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National Park Service News Release
Release Date: May 16, 2008
Contact: Outer Banks Group
Phone: (252) 473-2111
National Park Service Summer Programs To Start – Centennial Initiative Funding Provides for Additional Programs and Program Season Extension
National Park Service summer programming at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Wright Brothers National Memorial, and Cape Hatteras National Seashore will start on Friday, May 23, 2008. A wide variety of programs will be offered daily through Labor Day. Also on May 23, the visitor centers at those three parks will begin summer hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
This year’s summer program schedule will start more than two weeks earlier than it has in previous years due to the National Park Service Centennial Initiative funding received by the parks for additional seasonal interpretive ranger positions. With this funding, the parks will be providing 238 programs per week to Outer Banks visitors - an increase of 46 programs weekly. Centennial Initiative funding is given to national park sites to help restore natural and cultural landscapes, provide outstanding educational and recreational opportunities for park visitors and prepare the parks for the upcoming centennial of the National Park Service in 2016.
New programs offered this summer include: The Power of Archaeology at Fort Raleigh NHS, a children’s activity on the search for the Lost Colony; Family Night with Flight and Evenings with Wil and Orv at Wright Brothers NMEM, two evenings (7:30 p.m.) of family fun, activities and stories; Ocean Safety Demonstration at the Seashore’s Bodie Island, Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island lifeguarded beaches where NPS lifeguards will demonstrate water rescue techniques; and Lighthouse Marshes, starting at the Seashore’s Bodie Island Visitor Center - a nature hunt for butterflies, dragonflies and birds.
Three special tours will be offered this summer: The Coast Guard Station Oregon Inlet Tour and Coast Guard Station Hatteras Inlet Tour will provide an up-close look at Coast Guard operations and vessels; the Old Days at the Hatteras Weather Station relays the very interesting history of this recently restored building and U.S. Weather Bureau operations on Hatteras Island; and the Fort Raleigh NHS Tour of the Collections is a walk through the parks’ museum collections storage facility for a look at some very interesting artifacts.
Evening Campfire programs are offered at the Seashore on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. A special Seashore evening program, Night Lights, will include an exploration of star gazing and tide-line bioluminescent plankton along with a discussion of why dark nights are valuable to both people and wildlife.
The summer program schedules also include many other history talks, nature walks, and recreational programs such as cast netting, crabbing, seining, and snorkeling.
Program schedules are available on-line at each park’s website: Fort Raleigh NHS, www.nps.gov/fora; Wright Brothers NMEM, www.nps.gov/wrbr; and Cape HatterasNS, www.nps.gov/caha. Program schedules are also listed in In the Park, the National Park Service Outer Banks summer newspaper available at any park visitor center.
The Full Moon Tours of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse will also return this year on May 19, June 18, July 18, Aug. 16, and Sept. 15 – watch for details to be announced.
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