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

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel made landfall at Long Beach. The storm’s arrival in North Carolina occurred on a fu...
10/15/2026

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel made landfall at Long Beach. The storm’s arrival in North Carolina occurred on a full moon high tide, maximizing impact of the storm surge on the barrier beaches of Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle, Holden Beach, Long Beach, Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Beach and Topsail Island.

Devastation was widespread but nowhere was the impact more severe than on Long Beach (present-day Oak Island), where a 17-foot storm surge swept away 352 of the 357 structures on the island. The dramatic surge was, and remains, singular in North Carolina’s recorded history.

Hazel was the only Category Four hurricane of the twentieth century to strike North Carolina. Its winds topped 140 miles per hour. After landfall it tracked inland, and battering winds cut a wide swath northward toward Raleigh. High winds toppled trees, ripped roofs, and tore down signs and power lines across the state. Hazel was responsible for 95 deaths in the U.S., including 19 in North Carolina.

Marker located in Oak Island, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/11/hurricane-hazel-d-109

On October 14, 1886, Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville.Graham became a history instructor at UNC in 1914, but...
10/14/2026

On October 14, 1886, Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville.

Graham became a history instructor at UNC in 1914, but left to serve in the Marines during World War I. He was elevated to the rank of first lieutenant before returning to Chapel Hill as an assistant professor. He secured a full professorship in 1927 and three years later became president of the university. When the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State College, and the North Carolina College for Women merged in 1932, Graham became the first president of the Consolidated University of North Carolina.

In 1949, Graham resigned from the UNC system to accept an appointment to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat caused by J. Melville Broughton’s death. Graham’s 1950 Democratic senate primary race against Willis Smith has become legendary for the mudslinging and posturing. He lost the primary but maintained a commitment to public service.

Graham became the United Nations mediator and representative to India and Pakistan in 1951, and served as an assistant secretary general of the United Nations before retiring in 1967.

He returned to Chapel Hill where he died in 1972. The 1968 student union building at Chapel Hill bears Graham’s name.

Marker located in Fayetteville, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/02/frank-p-graham-1886-1972-i-60

On October 13, 1982, Jim Thorpe’s medals from the 1912 Olympics were reinstated. The famed athlete, who lived from 1888...
10/13/2026

On October 13, 1982, Jim Thorpe’s medals from the 1912 Olympics were reinstated. The famed athlete, who lived from 1888 until 1953, was born in a cabin on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma and was educated at Indian boarding schools nearby. In 1904, he enrolled at the U. S. Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. While at Carlisle, Thorpe was coached by Glenn “Pop” Warner, who added him to the track team. Recognizing his talent as an athlete, Warner suggested that Thorpe train for the 1912 Olympic Games.

In 1909, he played semi-professional baseball in North Carolina for the Rocky Mount Railroaders and the Fayetteville Highlanders.
At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, Thorpe won gold medals in the newly-created multi-events, the pentathlon and the decathlon. Sweden’s King Gustav V called him “the greatest athlete in the world.” A year later, after word spread that Thorpe had played semipro baseball in North Carolina, he lost his amateur status and he was forced to return his Olympic medals.

In 1982, nearly 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee unanimously restored Thorpe’s Olympic medals.

Marker located in Rocky Mount, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/12/jim-thorpe-1887-1953-e-59

Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day in North Carolina. We acknowledge that the state of North Carolina is situated on the a...
10/12/2026

Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day in North Carolina.

We acknowledge that the state of North Carolina is situated on the ancestral homelands of many American Indian tribes who have lived in this place, cared for these lands, and traveled throughout the region for thousands of years. Tribes spoke different variants of Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan languages. We honor them as the first stewards of this place and acknowledge, with sorrow and remorse, the violent history of their dispossession and forced removal.

We respectfully acknowledge and honor the enduring presence, vibrance, and diversity of contemporary Indigenous communities.

The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Committee is committed to telling the stories that reflect the diverse fabric of our state, stories that line our roadsides and connect us to our shared history. To learn more about applying for a marker, please contact [email protected].

On October 9, 1991, the Board of Trustees changed the name of High Point College to to High Point University.In Septembe...
10/09/2026

On October 9, 1991, the Board of Trustees changed the name of High Point College to to High Point University.

In September 1924, the Methodist Protestant Church and the city of High Point opened High Point College. The process of getting to that point, however, had started years earlier. The Methodist Protestant Church, part of today’s United Methodist Church, began offering higher education opportunities in North Carolina during the nineteenth century. Its first venture was the sponsorship of Yadkin College in Davidson County. Yadkin College failed in 1895 because of its isolated location but, at the turn of the century, the Reverend Joseph McCulloh began working to make the vision of a church-related college a reality. It was not until the Methodist Church’s 1921 annual conference that delegates voted to proceed with sponsoring another college. Soon after, the city of High Point offered the church 60 acres of land and $100,000 to build the school. When classes began in 1924 at High Point College, the three-building campus accommodated nine faculty members and 122 students.

The Great Depression took its toll on the young college. Students occasionally paid their tuition in livestock and vegetables and the faculty’s salaries went unpaid for several years. To reduce its debts, the college filed for bankruptcy in 1934 and reorganized. The college’s circumstances improved, and, by the end of the decade, the campus boasted a new library, gymnasium, and athletic facility. During World War II, the facilities were used as a training center for the U.S. Army Air Force. The college saw tremendous growth during its post-war years, primarily due to the G.I. Bill, with its enrollment more than tripling. In 1951, the college received full regional accreditations for all its programs.

Marker located in High Point, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/08/high-point-university-j-42

On October 8, 1915, the Warren Grove School, North Carolina’s first Rosenwald School, was completed. During the 1914-191...
10/08/2026

On October 8, 1915, the Warren Grove School, North Carolina’s first Rosenwald School, was completed.

During the 1914-1915 academic year, North Carolina received funding for its first Rosenwald schools, although the Rosenwald Fund’s School Building Program did not begin until the nonprofit was incorporated in 1917. Using Tuskegee’s architectural plans for schoolhouses as a model, the Warren Grove School in Chowan County, a two-teacher floorplan, was built for a total cost of $1,622. The Black community had contributed $486, the white community and the school system furnished $836, and Julius Rosenwald himself had contributed $300, the maximum amount initially allocated for any schoolhouse.

Sears and Roebuck president Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington established the fund to provide grants to African American communities to improve education. By 1928 one in every five rural schools in the South was a Rosenwald school; the schools housed one-third of the region’s rural Black schoolchildren and teachers. At the program’s conclusion in 1932, it had produced 4,977 schools, 217 teacher’s homes, and 163 shop buildings that served 663,625 students in 15 states. Financial aid from the Rosenwald Fund often subsidized only fifteen to twenty percent of a building’s total cost. To cover the balance, monies from local and state education departments, as well as white communities (a requirement of aid from the fund) were used. In North Carolina, the fund assisted with 817 projects in ninety-three counties.

*Because there are so many Rosenwald Schools we cannot mark them all -- rather, once the 1st to be completed was determined, we used text that is 1/2 the usual size for NC markers to tell a more complete story of Rosenwald Schools, in general.

Marker located in Edenton, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/04/rosenwald-schools-89

On October 7, 1780, Patriot forces defeated the British-led Loyalist militia in the Battle of Kings Mountain, signaling ...
10/07/2026

On October 7, 1780, Patriot forces defeated the British-led Loyalist militia in the Battle of Kings Mountain, signaling the beginning of the end of British control in the South. Patriots had created an atmosphere of Tory persecution in western North Carolina and in September of 1780, British Major Patrick Ferguson decided to subdue the rebellious region. He warned mountain residents that if insurrection continued, he personally would “lay waste their country with fire and sword.”

Patriot volunteers heeded Ferguson’s challenge. Roused by the threats, many of those who gathered against Ferguson did so only to protect their communities. Joseph Winston and Benjamin Cleveland raised Surry and Wilkes County militias, marching to Burke County, where they met Major Joseph McDowell’s volunteers. Militia groups came from surrounding states—those from Tennessee were known as the “over-mountain men.”

When Patriot forces arrived at the foot of Kings Mountain, they found Tories camped at the top, prepared to repel any attack. Surrounding the base of the mountain, columns of men engaged the Tory line, and eventually, the lofty position caused Loyalists to fire over the heads of Patriots who raced up the incline to overrun the first defensive line. Major Ferguson was killed and the Loyalist militia was overwhelmed. The battlefield is now a national military park in South Carolina.

Marker located in Kings Mountain, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/18/battle-kings-mountain-o-1

On October 6, 1947, James Edward Shepard, founder of North Carolina Central University, died in Durham.The eldest of twe...
10/06/2026

On October 6, 1947, James Edward Shepard, founder of North Carolina Central University, died in Durham.

The eldest of twelve children, Shepard was born in Raleigh in 1875. After graduating from Shaw University with a pharmacy degree in 1894, he married Annie Day Robinson, granddaughter of the renowned antebellum furniture maker Thomas Day.

In 1898, Shepard became one of the first seven investors in the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham. The company eventually became the largest Black-owned business in the South. In 1907, Shepard assisted with incorporating the Mechanics and Farmers Bank, another successful Black-owned institution in Durham.

Outside of his businesses, Shepard was very active in politics and education. He served as a clerk in the Recorder of Deeds Office in Durham County and served as Raleigh’s deputy collector for the Internal Revenue Service. In 1910, he opened what eventually became N.C. Central University. The school became a public institution and the first publicly-supported liberal arts college for African Americans in the country in 1923. Shepard served as the president of the college until he died in 1947.

Marker located in Durham, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/19/james-e-shepard-g-57

10/05/2026

🚨NEW MARKER ALERT ‼️

Virginia Tucker

Pioneer mathematician
in aeronautics. Advanced
all women’s roles in
STEM, 1935-74. Graduated
from Woman’s College,
now UNCG, in 1930.

Today, we commemorated the life and legacy of Virginia Tucker, a pioneering mathematician, aeronautical engineer and advocate for women in engineering.

A ceremony at UNC Greensboro’s School of Music celebrated Tucker’s groundbreaking accomplishments and her lasting impact on women in STEM. Following the ceremony, a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker was unveiled near the corner of Market and McIver Streets in Greensboro, ensuring that her story and contributions will continue to be remembered for generations to come.

On October 5, 1909, the East Carolina Teachers Training School opened its doors with the mission of providing young men ...
10/05/2026

On October 5, 1909, the East Carolina Teachers Training School opened its doors with the mission of providing young men and women the training they needed to be able to teach in the public schools of North Carolina.

The school was established in Greenville in 1907 at the urgent persuasion of former governor and Greenville resident, Thomas Jordan Jarvis. There were seven other eastern North Carolina communities vying for institutions including Edenton, Washington, Kinston, New Bern, Tarboro, Rocky Mount and Elizabeth City.
When the school opened in October 1909, there were 11 faculty members to teach the 104 women and 19 men enrolled in a two-year training program. In 1911, sixteen members of the first class graduated, all of them women. The first man to graduate, Henry Oglesby, did not do so until 1932.

In 1921, the school began offering four-year degrees. The college offered its first master’s degree in 1929 and began to diversify its curriculum. The school was renamed East Carolina University in 1967 and was incorporated into the UNC system five years later.

Today, East Carolina University is the third largest school in the UNC system, with an outstanding reputation in the fields of teacher training, music, art, and medicine.

Marker located in Greenville, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/18/east-carolina-university-f-45

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