Nature's Sanctuary

Welcome

At a moment in the nation’s history when many people valued natural resources more for their commercial than for their recreational, ecological, or esthetic values, citizens along the Lumber River joined together to protect this historic waterway. How the Lumber River State Park came to be is a mini-epic chronicling the efforts of a diverse group of recreationalists, conservationists, and naturalists in North & South Carolina. Their work also resulted in the designation of the Lumber River as a Federal Wild and Scenic River, the first black-water river to receive such status in the Eastern United States. That was the most consequential river preservation effort of the late 20th century in southeastern NC.