The Historical Museum takes visitors on a journey through time, beginning long before there was a county, when Native Americans lived, hunted and traded along the Great Pee Dee River. We have an excellent collection of Native American artifacts, including pottery, stone tools, arrows and arrowheads.
Early settlers lived off the land, and our exhibits include woodworking and farming tools that helped make it possible for them to carve out an existence. One of our most unique early pieces dates from the early 1800s and is a hollow log that served as a bed for Mason Lee, whose obsession with the supernatural led to some eccentric behavior.
Civil War-era artifacts include primitive tools used by a local soldier to make jewelry while he was a prisoner of war, and a handmade vest worn by a young boy who drove a supply wagon for the Confederate army.
In our military room is an outstanding collection of items from World War I through the first Gulf War, including uniforms, weapons and personal effects. We have letters written by a World War I soldier to his parents shortly before he succumbed to mustard gas poisoning in France, a wooden propeller from a plane at the local World War II flight training school, Palmer Field, and much more.