The Cape Fear Chapter of Three Rivers Land Trust is thrilled to announce that they are starting a new educational series on Zoom and Facebook live called The Lunch & Learn Series! Every month, we will be bringing you specialists in fascinating topics – ranging from water quality to archaeology as it applies to our local area.

Up first, we’re delighted to announce that we’ll be learning all about the local history of the Sandhills Area from world-renowned archaeologist Dr. Linda Carnes-McNaughton who is  the current Program Archaeologist and Curator at Fort Bragg’s Cultural Resources Management Program. Carnes-McNaughton is co-author of “Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge” (UNC Press/2018), and was one of the original archaeologists to excavate the 300-year old ship in the early 1990’s.

Next month’s Lunch and Learn lecture will focus on the area around Fort Bragg and the Sandhills, and is entitled Settlers and Stewards of the Sandhills. The presentation will highlight the diverse and dynamic settlement of the geophysical region of Moore and Cumberland Counties.  We will time travel from the earliest known settlers, ca. 12, 000 BC, to the colonial period settlers from Europe and Africa, to the 19th century rural naval stores industries, and then to the period of land purchase by the War Department in 1918.

Carnes-McNaughton will share how, as archaeologists and land managers, we can inventory this landscape in order to document resources that warrant further study and protection while accommodating an active military training presence and respecting all heritage families who once called this part of the Sandhills home.

This event will be on Monday, August 24, from 12-1. Join our Zoom meeting by either clicking this link, opening up your Zoom application and entering the Meeting ID 846 273 8400 and the passcode 6WkDWE, or just hop on to Facebook the day of to catch a live stream of it to our desktop or mobile device!