The ironclad CSS Neuse laid under the waters of the Neuse River in Kinston for around 100 years before it was raised in the 1960s. It most recently had been housed in an outdoor shelter at the Governor Caswell Memorial Site before being very slowly moved a year ago June to its first climate-controlled indoor facility. This Thursday the remains of the ironclad will receive its first visitors since that move. Prior to the opening a highway marker will be unveiled at 130 S. Queen Street at 10:30 am followed by the first interpretive tours of the ship at the CSS Neuse Museum at 100 N. Queen Street. The museum itself is still under construction with completion set for mid-2014. I’m George Olsen.
George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.