Dear Editor,

In support of the North Carolina 4-H History and Learning Center at Camp Millstone, Ellerbe, the Development Fund for the project has produced the book, “Clover All Over, North Carolina’s First 4-H Century.”

Dr. James E. Clark Jr., who wrote the first edition in 1984, has written this new history.

Camp Millstone has a major role in 4-H history in the state and is a fitting place for the statewide project. It will be the first “state” museum in Richmond County.

The county is becoming a destination place for tourists seeking history-related museums which include:

Bostick Schoolhouse at Mountain Creek/Ellerbe, Rankin Museum of American Heritage in Ellerbe and the unique Triple L Museum at the Country Store in Derby. Stepping just over the county line off N.C. 73 north is the State’s Town Creek Indian Mound Site. In Hamlet there is the National Railroad Museum, Historic Depot Museum, Tornado Building Museum and the new Hamlet Visitor’s Center in the same location, all on Main Street.

In downtown Rockingham, the new Discovery Place KIDS interactive museum will add excitement to downtown Rockingham and the county after opening February. The Hamlet Opera House renovation is still a work in progress.

I like to think of Rockingham’s new Blue Water Trail on Hitchcock Creek to the Pee Dee River also as a historic trail as it progresses downstream from the Roberdel Dam through remains of the many manufacturing mills which once lined the creek when water was the only source of mill power in the early history of the area.

4-H has meant so much to so many and still provides many incentives for learning and fond memories.

This book will refresh those memories. It is also a reflection of a time in the early history of Richmond County, a history which is still developing at Camp Millstone.

Tom MacCallum

Rockingham