Swanquarter Sites

"In 1934, the United States Government bought Lake Mattamuskeet and created Mattamuskeet Migratory Bird Refuge. The purchase included all physical structures and improvements on the land, including the Pumping Station. The Mattamuskeet Drainage District ceased to exist and the lake soon refilled. Between 1935 and 1937, the government converted the Pumping Station into a hunting lodge and headquarters building for the new refuge. Company 424 of the Civilian Conservation Corps did much of the conversion work, with 17 to 23 year old 'CCC boys' working side by side with civilian contractors. The transformed building opened to the public in November...

Mattamuskeet Migratory Bird (later Wildlife) Refuge was established in 1934, primarily as a refuge for migratory birds along the Atlantic flyway.  It was one of the first refuges created under President Franklin Roosevelt, an ardent bird fancier and conservationist, and was assembled and administered by the Bureau of Biological Survey (reorganized into the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1940). The refuge is covers 50,000 acres on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula in Hyde County, North Carolina.  It encompasses Mattamuskeet Lake, the largest natural lake in North Carolina, measuring 18 miles by 7 miles, but only 2-3 feet deep. The Mattamuskeet pumping station at the...