History, Swan Quarter - NC

In the 1700s, Samuel Swann settled along the Pamlico Sound near the head of Swan Bay. Swann's Quarter was the first name given to this settlement. Beautiful Hyde County was named in honor of Edward Hyde, Governor of North Carolina and a grandson of the Earl of Clarendon.

The courts for Hyde County were held in the courthouse in Bath until 1729. In that year, an act was passed separating the precincts of Beaufort and Hyde and authorizing a courthouse to be built on the land of William Webster. In 1738 a town by the name of Woodstock was laid out on Webster's land. The courthouse at Woodstock burned about 1789, and in 1790 an act was passed moving the courthouse to Bell's Bay or Jasper's Creek.

The county seat was on Jasper's Creek during 1791-1792. A law was passed in 1791 establishing a town on the land belonging to Germain Bernard where the courthouse stands. This town was called German-town. In 1820 the old courthouse was authorized to be sold and a new one erected at Lake Landing or within two miles of it.

In 1836 commissioners were named to purchase land from Zacheriah Gibbs for a county seat, or within one-forth mile of the place called Swan Quarter, and erect a courthouse. This Northeastern North Carolina county on the Inner banks is surrounded by the Pamlico Sound, the Alligator and Pungo Rivers, and is bisected by the Intracoastal Waterway.

Known as "the land of many waters", Hyde County is also home to North Carolina's largest natural lake, Lake Mattamuskeet. Ocracoke Island, once home to the pirate Blackbeard and now a tourist Mecca, is accessible only by air or water by ferry from its county seat village Swan Quarter. A 28-car ferry connects Swan Quarter in Hyde County on the mainland with Ocracoke Island, crossing Pamlico Sound in two and a half hours.

Mattamuskeet Wildlife Refuge celebrates it?s 104th Anniversary in 2007.

In 1904, in a Message to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt took the opportunity to urge lawmakers to authorize the setting aside of certain forest reserves and public lands as game refuges for the preservation of the "bison, wapiti and other large beasts once so abundant in our woods and mountains and on our great plains, and now tending toward extinction."

By the time of his speech, Roosevelt had established just two national wildlife refuges, Pelican Island in Florida and Breton Island in Louisiana. He was just getting started. By the end of his Presidency, he had created 53 refuges, including Three Arch Rocks Refuge, the first on the West coast; the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge; and a total of seven refuges in Alaska, including protection for the Pribilof Islands that today are part of Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

In addition to Mattamuskeet, Hyde County is blessed with three other national wildlife refuges?Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes and Swan Quarter. The 104th anniversary of wildlife refuges is the perfect reason for taking the time to make a visit! For more information, visit http://www.fws.gov/northcarolina

HYDE CO.- NCGENWEB