In 2001, some state lawmakers were engaged in a less-than-sweet debate: Which berry should be named the official berry of North Carolina? We tracked down the teacher and fourth-graders who started it all with a class project and got a lot more than they bargained for. Plus, meet the former state senator who voted against EVERY new state symbol. His reasoning says a lot about the things we pick to represent us.

Hosted and mixed by: Jeremy Markovich

Produced by: James Mieczkowski and Jeremy Markovich

Editor-in-chief: Elizabeth Hudson

Music by: Blue Dot Sessions

Closing Song: Carolina's The Place I Gotta Be, by Charlie Albertson

Special Thanks: Gerry Cohen, Lauren Horsch

In the new season of Our State magazine's podcast, host Jeremy Markovich travels across North Carolina in search of the strange, the weird, the unknown, and the forgotten. Highlights include a strange political fight, the effort to find a mythical creature, the story of the woman whose artwork may be in your pocket right now, a rescue in this state's most rugged place, and the backstory you never knew about the man who ended the biggest manhunt in North Carolina history.

New episodes of Away Message begin April 15, 2019.

In this special holiday episode, host Jeremy Markovich meets the man from Gastonia who became the world's largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments and used his power to make North Carolina more tolerant of all religions.

• This story was adapted from: "The Unlikely Ornament King of Gastonia" which appeared in Our State's December 2016 issue.
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Music in this episode:

• "Dad, Get Up" by Peter Lamb and the Wolves (Raleigh)
• Additional Music: Blue Dot Sessions, U.S. Marine Band

Special Thanks: The Rauch Family, Jack Betts, Don Walser, Kimberly Simpson, Alexis Castanos, and Todd Dulaney.

One month after Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, we bring you three stories of strength, resilience, and perseverance in the face of the storm. 

If you'd like to help victims of the hurricane, we suggest:

• American Red Cross: 1-800-RED CROSS or text the word “FLORENCE” to 90999 to make a $10 donation; redcross.org 
• North Carolina Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund
• United Way Hurricane Florence Recovery Fund
• North Carolina Nurses Association: An emergency fundraising effort for nurses affected by Florence
• American Humane Association: An emergency donation helps animal rescue groups save animals left behind or in shelters
• Emergency Disaster Services of The Salvation Army
• The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina: To donate food, visit one of the distribution centers in Durham, Raleigh, New Bern, Greenville, the Sandhills/Southern Pines, or Wilmington, or donate online
• Second Harvest and Disaster Response
• For the Down East/Carteret County region, please consider donating to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum’s hurricane relief fund
• Hurricane Florence Relief Bucket Drive: Alpha Graphics of Raleigh will deliver buckets of cleaning supplies to the New Bern area; purchase through their Amazon wish list

Read a letter from our editor in chief, Elizabeth Hudson.

For continuing coverage of Hurricane Florence and its effects on North Carolina, we recommend the excellent work of our friends at the Raleigh News & Observer.

In the finale of Season 2, host Jeremy Markovich takes a trip to a remote place he's been trying to visit for years: Frying Pan Tower, a decommissioned Coast Guard light station that sits far out in the Atlantic Ocean.

North Carolina's priceless copy of the Bill of Rights is kept out of sight in a secure underground vault, and for good reason: It was once stolen, hidden away for more than 100 years, then recovered in a spectacular FBI raid. In this extended episode, host Jeremy Markovich gets the inside story of how it all went down, directly from the people who were there.

• View an online scan of North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights here.
• Also in the vault: the Carolina Charter of 1663.

Music in this episode:

• "Not Those Kind of People" by Bombadil
• Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

Special Thanks: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Joe Torsella and the Pennsylvania Treasurer's Office

2005 press conference audio provided by WRAL-TV

Additional Reading:

• Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic, by David Howard
• Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures, by Robert K. Wittman and John Shiffman

In 1955, a dentist and five of his friends played a round of golf. They were black. The course was white-only. What happened next changed the course of one man's life, and in turn, helped integrate an entire town.

• "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" by Peter Lamb and the Wolves (feat. Maceo Parker)
• Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

Supreme Court audio via oyez.org.

George Simkins interview courtesy of the Community Voices project, housed at the Greensboro Public Library.

Special Thanks: Nebraska Douglas, Ralph Miller, Shirley Frye, Gerald Attaway, Bill Hill, plus Bob Brooks and the rest of the staff at Gillespie Golf Course.

The Greensboro Six were: Phillip Cooke, Samuel Murray, Elijah Herring, Joseph Sturdivent, George Simkins Jr., and Leon Wolfe.

In 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina, and the two thermonuclear bombs on board fell to the ground. Host Jeremy Markovich talks with the man who was sent to make sure those bombs didn't explode, and finds out why the Air Force left a crucial part of the weapon behind, somewhere below the surface.

• Read more in Joel Dobson's book, "The Goldsboro Broken Arrow."

In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich visits a majestic bridge that, for years, was never connected to any road, and finds out why its construction almost led to riots.

• Read more about the bridge in this paper from Dr. Barak Richman.

What would happen if you stood in one state, then shot and killed someone in another? That scenario actually took place along the Tennessee-North Carolina border more than 100 years ago, and the murderer got away with it. But what's the real story? Host Jeremy Markovich spent months criss-crossing North Carolina to find answers that even the killer's family didn't know.

• Read more stories from North Carolina's borders in Our State magazine's May 2018 issue.