COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT:

GATEWAY TO RALEIGH
Knightdale's tale of two roads and the many people who care

by Anne Woodman

Not long ago, Knightdale boasted one stoplight and out-of-the-way, small-town charm. Today, more than 10,300 residents eat, sleep, work, shop and play in this suburb east of Raleigh.

WAKE COUNTY TREASURE:

BACK TO NATURE
There's something for everyone at Historic Yates Mill County Park

by Josh Faircloth

Escape from the daily grind: That’s the slogan at Raleigh’s Historic Yates Mill County Park. It’s a clever play on words, though it still might take some convincing for some. Many are persuaded to come by to get a closer look at the old grist mill after passing by on Lake Wheeler Road, only to discover that there’s much more than meets the eye.

The A.E. Finley Center for Education and Research, an impressive new facility, welcomes visitors to the park as they shuffle in through the lobby for weekend tours. With piqued curiosity and cautious enthusiasm, they make their way into a small theater with stadium seating and a raised wooden stage. After a short, informative video, a guide leads the group toward the mill.

Bringing history to life
It’s difficult to describe, but Yates Mill has an aura about it. Nestled next to a 20-acre pond, the mill and adjacent dam make for quite a scene. With ample spots to sit and rest, the water pouring over the cut stone provides the perfect backdrop and an ideal soundtrack for a relaxing break.

While the smells of milled wheat and corn no longer float on the breeze, history is thick in the air. Built around 1756 by Samuel Pearson, the gray, clapboard-sided building predates the country’s founding. On March 2, 1863, Phares Yates — from whom the mill gets its name — purchased the mill and conducted its operation until his death in 1902. It then saw several more owners, but continued producing wheat and corn mill well into the 1950s until it finally was forced to close due to lack of business.

In 1963, N.C. State University purchased a 1,000-acre plot upon which the mill is located. The mill sat unused for decades and fell into disrepair until 1996 when Yates Mill Associates, a nonprofit group formed to preserve the site, began the long process of restoring it.

All too often, a historic building’s walls provide only the shell of its former self, and any personal connection with its life or those of the people associated with it is lost. However, Yates Mill is different. The dates and names of individuals associated with the mill are scribbled along the walls, bringing out a human history that often hides in the shadows at historic places. One picture of an old man makes a particularly strong impression, providing a face for those hard at work manning the grindstone in the early days. The man in the photo was named John Daniel Lea Sr., and he worked at the mill from 1898 until it finally closed more than a half-century later.

In 1996, after stabilizing the building’s foundations, Hurricane Fran nearly dealt Yates Mill Associates’ restoration plans — and the mill itself — a fatal blow. Water punched through much of the dam, draining the pond and severely damaging the mill. The damage eventually was repaired, and the culmination of years of hard work finally came in 2006 with the opening of the park and the new visitors center to the public. Various tours are available each month, including one tour in which staff dresses in period clothing and operates the mill and grindstone, producing cornmeal that can be purchased.

The great outdoors
Yates Mill is not the only attraction located at the park. Around the pond, miles of hiking trails provide a beautiful, serene atmosphere to exercise or simply enjoy a sunny afternoon. Fishing from the bridge, located at the far end of the pond, also is quite popular.

The park is a designated refuge that offers wildlife- and bird-watching tours, providing a place to get in touch with nature. For those who prefer leaf watching, the trees around the pond are stunning in the fall as they cast their images across the water.

After an hour-long tour — and in sharp contrast to the hustle and bustle of daily life — visitors learn that Historic Yates Mill County Park truly does offer an escape from the daily grind. The mill, its education and research center, and the park’s natural surroundings provide an increasingly valuable historic treasure while maintaining a strong, alluring relevance to our modern lives.

Josh Faircloth is a freelance writer based in Raleigh.

AHEAD OF ITS TIME
Opera: A multimedia art in a multimedia age

Roughly 400 years ago, the self-appointed guardians of culture in Italy — who called themselves the “Camarata” — came up with a novel idea: They would string together the songs of traveling minstrels with brief periods of sung dialogue to create one long, continuous story. Thus, opera was born. Given that this new creation lent itself well to theatrics, within a few years it had morphed into an even bigger concept: multimedia art.

It has taken the world 400 years to catch up to opera, but currently an interesting phenomenon is taking place. Opera is growing across the country because its time finally has arrived. It is a multimedia art in a multimedia age.

Growing expectations
How often have you found your mind briefly wandering while listening to an orchestra? In today’s world, our brains are constantly stimulated whether we realize it or not, by radio, television, billboards, the Internet and texting — and the list is growing. We have conditioned ourselves to anticipate and expect a significant amount of information. When we don’t get it, we search for it.

Enter opera, hanging around for 400 years and offering an explosion of music, singing, acting, sets, costumes, drama, passion, and pageantry. A more concentrated few hours of energy cannot be found, and audiences of all ages are tuning in because it meets their multimedia needs better than any other art form. We finally get it.

Now, the pressure is back on opera, because along with rising expectations comes rising standards. Gone are the days when a tenor could stand and sing with hardly a gesture, or when we simply could concentrate on the voices and easily believe that an obviously mismatched couple is falling in love, or that a large, older woman could pass as a 15-year-old geisha.

Fortunately, the art form has more than kept pace with technology. In fact, it is thriving because of it. Advances in staging and design have opened up a new world. Innovative directors are thinking completely outside the box, and suddenly old stories seem fresh again. Singers are spending as much time on treadmills as they are in the studios, knowing that visual values match musical values.

For example, consider two operas produced by Raleigh-based The Opera Company of North Carolina (OCNC) this season, “I Pagliacci” and “La Cenerentola.” For a company that at one time focused almost solely on grand opera in the largest halls, these two productions were staged very uniquely in the smaller Fletcher Opera Theater in order to accomplish very different goals.

The story of “I Pagliacci,” the famous sad clown of opera, focuses on a traveling troupe of performers that comes to a small town to perform in their square. In a typical production, audiences watch the drama unfold in the square from a distance. But this one was different. The floor of the orchestra pit was raised to stage level, and most of the action took place on it with the orchestra far behind. With the principal action extending into the audience and the chorus singing from side boxes and the aisles, the audience was hearing opera in surround sound. Audiences aren’t simply seeing the town square; they’re in it.

“La Cenerentola,” or Cinderella, on the other hand, was a whimsical comedy; the unique costumes and makeup were as much Disney as they were opera. The audience contained more children than the company had ever experienced, and this softened approach also removed enough barriers to entice adults to try their first opera experience.

A fresh-air experience
Next up for OCNC is another ground-breaking effort. An outdoor concert May 30 at the North Carolina Museum of Art will feature the best songs of opera and Broadway sung by local-boy-made-opera-star Lucas Meachem — last seen here in “The Barber of Seville” in 2006 — and his friends, backed by principal conductor Timothy Myers’ 45-piece orchestra.

“This is an inexpensive evening for families to introduce their children and grandchildren to great music in a casual picnic setting,” says Frank Grebowski, OCNC’s general director.

“It’s the first time we are attempting to perform outdoors, and part of our mission is to welcome everyone as comfortably as we can.”

So has opera come full circle?

“Yes and no,” Grebowski says.

“We love getting back to our roots, but technology always allows us to create new surprises,” he adds. “Wait until you see the ‘Magic Flute’ that we hope to do this coming season.”

The modern-day Camarata will be proud.

HURRICANE TRACKER

TAILGATER'S DELIGHT
The hockey playoff atmosphere in Raleigh is like no other

by Mike Sundheim

I’ll admit it. About 90 minutes before every Stanley Cup playoff game at the RBC Center, I escape for a little while.

Around the time that literally hundreds of media personnel are sitting down to enjoy the finest press meal in the National Hockey League (NHL) on the arena level of the home of the Carolina Hurricanes, the team’s two full-time media relations staffers — myself and Kyle Hanlin, manager of media relations and broadcast coordinator — step outside the building.

For us, a brief respite from the press corps that descends upon Raleigh from literally all over the world serves two purposes: One is to take advantage of one of the few times during a playoff game day — and, really, during the playoffs as a whole — when we can just take a deep breath; the other is to simply soak it all in.

Whether our advantage is based on the RBC Center’s location, which is surrounded by huge parking areas, or simply because the team’s fan base is naturally inclined to tailgate for just about anything, pre-game festivities during the regular season leave an impression on every out-of-town visitor. But in the playoffs, they are legendary.

Thousands of Carolina hockey fans break out their tents, grills, deck chairs and party coolers, filling the massive slab of asphalt in west Raleigh with one gigantic pre-game party. Smoke rising from the various gatherings carries the smells of fresh hamburgers, chicken and pit barbecue across the stadium’s parking lots. Children set up nets and play street-hockey games, while their parents blast the 25-year-old Scorpions song that’s so closely affiliated with their favorite team’s name.

Within this tailgating, visitors might spot a giant Stanley Cup replica or a group of college students sitting in an inflatable pool in bathing suits. Regardless of the set-up, it’s clear that we have something unique here in comparison to other hockey cities: a fan-created, pre-game festival that blows any of the manufactured pre-game parties created by other NHL teams out of the water.

“Any time you can find a way to mix ice hockey and tailgating, I’m all for it,” said Detroit Red Wings player Darren McCarty after seeing Caniacs gathered outside the arena four hours prior to game time for a 2002 Stanley Cup Finals game. “I mean, this place is unbelievable.”

“The biggest tailgate crowd of the playoffs jammed the parking lot, piles of pulled pork on the barbecues, beer flowing,” said Edmonton Journal hockey writer John MacKinnon after Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006.

“The Caniacs seemed to welcome a sizeable contingent of Oiler fans like long-lost cousins or something,” he added. “All in all, a charming, festive end to a wonderful NHL season … If you want to have a great time at a hockey game, Raleigh is as good a destination as just about anywhere.”

And so, this spring, as the legendary Carolina tailgaters returned to the NHL’s playoff scene, Hanlin and I again began sneaking out there for just a moment. We did it to smell the smells, see the sights, and hear the music and laughter — even to have our own special press meal: a burger or hot dog with friends in the parking lot. And to be part of a true Caniac tradition.

Mike Sundheim is director of media relations for the Carolina Hurricanes. Check out his blog on the team’s official Web site at www.carolinahurricanes.com.