Orange County Indexed · Worked research guide
How the Eno became a state park
Choose a question small enough to answer with a few sources. Orange County Indexed can help you find a topic and useful records; your project should explain what you learned from those records and how they support your answer.
Features used in this guide: Search Indexed Records · Places · Downloads
The Eno River is a topic. A more manageable question is: What roles did residents and state government play in creating Eno River State Park between 1972 and 1975? Open the Eno River place page and find the entries for that period in its chronology section, or open the Saving the Eno storyline. Adjust the question if the available sources cannot answer it.
Start with a state government account, the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation's 1979 master plan for the park, and a history from the Eno River Association, both cited by the river's dated entries. Add a map or photograph only if it helps answer the question. Ask your teacher how many sources and which citation format the assignment requires.
Record the creator, title, date, page or section, and link. Then write what the source tells you, the passage supporting it, and one limitation. For a map, identify its date, legend, and area. For a photograph, distinguish what is visible from what the caption or another author claims.
The index's entries separate the stages: the state board's endorsement of a park on May 17, 1972; Governor James Holshouser's acceptance of the first tracts in June 1973; and the opening of the first 1,000 acres to the public in 1975. Check those stages against the sources. Ask how the state account and the Association's history explain the roles of residents, public officials, and landowners. Agreement may reflect shared evidence; differences may reveal different purposes.
Begin with your answer, then use specific evidence from the sources to explain it. Cite the source behind each factual claim. Name unanswered questions rather than filling gaps with guesses. If your project includes a picture, give its credit and check the source's reuse terms; finding it through Orange County Indexed does not grant permission to reproduce it.
A project can explain how public decisions and residents' organizing contributed to the park, while keeping approval, land acquisition, and opening as separate stages. The strength of the project comes from connecting its claims to evidence, not from the number of facts collected.
For teachers, this question can become a small source packet with a map, a passage from the state's master plan, and an Association account. For students, take the question and your first citations to OCPL for help reaching the materials; the 1979 master plan is in the library's local history collection. Use the same method for a school, business, neighborhood, or local event.
