NORTH CAROLINA: DURHAM

 October 2022

In the summer of 2022, our son moved from Utah to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to take a job as a risk assessment arborist for a tree company. I wanted to be able to visualize where he was living, so in October of that year I planned a trip to visit him. Bob couldn't go with me, so I went by myself. I flew into the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, a small- to mid-sized airport that was not too crowded and easy to navigate.

Our son had to work, so I spent the day seeing the sites with his girlfriend as tour guide, which was nice as I knew nothing of the area.

Our first stop was Bennett Place in Durham, the site of the final surrender of a major Confederate army in the Civil War -- General Johnston's surrender to General Sherman -- on April 26, 1865, which was about 2 ½ weeks after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. This was news to me! I thought it was all over after Appomattox.

An interesting fact is that Lincoln's assassination occurred on April 15, two days before the first day of negotiations here, but was reported to the generals on that first day, April 17. News traveled more slowly back then.

The owners of the farm were simple farmers who had lost a son and a son-in-law in the war. The site was restored about 100 years after the Civil War. 

All of the structures are reconstructions.

The final war negotiations are commemorated by this Unity Monument. Two Corinthian columns represent the Confederacy and the Union. The slab at the top is inscribed with the word "Unity."

I do love a great quilt display.

My son who lives here loves trees, so this section of a tree trunk caught my attention.

If I zoom in, you can see that each metal tag is engraved with a year between 1865, when this tree was a sapling at the surrender, and 2015, 150 years later when the tree fell in a storm.

An accompanying chart lists the events that correspond with the years.

There was a lot of interesting information available:

Photograph of the dedication of the Unity Monument in 1923:

Our next stop was the Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum.

It doesn't take long to notice that the name "Duke" is on everything in this area, including Duke University and Duke Energy. The money that created the Duke empire was first generated on this property, where Washington Duke first grew and processed tobacco. His enterprise eventually became the largest tobacco company in the world, the American Tobacco Company, and the Dukes became one of the wealthiest families in the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century.

The Dukes were a true dynasty, with even the daughter being heavily involved in the business.

Tobacco production has always been a huge part of North Carolina's economy, and even today it is first in the nation in the production of tobacco. 

This replica of the Liberty Bell weighs over 300 pounds and is made from enough tobacco to manufacture 150,000 cigarettes. It was created by the art department of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. 

In the same place where homage was being paid to tobacco, the reality of its effects on the human body are also highlighted.

We visited a barn/shed that showed the process for curing tobacco:

My souvenir from the Duke Homestead was this [much] larger than life tobacco hornworm. Irresistible. 

The property is beautiful and has retained its pastoral ambience.

Time for lunch! We stopped at Earth to Us in Durham, which served American and Latin vegan comfort food. It was delicious. I just looked for it online and see that it closed in summer 2023. Too bad!