Pettigrew State Park
Named for the Pettigrew family and their farm, this land was made a state park in 1939. The park has more than 1,200 acres of land and 16,600 acres of water. Students will discover the natural history of this area as well as the history of the people who have lived on this land.
Learn more
- Archaeology and the Ancient History of North Carolina Uses images of artifacts, maps, and artwork to accompany brief overviews of the movements of American Indians as they made their way to North Carolina.
- North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission - Wildlife Species and Habitat Information A North Carolina Wildlife Resources site with detailed information about wildlife resources and management in the state. Information about animals such as the wood duck, white-tailed deer, beaver, wild turkey, quail, sea turtles, and predators such as various owls, osprey, black bear, wild boar and the gray fox is found here.
- Lesson plan: Shadows of North Carolina's past Students will infer past Native American lifeways based on observation, construct a timeline of four major culture periods in Native American history, and compare these lifeways and discuss how they are different and alike.
Related pages
- Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Educational Center: This 4-H Educational Center provides year-round programming, including team-building and environmental education to students in 2nd through 6th grades.
- Pilot Mountain State Park: Pilot Mountain was dedicated as a National Natural Landmark in 1976 and is the centerpiece of Pilot Mountain State Park. Ranger lead programs which teach students about the geologic processes that created this quartzite monadnock.
- Intrigue of the Past: Teach your students about North Carolina's fascinating past. This edition contains lesson plans about the fundamental concepts, processes, and issues of archaeology, as well as essays for the teacher with detailed information about four periods in North Carolina's ancient history.
Related topics
- Learn more about American Indians, North Carolina, Washington County, archaeology, ecology, geology, habitats, history, natural history, science, state parks, wildlife, and wildlife conservation.
Legal
This page copyright ©2008. Terms of use
Lake Phelps is the state of North Carolina’s second largest lake. It was formed on a “vast peninsula lying between the Albemarle Sound and the Pamlico River, the lake is believed to be more than 38,000 years old.” Artifacts found in the area reveal the presence of Native Americans as early as 8,000 B.C. Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of relics, including pottery and projectile points.
Rangers hold regularly scheduled educational and interpretive programs about Pettigrew State Park. Educational materials about the park have been developed for grades 4-8 and are correlated to North Carolina’s competency-based curriculum in science, social studies, mathematics and English/language arts. The Pettigrew program introduces students to archaeological research and also focuses on the significance of Lake Phelps, hypothesis testing, Native Americans and preservation of cultural resources. Accompanying the program is a teacher’s booklet and workshop, free of charge to educators.
Each state park and recreation area has an EELE (environmental education learning experience) curriculum guide that includes on-site activities, pre- and post-visit activities, student information pages, worksheets, fact sheets, vocabulary, and references. You can receive a free copy of an EELE by attending its corresponding workshop at a park, or you can borrow these guides through interlibrary loan at any public library in North Carolina. The EELE for Pettigrew State Park is “Secrets of Lake Phelps” for grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
The North Carolina State Parks website offers a search feature for finding the plants and animals that can be found at each state park. Using the drop-down menus, you can choose a park and either an amphibian, bird, reptile, mammal, fungus, insect, or vascular plant. You can search within each group by family, scientific name, or common name. There are photographs from the state parks and fun facts for some of the species.
WRAL television anchor, Bill Leslie, has created a wonderful audio slide show of the Pettigrew Winter Birds in his “Tarheel Traveler” blog.
View Larger Map