Prestigious archival inclusion
versus
NC Department of Cultural and Natural Resources exclusion!
…versus NC Park Service exclusion!
The book, Faces of Pilot Mountain, was banned from sale at the Pilot Mountain State Park Visitor Center on May 12, 2023 (see email below). The NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources said that the National Park Service subcontractor, Eastern National, could not sell the book on site. The park has over one million visitors per year and the purpose of the book is to inform the public of this sacred landscape.
An appeal was made based on the book being accepted into the Government & Heritage Library and the Library of Congress two years after the banning.
In addition, the offending question given at the meeting with Superintendent Jason Anthony of “are the stone faces natural or man-made?” was edited out of the book for the second edition in January of 2024. The author thought it should be up to the reader to ask that question anyway and was really a throw away line. Now that the question is out of the book it is asked at every speaking engagement for the author and he often shouts, “bingo!,” when it is asked.
The response from the NC Park Service on July 24, 2025 states their position did not change even though the book is archived for researchers now in Raleigh, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Bonifacio, Kris Anne <Krisanne.Bonifacio@ncparks.gov>
Date: Thu, Jul 24, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: Yona and I on the Randall Carlson podcast July 30, 2025
To: jackmac2013@gmail.com <jackmac2013@gmail.com>
Cc: Jimenez, Dennis G <Dennis.Jimenez@dncr.nc.gov>, Strong, Brian <brian.strong@ncparks.gov>, Capps, Katherine B <kathy.capps@ncparks.gov>, Anthony, Jason <jason.anthony@ncparks.gov>, Woodruff, Kristen <kristen.woodruff@ncparks.gov>, Estes, Eric <eric.estes@ncparks.gov>
Dear Mr. McKelvey,
Your email with the above subject line was forwarded to me, as Katie Hall no longer works for us and I am the current Public Information Officer for State Parks.
Please refer to the attached email sent to you by our Deputy Director of Administration, Eric Estes, on May 12, 2023, regarding the decision not to offer your book for sale at the Pilot Mountain State Park gift shop. Our stance has not changed, and DNCR has asked us to refer you to this email as their final decision and official comment on this matter.
Please feel free to contact me directly if you need anything else.
Sincerely,
Kris Anne Bonifacio (she/her)
Public Information Officer
State Parks Marketing and Communications
Division of Parks and Recreation
N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
mobile: 919-817-3752
office: 919-707-9369
The reason given for the book to be banned was the specific question in the first edition of the book, “are the stone faces man-made are natural?” Ironically, that idea was brought to the attention of the author with the theme table published online in PDF form. It took three months to obtain permission to publish the theme Table 1 (seen below) with Public Information Officer Katee Hall in the “Faces of Pilot Mountain: Intriguing Journey into the Deep Mysteries.” The theme table informs without any examples/footnotes that at Pilot Mountain State Park there is “Highly significant prehistoric rock art” on the mountain. In a separate PDF the definition of rock art for the NC Park Service is man-made (seen below).
[1] North Carolina State Park system wide document, Appendix D, Resource Theme Definitions, pp 93 – 96 https://files.nc.gov/ncparks/north-carolina-dpr-state-parks-systemwide-plan-2018-appendix.pdf
[2] Jane Balme and Alistair Paterson, “Archaeology in Practice: A student Guide to Archaeological Analyses,” Blackwell Publishing, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA ,9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia (2006) Jo McDonald p 60
[3] Robert G. Bednarik, “Myths About Rock Art,” Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836 August 2013, Vol. 3, No. 8, p 482-500
[4] Ben Watson, “The Eyes have it: human perception and anthropomorphic faces in the world of rock art,” Received: 4 January 2010; Accepted: 24 February 2010; Revised: 18 March 2010 Antiquity 85 (2011): pp 87–98 http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/085/ant0850087.htmp 95