Story by Lewis C. Forrest
The New Holland, Higginsport, and Mt. Vernon Railroad
I
n 1918, the North Carolina
lake, made up almost half of
Farms
owned
the drainage district. The district
Lake Mattamuskeet in Hyde
was to remove the water from
County, North Carolina. They
the lake and reclaim its rich bed
bought the lake from New Holland
for development and to relieve
Farms, Inc. who purchased it in
flooding of neighboring farms.
1911 under its former name of
By 1916, the district built the
the Southern Land Reclamation
world’s largest capacity pumping
Company, from the State Board
plant to drain the lake, becoming
of Education.
America’s most famous pump-
Company
The private ownership of the lake coincided with the
58
supported
land
reclamation
project.
formation of the Mattamuskeet
New Holland Farms and the
Drainage District, a 100,000-
North Carolina Farms Company
acre enterprise. Mattamuskeet,
worked to develop a town called
North Carolina’s largest natural
“New Holland” adjacent to the
