Lake Mattamuskeet is the largest natural

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. It is a shallow coastal lake, averaging 2–3 ft (0.61–0.91 m) feet in depth, and stretches long and wide. Lake Mattamuskeet lies on the

Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula is a large peninsula (about 3,200 square miles) on the North Carolina coast, lying between the Albemarle Sound to the north and the Pamlico Sound to the south. The 5 counties of Dare, Hyde, Beaufort, Tyrrell, and Wa ...

. Lake Mattamuskeet is the location of

Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge The Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is a federally protected wildlife refuge located within Hyde County, North Carolina, United States. North Carolina's largest natural lake, Lake Mattamuskeet, is located entirely within the National Wil ...

. This refuge as well as surrounding public and private lands in eastern North Carolina are a major wintering site for waterfowl including ducks like

northern pintail The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic Range (biology), distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is bird migration, migratory an ...

and green-wing teal, geese like

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), sometimes called Canadian goose, is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North ...

and

tundra swan The tundra swan (''Cygnus columbianus'') is a small swan of the Holarctic. The two taxa within it are usually regarded as conspecific, but are also sometimes split into two species: Bewick's swan (''Cygnus bewickii'') of the Palaearctic and the w ...

Gallery

File:Forsters Tern Fishing.jpg,

Forster's tern Forster's tern (''Sterna forsteri'') is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name ''Sterna'' is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and ''forsteri'' commemorates the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. It breeds inland in North America ...

fishing on Lake Mattamuskeet File:SwampSparrow.jpg,

Swamp sparrow The swamp sparrow (''Melospiza georgiana'') is a medium-sized New World sparrow related to the song sparrow. Description left, In Quebec, Canada Measurements: * Length: 4.7–5.9 in (12–15 cm) * Weight: 0.5–0.8 oz (15–23 g) * Win ...

at Lake Mattamuskeet

New Holland

New Holland is a community in

Hyde County, North Carolina Hyde County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,589, making it the second-least populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Swan Quarter. The county was created in 17 ...

, located along the southern shore of Lake Mattamuskeet. Between 1911 and 1934, three private investment companies partnered with the public Mattamuskeet Drainage District to build the world's largest capacity pumping plant and dredge of large navigable canals to drain Lake Mattamuskeet for residential, commercial, and agricultural development. The lake drainage project also gave badly needed drainage relief to about 550 farmers around the lake whose farms drained by gravity into the huge lakebed. The investors created a community within the reclaimed lakebed and named it "New Holland," after similar land reclamation projects in the Netherlands. The drainage project ended when the third private owner sold the lake property to the United States government in 1934 to allow the creation of a migratory bird refuge. Today, Lake Mattamuskeet and the old town site of New Holland are on Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. The community on the south central side of Lake Mattamuskeet is still called "New Holland Community."

References

External links

The Mattamuskeet Foundation, Inc. - History of Lake Mattamuskeet
* ttps://www.fws.gov/refuge/mattamuskeet/ Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge - North Carolina - FWSbr>Lake Mattamuskeet, New Holland and Hyde County on the Open Library
Mattamuskeet Bodies of water of Hyde County, North Carolina {{HydeCountyNC-geo-stub