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ECU Field Station for Coastal Studies at Mattamuskeet: History |
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Transportation |
Pumphouse workers pose
while waiting to unload coal delivered by train.
The New Holland, Higginsport, and Mt. Vernon Railroad There were no paved roads into Hyde County until 1927. The county received an average of 60 inches of rainfall each year, so it was not unusual for the dirt roads to be impassable. The contractors and developers transported equipment and supplies for the pumping plant and community up Outfall Canal by barge. Coal for the pumping plant was brought by barge from the train terminal in Belhaven. New Holland Farms planned a railroad from the pumping plant to connect with the Norfolk-Southern Railroad. They sold the lake before installing the railroad. Between 1919 and 1921, North Carolina Farms Company built and equipped a 35-mile private railroad from New Holland to Wenona in Washington County at a cost of $977,353. While operated by North Carolina Farms Company, the train made one scheduled round trip each day. Leaving New Holland, it stopped at Benhampton, Harrison, Higginsport, Wilbanks, Patberry, and Kirwin, before reaching its final stop at Wenona. The train hauled coal, freight, produce, and people. New Holland Corporation canceled the authority to operate as a public railroad, and used the train strictly for hauling freight and farm products for his commercial farming operation. When New Holland Corporation shut down its operation in the fall of 1932, it also ended railroad service into Hyde County. The railroad included nine miles laid directly in the lakebed. When the lake refilled, those nine miles were under water. A salvage contractor took up the tracks in 1936. All that remains is an occasional cross tie in the lakebed or the remains of a trestle crossing a canal. During the drainage years, Hyde residents
had driven across the drained lakebed to get to distant points in the county.
In the 1940s, the State of North Carolina built a causeway across the lake
from south to north to provide direct access from one side of the county
to the other. It was no longer necessary to drive around the huge lake.
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