Draining the Lake

Residents could cross the dry Lake Mattamuskeet bed on dirt roads, circa 1920.
 

First Attempts to Drain the Lake

The efforts of humankind have altered the lake from its natural state. Originally the lake was more than twice its present size. On the south side, the lake extended beyond present-day highway 264. Efforts to drain the lake to reclaim its rich bed for farming and provide drainage relief to adjacent wetlands date back to 1773. From 1825, the State Literary Board of North Carolina (forerunner of the State Board of Education) held title for swamp lands owned by the State of North Carolina, including Lake Mattamuskeet. In the 1830s, the State appropriated $8,000 to enlarge an existing ditch from the lake to Wysocking Bay in an attempt to drain the lake by gravity. They bought right-of-ways and contracted for slave labor to dig a canal called the Great Ditch. When opened, a river of water flowed from the lake, reducing its size from 120,000 to 55,000 acres. This canal is now known as Lake Landing Canal.  Hyde landowners dug other canals from the lake to the sound during the 19th century. By 1910, the lake was just under 50,000 acres. The remaining lake was below sea level, preventing further gravity drainage.

The Draining and Planting of Lake Mattamuskeet

From 1825-1911, the State Literary Board (State Board of Education) owned Lake Mattamuskeet. In 1909, the North Carolina General Assembly created the Mattamuskeet Drainage District and authorized the State Board of Education to join with landowners of Hyde County to drain 100,000 acres of wetlands, including 50,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet. The legislation dictated that a three-man Board of Drainage Commissioners would manage the affairs of the Drainage District. Soil experts rated the lakebed among the richest soil in the world, so the State expected to sell the reclaimed land for a high price and use the money for public education. 

Before any construction began on the drainage system, a group of private investors made an offer to buy the lake and assume the State's responsibility in the new Drainage District. The State Board of Education accepted the offer and sold the lake to the Southern Land Reclamation Company. This private stock company envisioned draining the lake and selling the reclaimed land as family farms, residential and commercial lots. They patterned the drainage system after the successful 1852 drainage of Haarlem Lake in Holland. 

In 1915, the private lakebed owners changed their corporate name to New Holland Farms, Inc. and incorporated all of their land as New Holland Township. The Mattamuskeet project became known as the "New Holland Project." Under a contract with the Drainage District, A. V. Will & Sons of Pittsville, Illinois came to Hyde County and dredged 130 miles of canals. The dredging cost $266,965, and included a seven-mile canal from the Pamlico Sound to the lake called "Outfall Canal." They used floating steam-powered dipper dredges to excavate the canals. 

Under a $205,000 contract with the Drainage District, Morris Machine Works of Baldwinsville, New York, built the world's largest pumping facility to pump the fresh water from the lake into Pamlico Sound. Pumping began for the first time in May 1916. Powered by four German-designed Lentz coal-fired steam engines, the eight centrifugal pumps could move 1,200,000 gallons of water per minute. However, design problems in the pumps as well as a coal embargo during World War I forced the Drainage Commissioners to shut down the pumps in 1917, permitting the lake to refill.