famous American musician would visit the house.

- So Nat king Cole, married into Dr. Brown's family and became of course, a really beloved part of the family.

We have images of Nat king Cole playing the piano that still is right here in Canary Cottage.

- [Narrator] Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown retired in 1952 and passed away in 1961.

She's buried on campus, near her beloved Canary Cottage.

The school itself though closed in 1971.

The property then pass through several owners until the 1980s, when alumni of the school began a movement.

- Over time, there was a really powerful catalyzing of the Palmer alums to say, "This should be a museum."

This should be a place where people could come and learn about the school, learn about Dr. Brown, learn about African-American history in North Carolina.

- [Narrator] School may be closed, but Lanier says this campus still has a place in educating those who walk these grounds.

- We really I hope that this will also be a community anchor that connects to all of the needs that we have.

To walk, to move, to learn, to bring back some of the life of the school.

- [Narrator] In 2021, the school received a grant of more than $480,000 from the National Park Service with the goal of doing further restoration on the student center, known as the Tea House.

The funding comes from a program specifically targeting the preservation of African-American history.

With a continued investment and the hard work of the staff, the legacy of the Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum will continue enriching the lives of visitors for years to come.

(bright upbeat music) Imagine for a moment you're a farmer and right in the middle of your field is a rather large mountain of dirt.

- [Woman] Well, in the early 1900s, this was cotton fields with a mound in the center.

- [Narrator] There was something special about this mound.

It attracted unwanted attention from would-be treasure hunters who would trespass on the land.

With a mound danger, state archeologists stepped in.

- They came out, they started the research in 1937.

There was an acre of land that was donated to the state of North Carolina.

and Dr. Joffre Coe, the first archeologist that out here leading the project.

He carried on at archeological work for decades.

- [Narrator] Today, this site encompasses 50 plus acres.

Welcome to the Town Creek Indian Mound state historic site.

- We're outside the town of Mount Gilead, just in the South Central Piedmont of the state.

And we're at a very unique historic site because this is the only one that deals exclusively with American Indian history.

- [Narrator] The main attraction here, the mound itself.

- It is a very well engineered pile of dirt.

This, the people here planned it, they have it oriented the way that they wanted it to be.

- [Narrator] This well-designed pile of dirt, actually isn't that unique.

There used to be hundreds of them built across the Southeast and in other parts of the country, it's a well-preserved example of Mississippian culture.

- People have been here for over 12,000 years.

For most of that time, people were hunting and gathering, but about a thousand years ago, they started living here permanently and practicing this Mississippian cultural tradition.

- Allen adds that location was key for the success of this village.

- This is a rich resource environment.

So they're growing corn, there's squash and pumpkins and beans.

So all of these are being eaten predominantly here in the Southeast.

There's all sorts of wild fruits that people can gather in.

And then the animals that are out here, the deer and the rabbits and the turkeys, and all sorts of other things that people can hunt.

- [Narrator] Site manager, Rich Thompson says it's hard to estimate how many people actually called the Town Creek home.

- It's anybody's guess.

We're at what would have been the equivalent of a county seat or a state capital of sorts.

This was a political center, it was a religious center.

It was a place where people met for commerce.

There were artisans that practiced, you know, skills here.

It was the center for trade and it would have been you know, large population center.

- [Narrator] And it was the mound that was at the heart of the village.

- It's a monument.

It's an example of prehistoric monumental work.

And it was built to elevate a particular building, what we refer to as a Townhouse, but that structure serves sort of like your courthouse or legislative building.

And it was also a little bit like a church as well.

- [Narrator] Visitors to Town Creek can step inside the reconstruct the townhouse and other structures to get a feel for what it might have been like to live here a thousand years ago and how the buildings were constructed.

- There, with spillage side, it was round buildings, and these are constructed with wattle and daub architecture.

So the waddle is that this branches that are woven in and out of posts, like making a basket and then daub is clay that's packed in on top.

- [Narrator] As director of the museum of the Southeast American Indian in Pembroke, Nancy Fields visits Town Creek often.

On this day, she brought a group of teachers from all over the state for a firsthand look at the village.

- So what we're doing is we are fulfilling a really exciting project.

I brought a group of social studies teachers out to the site, and we are gathering content to create a teaching curriculum, a statewide teaching curriculum.

- [Narrator] But as a native American herself, walking into the village is also very personal.

- I think probably one of my favorite parts even before getting to the stockade is the pathway that leads into that place.

It is spiritual and you can't help, but feel this very, this rural innate connection to this place.

It's always peaceful.

And I appreciate the solitude and the quiet to really think about and reflect the people that were here and honor their memory and kind of be still with them.

- [Narrator] According to Thompson, a visit to Town Creek can change perspectives.

- A lot of people will come to the site and they know that this site deals with American Indians and they come in with this idea that, you know, these were primitive people.

They lived maybe a backwards life, a hard, unnecessarily, hard life.

But when they see this site and they see the information we have in the museum about what Town Creek was like, it changes their mind.

These folks were sophisticated.

- [Narrator] Town Creek Indian Mound connects North Carolinians to a way of life, 12,000 years in the making and the connection to a much overlooked part of the continent's history, (bright upbeat music) Pine Hills main street bustles with shops and traffic and the Little Sugar Creek Greenway offers an escape.

But there was a time just after the American revolution when just a few settlers called this area home.

One of those families, the Polk's.

- Well today we're at the president James K. Polk state historic site, which is the birthplace of our nation's 11th president, James K. Polk.

James K. Polk was born here on the property.

He was here the first 11 years of his life before the Polk's eventually moved, left Mecklenberg County here in the fall of 1806 to move out to South Central Tennessee.

- [Narrator] Site manager.

Scott Warren says this site not only shares Polk story in presidency, but also interprets life here in Mecklenburg County, as the United States found its way as a new nation.

- You know, the Polk's when they were here had a large working farm, almost 429 acres.

The Polk's along with the five enslaved people that were here during the time of the Polk's, worked the farm here, they grew cotton, corn, and would, certainly take that into Charlotte to sell.

- [Narrator] Outside, preserved on the site are several cabins from around Mecklenburg County.

- We've got three historic structures that were moved here in the 1960s when the site was being developed.

And we actually think that the larger cabin is really a good example of the type of home that the Polk's would have had when they were here.

- [Narrator] He says staff at the Polk site are also working hard to include the stories of those once enslaved on this very land.

- Our assistant site manager, Kate Moore is, has been doing a lot of research on the enslaved that we're here at the Polk farm.

We do know that there was five enslaved individuals here.

And really what we're striving to do is give them a little more voice.

Give them a little more prominent presence here at the site.

(bright guitar music) - [Narrator] Inside the visitor center is where you learn more about the site's namesake, James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States.

- When you first come in, you'll get a sense of the history of Mecklenburg County and the environment that the Polk's were in, that they farmed in lived in at that time.

It transitions over into the growth of the United States during the 1820s.

Our next section gets into the election of 1844 and how Polk was nominated from the floor of the convention.

And it finally ends with the one of the landmark events that happened here in Polk's presidency, The Mexico War.

- [Narrator] Warren says Polk's presidency is often overshadowed by more well-known presidents of the era, but nonetheless impacted the country's path.

- Polk is right in between two very strong presidents, Jackson, who was Polk's mentor and the seventh president, and then Lincoln on the other end of the spectrum.

When he was in power and was in office, he actually accomplished four things that were certainly, you know, monumental in United States history.

He acquired, you know, all the way out to California, he settled the Oregon territory boundary dispute with great Britain.

He ended up lowering the tariffs at that time.

And also he ended up really kind of corralling in the federal funds that were scattered throughout the United States in various private institutions and state banks.

- [Narrator] A visit to the James K. Polk site offers far more than a bit of trivia on a former president.

It offers perspective on where we've been as a county, a state and a nation.

(bright guitar music) (birds chirping) - You know, all of North Carolina's state run historical sites tell a different part of our state's history.

They delve into different aspects of the lives - Now, what I said... What?

- Of all types of citizens of North Carolina.

And some of the major stories and when world history that our state has been part of.

Every site is different.

Every site has a unique story to tell.

They're all valuable in their own place in history.

(mellow music) - We were hoping that people will understand that these spaces have usefulness on multiple levels.

Intellectually, educationally, recreationally.

But also at the end of the day, we want this to be a place of connection.

A comments for us to gather and bear witness to histories that are complex, are intriguing and some ways could be inspiring, but then make us to know who we are.

(mellow music) - There's also so many different flavors of history.

You can get every single era that's been here in North Carolina.

And everybody has an interest.

So somewhere in this state, somebody can find a piece of history that they would love to go see in person.

- [Narrator] With a variety of the sites offered and preserved by these passionate caretakers of history, North Carolina's state historic sites make it possible for you to take a single road trip and to travel on your very own "Trail of History.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] A production of PBS, Charlotte.