|
 Mattamuskeet Lodge is
a three-story steel-framed brick and wood structure, consisting of
approximately 15,000 square feet, situated on the south shore of Lake
Mattamuskeet, North Carolina’s largest natural lake. The lake is near
the geographic center of Hyde County, North Carolina, a coastal county
on the north shore of the Pamlico Sound.
The original building
was known simply as the “Pumping Station.” It was built in 1915-1916 by
the Mattamuskeet Drainage District and when completed, was the largest
capacity pumping plant in the world. Morris Machine Works of
Baldwinsville, NY and Charlotte, NC, was the contractor for the original
building and pumps. The plant had eight cross-compound centrifugal
pumps, each with two 48-inch diameter impellers. The four 850-horsepower
engines that drove the huge pumps were powered by coal-fired steam
boilers. When the plant was operating at full capacity, it consumed
30-40 tons of coal during each 24-hour period. Between 1916 and 1932,
the pumping plant removed the water from 50,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet
three times. The last time, the pumps kept the lake drained for six
years.
In 1917, Douglas Nelson
Graves, Chairman of the Mattamuskeet Drainage Commissioners, described
the pumping plant at Lake Mattamuskeet as having “eight sixty-inch
centrifugal pumps, any one or all of which may be put into operation at
once.” Graves stated “the water pumped by this plant in twenty-four
hours would make a lake a mile long, a half-mile wide, and thirteen feet
deep.”
The design of the
building and the pumps fascinated engineers from around the world. In
1917, Engineering News described the project at Lake Mattamuskeet
as a milestone in drainage engineering, citing the efficiency inherent
in the design and operation of the Pumping Station. This highly
respected academic journal described the Mattamuskeet project as “the
greatest drainage reclamation project and the greatest drainage pumping
station” built to that point in history.
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 1937 and operated as “Mattamuskeet Lodge” until 1974.
Between 1937 and 1974,
sports writers often described Mattamuskeet Lodge as the premier hunting
lodge in the Atlantic Flyway of America and dubbed Lake Mattamuskeet the
“Canada Goose Hunting Capital of the World.” Guests who stayed at
Mattamuskeet Lodge and hunted on the refuge came from the United States,
Canada, and Europe, and included many notable dignitaries.
Names have changed over
the years, and today, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U. S.
Department of the Interior, is the government agency that manages
Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge and Mattamuskeet Lodge. In 1974,
the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service closed Mattamuskeet Lodge to public
use, and the building deteriorated with no annual maintenance until
1991, when a local grassroots group calling themselves “The Friends of
Mattamuskeet Lodge Committee” organized a community effort to repair and
preserve the historic structure.
Mattamuskeet Lodge has a unique physical structure that has been much
influenced by its past uses. The interior walls consist of finished
plaster. The exterior of the building is brick. While the exterior of
the old Pumping Station was red brick, the CCC boys coated the exterior
with a cement paint coating that has been painted white several times,
giving the exterior a white stucco appearance. The roof is of red
terra-cotta tile.
When the
building housed the huge pumps, furnaces, and steam engines, each side
was open from the ground floor to the steel truss girders. The ground
floor on the north side of the building where the pumps were installed
was about five feet lower than the ground floor on the south side that
housed the coal furnaces and boilers. When the CCC boys transformed the
old building into Mattamuskeet Lodge, they removed the old pump station
equipment and built intermediate floors in each side of the building.
Taking advantage of the difference in the original ground floor levels,
they constructed four alternating half-levels of floor space connected
by way of wide stairways. The building has several large gathering rooms
and nineteen lodging rooms. As used in recent years, there is an
environmental exhibit area, a gift shop, and office for a “Lodge
Coordinator” who has scheduled the public use of the building and
provided tours for visitors.
Another unusual feature
of the transformation from pumping station to hunting lodge was to
convert the 125-foot smoke stack that had served the coal-burning
furnaces for the steam engines into an 112-foot observation tower,
complete with a spiral staircase leading to an observation platform at
the top. The spectacular view from the top of the tower allows visitors
to see the entire seven-mile width of the lake, and about half of its
18-mile length.
Mattamuskeet Lodge
remains the property of the United States Government as part of the
Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. Because the primary mission of
the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the protection of wildlife rather
than historic preservation, the regular operating budget of Mattamuskeet
National Wildlife Refuge has not included funds for maintaining and
renovating Mattamuskeet Lodge.
In November 2000, the U.
S. Fish and Wildlife Service closed Mattamuskeet Lodge to the public due
to the continued deterioration of the structural steel that bears the
weight of the building. Mattamuskeet Lodge is a monument to (1) our
nation’s most famous land reclamation project of the first quarter of
the twentieth century, (2) contributions made by the Civilian
Conservation Corps, and (3) the rich history of hunting Canada Geese and
other migratory birds in the Atlantic Flyway.
Mattamuskeet Lodge is
not just a relic of the past for interpreting Lake Mattamuskeet history.
It is the embodiment of several generations of American dreams, spanning
several distinct periods of history, each with enough uniqueness to
warrant bold efforts to save this building from destruction:
-
1916-1934 ~ Served as
world’s largest pumping station
-
1935-1942 ~ Civilian
Conservation Corps Era
-
1937-1974 ~ Premiere
hunting lodge and headquarters for Mattamuskeet Migratory Bird Refuge
-
1974-1989 ~ Period of
non-use; building deteriorated
-
1989-1995 ~ Local
community groups began grassroots efforts to save Mattamuskeet Lodge
-
1995-2000 ~
Mattamuskeet Lodge reopens and thrives
-
November 2000 ~
Mattamuskeet Lodge closed to public use and in danger of being lost as
an
American treasure
-
December 2006 ~
Mattamuskeet Lodge deeded to the State of North Carolina by the
Federal Government. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will
be the agency to oversee the repairs and maintenance on the building.
It is hoped it will be open to the public within three years.
For more information on
this piece of America’s history, visit the following website:
Mattamuskeet Lodge is
one of 29 historic and cultural sites on the
Historic Albemarle Tour.
Click here for
more information about the Historic Albemarle Tour, North Carolina's
oldest driving tour.
|
