Big plans are in the works for the North Carolina Museum of History, currently undergoing a years-long renovation.

The Museum of History at 5 E. Edenton St., directly adjacent to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, is always a worthy visit for families, even in the midst of renovations.

Staff members tell WRAL News 80,000 students visit the museum during each school year. A visit to the museum is not something you can rush; it takes time to appreciate all that the state has lived through.

RaeLana Poteat, the museum’s chief curator, said the popular, 20,000 sq. ft. Story of North Carolina exhibit at the museum transports visitors through time, from Blackbeard the Pirate through the Civil War and beyond.

Every great story, however, needs fresh perspectives.

“This is our flagship exhibit, the Story of North Carolina,” Poteat said. “We, over time, just want to make sure that we are telling a great story of all North Carolinians and coming up with a new exhibit that people will enjoy as much as they’ve enjoyed this one.”

The Story of North Carolina experience on the museum’s first floor will accept visitors through Oct. 7, when the history museum will entirely close to the public. Digital experiences will be provided while the museum is redesigned.

In June, the “Sports Hall of Fame” exhibit on the third floor closed for renovations. Katie Edwards, curator for popular culture at the museum, said that exhibit opened when the building opened in 1993, and not much has changed.

Edwards said North Carolina sports legends like Hall of Famer Buck Leonard, one of the first baseball players in the Negro League, deserve better.

“You know, it’s quite a bit of dated technology, and we’ve run out of space,” Edwards said.

The exhibit’s trophies, banners, jerseys and uniforms were all taken down and will be safely stored until the state’s stars of yesterday are honored in a new way.

“We’re getting our thinking caps together about how we can present these artifacts, and we’re going to preserve these artifacts forever and tell their stories for future audiences,” Edwards said.

Renovations at the Museum of History won’t be completed for two to three years, staff members say.

According to the museum, the project is made possible through funding authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper.

DANVILLE, Va. – A North Carolina man is facing multiple felony charges connected to a road rage incident in Danville Tuesday, according to the Danville Police Department.

Police said at around 4 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a report of shots fired in the area of the 700 block of Halifax Road. A short time later, a victim reported that his vehicle had been shot into during a road rage incident.

Through information gathered at the scene, the suspect vehicle and driver, 28-year-old Marlowe Cobbs, of Milton, North Carolina, were identified and found in Caswell County, North Carolina.

Cobbs has been extradited back to Virginia, and was charged with the following:

• Shooting from a vehicle

• Attempted aggravated malicious wounding

• Use of a firearm in commission of a felony

• Discharging a firearm in public

• Child endangerment

• Shooting at an occupied vehicle

He’s being held in the Danville City Jail without bond.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Danville Police Department by either calling patrol at 434-799-6510 option 4, investigations at 434-799-6508 option 1, and option 1 again, calling 911, contacting Crime Stoppers at 434-793-0000, approach any officer you see, through social media, via email crimetips@danvilleva.gov, or use our crime tips app CARE at www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=818#.