"Fifty years ago, on Oct. 2, 1961, the battleship USS North Carolina, prodded by a flotilla of tugboats, slowly made its way up the river to its new, permanent berth opposite downtown Wilmington.

More than 125,000 people turned out to watch the sight.

“It was awesome,” recalled Susan Taylor Block, who was 10 years old at the time. “Just the bigness of it was breathtaking.”

“It was huge,” said Tom Jones. “Of course, when you're a kid, I guess everything looks huge.”...

The battleship survived to become one of North Carolina's foremost tourist attractions and a fixture on the Wilmington riverfront. More than 10 million visitors have paid to board the ship in the past half-century, said Kim Robinson Sincox, director of museum services for the Battleship North Carolina Memorial.

Now a floating museum and war memorial, the battleship will mark the 50th anniversary of its arrival with a day of celebrations, re-enactments, concerts and other activities. To help mark the occasion, it will revert to its 1961 admission prices for the day: 50 cents for adults, 25 cents for children."

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Star News Online (10/1/2011)