What's Happening?
2026 Haunted Museum & Trick or Treat
2026 Haunted Museum & Trick or Treat
Cowan Museum's Annual Haunted Museum and Trick-or-Treat
Saturday, October 31, 2026
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Join us for our annual Halloween event. It's FREE to the public and will include the following:
- Decorated buildings and grounds.
- Strange sights in the botanical garden.
- Free candy or a toy for visitors in the museum's main building, the Kelly-Farrior House.
- Halloween movies in the upstairs gallery in the main building.
- And more!
Story Walk about Bees!
2026 Haunted Museum & Trick or Treat
Story Walk by the Duplin County Library
Beginning August 7, 2026
Our friends at the Duplin County Library set up a Story Walk of Emma and the Bees / Ema y las abejas along the pathway through our historical park. The book was written by Virginia Mórtola and illustrated by Lucía Franco and is in in both English and Spanish.
The Story Walk ends close to the apiary on our grounds which is cared for by the Duplin County Beekeepers Association.
America250: North Carolina First in Freedom Passport Program
America250: North Carolina First in Freedom Passport Program
Explore Southeastern North Carolina with the First in Freedom Passport Program!
Discover the rich history, natural beauty, and vibrant culture of Southeastern North Carolina in 2026. Your adventure begins with the First in Freedom Passport Program, designed to make exploring our region even more rewarding.
How It Works
- Get a FREE NC First in Freedom Festival passport booklet from any of the locations listed in the booklet.
- Visit historic sites, state parks, and attractions across Southeastern North Carolina.
- Collect colored stamps for each site you visit in your passport booklet.
When you visit your first site in a county, you’ll receive:
- A cancellation stamp for that county.
- A signature for that county.
- For every additional site in the same county, a staff member or volunteer will sign and validate your booklet for that site.
Earn Rewards as You Explore
The more sites you visit, the more exclusive swag you can earn:
- 8 sites – Receive a commemorative pin.
- 16 sites – Receive a magnet.
- One site in each county – Earn a coffee mug.
- All participating sites – Get a unique First in Freedom T-shirt
Submitting Your Passport
Once you’ve completed your visits:
- Option 1: Scan your completed pages and submit them through the Contact Us page on the North Carolina First in Freedom website.
- Option 2: Mail your completed booklet to:
Moores Creek National Battlefield
40 Patriots Hall Dr.
Currie, NC 28435
Please include which reward level you achieved.
All prizes will be issued after December 31, 2026.
Information provided by:
Ongoing
ecoEXPLORE
The Joann Cowan Brown Botanical Garden is a HotSpot in the ecoEXPLORE program!
ecoEXPLORE (Experiences Promoting Learning Outdoors for Research and Education) is an incentive-based citizen science program for children in grades K-8. Developed by The North Carolina Arboretum, this innovative program combines science exploration with kid-friendly technology to foster a fun learning environment for children while encouraging them to explore the outdoors and participate in citizen science.
*We have mini exploration kits to loan to our visitors so they may find fascinating life forms on our grounds. Kits include a set of binoculars, a magnifying glass, compass, and a complimentary pencil to record your findings.
It's Arachnology Season!
(September & October)
Arachnology is the
study of arachnids .
Fun Fact:
Arachnology is the study of spiders, scorpions, ticks and other arthropods with 8 legs, 2 body segments and a hard exoskeleton. Arachnids are found all over the world and have been around for over 500 million years!
Source: https://www.ecoexplore.net/
Currently in our Rock Room Gallery
A Journey Through Deep Time:
Dinosaur Bones, Rocks, and Fossils
In our renovated "Rock Room" gallery, see some of the fossils in the museum's collection and loaned specimens, such as an Allosaurus bone, Triceratops frill, and an American mastodon tusk.
We have an Apiary on the Museum Grounds
The Duplin County Beekeepers Association has an apiary with two beehives located near our tobacco barn. The hives are not close to the main outbuildings or the botanical garden.
However, the bees are certainly busy with all the flowers we have on the grounds, so please be aware of their presence and that they are doing important work as pollinators.