North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Center

Visitors to the Fort Fisher Museum and State Recreation Area can further their education about the region’s rich maritime and military history with a visit to the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Center. Located along Fort Fisher Blvd and easy to reach for vacationers exploring this southern section of the Cape Fear area, the Center features a small on-site museum that boasts a wealth of exhibits on current dive sites and local history which dates back to the Civil War and beyond.

The waters off the North Carolina coastline are notorious for their hundreds of shipwrecks, and the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Center was created in 1967 to explore, recover, and protect these underwater sites which span centuries. The Kure Beach center is active in conducting both historical and on-site research at some of the area’s wrecks, and visitors who stop by will find a sample of exhibits that outline some of the projects that are currently being worked on. From Blackbeard’s famous ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, to stories of the Civil War U-Boats that stalked the coastline, there’s a lot of information on why the coastal waters are a dream destination for archeologists. Though small, the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Center is going a long way into bringing these long-lost stories and historical wrecks to the surface.