Durham, North Carolina in Profile

Known as "Bull City" - because of the famous tobacco, and the equally famous minor league baseball team - or the "City of Medicine," Durham, North Carolina is the city of an eponymous county and home to roughly 229,000 people. It occupies an achingly beautiful location almost exactly halfway between the Great Smoky Mountains and the beaches of the Atlantic, and grew out of a railroad refueling depot created in 1853. The city is home to Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and a campus of the Research Triangle.
The sobriquet "Bull City" was affixed to Durham in the late 19th century when Blackwell Tobacco Company - inspired by, of all things, a brand of English mustard - named its signature product "Bull Durham Tobacco." By the time James B. Duke of the American Tobacco Company purchased the Blackwell Tobacco Company in 1898, Bull Durham was the most famous trademark in the world.
Tobacco and textiles brought prosperity to the "Bull City" in the early 20th century, even though both of those industries faltered with the Depression and (in the case of tobacco) changes in consumer preferences beginning in the late 20th century. The advent of the Research Triangle in the 1950s brought in its train a number of high-tech applications.
A recent survey placed eight Durham-based companies to an annual list of "'Best Places to Work in the Triangle" - Bronto Software, Alston & Bird, BioAgilytix Labs, NetApp, EMC Corporation, Clarkson Consulting, Evoapp Inc., and Relevance Inc.
Durham is home to one of the largest farmer's markets in the region. The Durham Farmers' Market recently finished in eleventh place nation-wide (from a field of more than 7,000) in a survey of Large Markets. A typical weekend Farmer's Market in Durham will offer such fresh fruit selections as Grapes, Apples, Pears, Figs, Table Grapes, Watermelon, Cantelope, and Peaches. Veggie offerings may include Greens, Arugula, Beans, Longbeans, Beets, Butterbeans, Carrots, Cherry Tomatoes, Corn, Collards, Cucumbers, Dandelion Greens, Edamame, Eggplant, Garlic, Herbs, Kale, Lettuce, Okra, Onions, Pea Shoots, Peppers, Potatoes, Purple Hull Peas, Pumpkins, Salad Mix, Shiitake Mushrooms, Swiss Chard, Summer Squash, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Winter Squash, and Zucchini. Beef, Bison, Chicken, Duck, Goat, Lamb, and Pork are available for barbeques. Other delectable offerings include Chicken and Duck Eggs, Pecans, Wines, Fresh and Aged Cheeses, Baked Goods, Pasta, Beer, Wine, Jams, Jellies, Pickles, and Preserves.
Thanks in no small measure to the 1988 film "Bull Durham," featuring Kevin Costner at his most charismatic and Susan Sarandon at her most pneumatic, the Durham Bulls at the most famous team in minor league baseball. The Durham Bulls Athletic Park, modeled after Baltimore's Camden Yards and nestled in a bustling downtown district, attracts an average of 7,000 attendees per game. The Park was selected as the site of the 2012 National Championship Game to be held Thursday, September 20th, 2012. That event, which was held in Oklahoma City from 2006 to 2010 and in Albuquerque in 2011, is expected to bring more than 10,000 visitors and representatives of 30 baseball teams to Durham over the two day span of the event.