Farewell 2020

 

Out our back window

Each November, the kids and I pick an activity their dad enjoyed and we enjoy it together to remember him. We have been thwarted this year by scheduling conflicts and Jessie's bout with flu. And, of course, the threat of COVID, which wants to limit all activities outside of Zoom. There are lots of reasons that 2020 may be remembered as the year to forget. 

One of Greg's favorite places was Lake Mattamuskeet. He'd been invited to hunt there one fall during the bird migration and never got over the beauty of it. About 10 years ago, I was able to bring the kids to see this part of the state during Jessie's first fall break from college. We enjoyed historic Halifax and Edenton. And we made Mattamuskeet a treasure hunt searching for the little Methodist Churches their Gramma Kay and her husband, Angus, had in their charge during Angus's first North Carolina assignment after seminary back in the early 1950s. When I read, this fall, about the lakefront campsites at the Osprey Nest Campground, I was drawn to make a reservation. Only Ben was free to join me, but we had a good time re-enjoying our memories and making new ones.

Methodist Church, Engelhard

Methodist Parsonage, Engelhard

Kay and Angus Cameron met in seminary in New York City. Kay was from Central New York, Angus hailed from Vass, NC. They had a church in Brooklyn for a while but Angus wanted to return home and the only charge the North Carolina church could offer him was to nurture four small congregations in Hyde County. He accepted. Kay was expecting their first child. Engelhard was an adjustment for Kay. She reminisced that she was miles from the nearest hospital with a drawbridge between her and safe delivery of her baby. Steven did arrive safely and she rode out her first hurricane with him in the clapboard parsonage. Despite the challenges, it was a fruitful time for her family and their congregations. In our 35 years of friendship, Kay has regularly mentioned continuing correspondence with friends from that time. I was sad to see that the lovely old Engelhard church was badly water damaged and for sale. The parsonage appeared abandoned. However, I also learned that the congregation had merged with the Amity Methodists just up the road. Their lovely Greek Revival building looked sturdy and well maintained. Amity was another congregation in the Camerons' charge and it felt good to see them still going strong.

Amity UMC

Hyde County is very sparsely populated and very isolated. In order to use the land, the fields are bordered by drainage ditches and canals to control flooding. It is a very poor county, largely made up of huge expanses of cropland dotted with abandoned clapboard homes and new modulars. So it was a drive through the country to find Watson's Chapel, which looks active and well kept. I couldn't stop for a picture so this one is from the Internet. The fourth church we had been unable to find on our last trip, but we found it this time. 

 

Watson's Chapel

Gull Rock is particularly isolated. The church is now named United Bethany Church and we couldn't decide if it was still in use or not.

United Bethany

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was on a dead end among a few houses that did not look lived in. 

1915 Pump house, canal side

Lake Mattamuskeet is the state's largest natural lake. It averages only 2 to 3 feet deep but covers over 40,000 acres and is an important stopping point for migratory waterfowl. Each fall, birds and birdwatchers converge on the lake but in 1915, a group of entrepreneurs built the world's largest pump house and drained the lake for farming. The pump house burned 35 tons of coal an hour and averaged 800,000 gallons of water moved per minute. In the end, the venture was not cost effective and the pump house was shut down in 1932. Until the mid 1970s it served as a hunting lodge. The steel frame of the structure has been declared unsafe and the state is beginning restoration. The area around the lake and pump house is a nature preserve and Ben and I enjoyed riding the dirt roads along the drainage canals built into the lake. 

 

Nature preserve

Pump house, lake side

We did see lots of birds but none ventured close enough for pictures. There were swans, egrets, herons, Canada geese, snow geese, and all manner of ducks and birds we did not recognize.

Shrimp boats, Swanquarter, NC

After lunch, we wandered down to Swanquarter to see the ferry and the fishing boats.

The last time we were here, Kay asked if we could find a wonderful, old Live Oak she remembered in the Gull Rock area. She said it was the largest Live Oak she had ever seen. We did find it and we found it again this visit. I have mentioned how isolated and sparsely populated Hyde County is. Other than huge fields, there just isn't much there. It's easy to imagine Hyde County being the definition of "middle of nowhere" so we were pretty amazed to find the tree and find it still standing some 50 years after Kay's last memory of it.

I was working at a community college library when we took that last trip. The computer science

Live Oak near Gull Rock, NC

instructor often dropped in to chat and he asked what I'd done over fall break. When I told him I'd taken the kids to the Edenton and Mattamuskeet areas, you can imagine my surprise when he said he'd been to Mattamuskeet fishing recently near Gull Rock and had seen the biggest Live Oak he'd ever seen. It was fun to whip out my phone and show him the picture. Suffice it to say, the old tree is still there and still magnificent. 

The old houses and churches here, a few well preserved, many abandoned, tell the long history of this part of our state and the economic booms and busts that are a part of it. I'll leave you with a few more pictures, including some of the personal memories Ben and I made here. You can click on any picture to enlarge it.