ASHEVILLE — A cannon ball, window glass and gold dust from the wreck of Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR) will be on exhibit at the Cultural Resources Western Office from May 31 to July 13. State and local officials will attend the May 31 ribbon cutting before the public opening on June 1. It is the first stop on a statewide tour of Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, 1718, and is a part of the statewide kick-off of the 2013 summer dive season at the shipwreck in Beaufort. Entry to the traveling exhibit is free.

There will be artifacts shown that represent weaponry, nautical tools and personal items. The Saturday opening will also offer great family fun. Kids can make pirate hats, swords and Jolly Rogers. The Tar Heel Junior Historians from Vance Birthplace State Historic Site will assist with games such as pirate dominoes or pirate bingo.

In addition to regular hours of Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the Western Office will offer special Saturday hours on June 1, and also on June 8 and July 13, as part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources 2nd Saturdays program, a statewide initiative to highlight free family fun this summer at historic sites and museums across the state.

The artifacts are on loan from the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, the official repository for artifacts from the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck. On the morning of May 31, the coastal museum will host an online streaming program of demonstrations and presentations when students in grades four through eight can email questions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or submit them online to www.qaronline.org/ask.

Pirate education will abound from the mountains to the coast. Several cannons will be raised during the dive. While archaeologists and researchers recover objects from the sunken pirate ship at the coast, westerners can enjoy some of the conserved prizes last touched by pirates.

The exhibit will travel to the N.C. Transportation Museum through Aug. 31, Historic Edenton through Oct. 19 and Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum through Dec. 7. Additional sites are planned in 2014.

The Underwater Archaeology Branch leads research on the shipwreck. The QAR ran aground near Beaufort in 1718. This wreck was located in November 1996 by Intersal, Inc., with information provided to Operations Director Mike Daniel by company President Phil Masters.