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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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5 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–5.Back to highlights

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5 dated events
1952Civil rights era
  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  2. Orange Speedway, Inc. takes over the Hillsborough track

    Property or economic transaction · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough

    Bill France Sr. became president of the new Orange Speedway, Inc., with Ann France as secretary-treasurer and Enoch Staley as vice-president; the other three original partners were no longer with the track. It was known as Orange Speedway from 1954.

    Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

    People: Enoch Staley

    Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

  3. A quarter-mile track opens inside Orange Speedway

    Founding or opening · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough

    A new quarter-mile track built inside the Orange Speedway mile opened with a seven-event NASCAR sportsman and amateur racing program under the direction of Bill France and Enoch Staley.

    Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

    People: Bill France Sr.

    Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

  4. Bill France leases Orange Speedway to the Orange County Board of Education

    Property or economic transaction · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough

    Bill France signed a ten-year lease letting Hillsboro High School use the Orange Speedway grounds as its athletic field, for $100 a year, while races continued.

    Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

    People: Enoch Staley

    Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Hillsborough High School

  5. A Hollywood crew films a racing drama at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn

    Publication, speech or performance · Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn, Hillsborough

    A film company shot scenes for a television drama starring James Whitmore at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough. Speedway co-owner Enoch Staley brought in several well-known drivers, among them Buck Baker, for close-up scenes.

    Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

    Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Colonial Inn

  6. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  7. Orange Speedway, Inc. is dissolved

    Closing or ending · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough

    The three shareholders of Orange Speedway, Inc., Ann and Bill France and Enoch Staley, voluntarily dissolved the corporation sixteen years after the last race. France Staley, LLC, which held title to the track, sold it to Preservation North Carolina in 1997.

    Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

    People: Enoch Staley

    Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026