William B. Umstead State Park turns 90 this year!  Our Park was established in 1934 by the National Park Service Park to provide jobs during the Great Depression to build a forested recreational park.  As part of our beginnings, tens of thousands of trees were planted to restore eroded marginal farmland, Sycamore Lake was created and group camps were built.  Sycamore Group camp was the first built.  By 1990, the Sycamore Mess Hall was proposed to be destroyed due to lack of maintenance funds. Umstead Coalition fought to save the Sycamore mess hall and cabins.  Today, all the Park’s forested landscape and its historic buildings are protected by their 1995 listing in the National Register of Historic Places (Register Reference Number is 95000783, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718645; Summary pages here).  The Umstead Coalition is actively working to restore the Sycamore Mess hall; volunteers have already contributed several thousands of hours-truly a community effort!

To celebrate its anniversary, we are hosting Umstead’s 90th Anniversary Birthday Bash!  Fittingly, we will hold our Birthday Bash at the Sycamore Mess Hall, near the Sycamore Multi-use trailhead, which can be reached by entering the Park from the US70/Glenwood Avenue Park entrance in Raleigh.

The Birthday Bash will include drinks, live music, dinner (including fresh-baked pizza from Papa Murphy’s in Cary), a silent auction, drawings, and more. The music will feature traditional thump-picking guitar, acoustic music by Nixon, Williams, and Gage and a concert by Bett Padgett featuring traditional, folk and original songs and stories - she will "edutain" us all!

Dress code is casual with suggestion to wear your "best flannel shirt"!

A limited edition Umstead-branded IPA is being produced and donated by Clouds Brewing.  Event will feature live music, pizza by Papa Murphy's, silent auction, and more.  

Details and tickets