The battle fought here on March 15, 1781, was the largest, most hotly-contested action of the Revolutionary War's climactic Southern Campaign. The serious loss of British manpower suffered at Guilford Courthouse foreshadowed Lord Cornwallis's final defeat at Yorktown seven months later. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, the nation’s first national park established at a Revolutionary War site, preserves the 220-acre heart of the 1781 battlefield. Among the 28 monuments raised on the battlefield is a memorial containing the graves of two of North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Hooper and John Penn. Although Guilford Courthouse is 600 miles south of Philadelphia and Independence Hall, it is appropriate that this monument stands at the site of one of the most important battles of the Revolutionary War. It was the sacrifices of American patriots on this and scores of other battlefields that gave substance to the bold statements of principle contained in the Declaration of Independence.

Carl Sandburg, nationally renowned poet, biographer, lecturer, newspaper columnist, folksinger, author of American fairytales, and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, provided broad and enduring 20th century insight into the circumstances, worth and spirit of the American people. He passionately championed for the everyday working person, those who may neither have had the words nor the power to speak for themselves. A Midwesterner most of his life, Sandburg and his family moved to North Carolina in 1945. This farm in Flat Rock offered the peace and solitude required for his writing and offered Mrs. Sandburg over 30 acres of pasture-land that she desired to raise her champion dairy goats. Sandburg, having already achieved literary fame before relocating to North Carolina, continued to write and lecture and published more than one-third of his works during his 22 years at Connemara. Today the site, managed by the National Park Service, preserves the Sandburg legacy for future generations. The historic landscape consists of the Sandburg residence, a dairy goat barn complex that is home to the park's Connemara Farms goat herd, sheds, rolling pastures, mountainside woods, five miles of hiking trails on moderate to steep terrain, two small lakes, several ponds, flower and vegetable gardens, and an apple orchard.

Located in Currie, the park commemorates the 1776 victory by 1,000 Patriots over 1,600 Loyalists at the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge. The battle ended Royal Governor Josiah Martin's hopes of regaining control of the colony for the British crown. The Loyalist defeat ended British plans for an invasionary force to land in Brunswick, North Carolina. The colony of North Carolina voted to declare independence from the British on April 12, 1776, shortly after the victory at Moores Creek. Throughout the park, remnants remain of the 1776 road traveled by patriot and loyalist forces. A 1-mile trail with wayside exhibits leads through the battlefield and across Moores Creek. The historic bridge site is located along the trail. The park offers a visitor center with exhibits and audio-visual program; a .3 mile colonial forest trail, and a picnic area.

The first successful sustained powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine were made here by Wilbur and Orville Wright on December 17, 1903. A 60-foot granite monument dedicated in 1932, is perched atop 90-foot tall Kill Devil Hill commemorating the achievement of these two visionaries from Dayton, Ohio. A visit should include touring the museum exhibits, participating in a ranger conducted program, touring the reconstructed camp buildings and first flight trail area, and a climb up Kill Devil Hill to view the memorial pylon.