About Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge

Near Diamond Shoal Shrimp Company is the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, located on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula. The Refuge includes 50,000 acres of open water, marsh, forest and croplands. At the core of the refuge is Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina’s largest natural lake and a vital stopover for wintering waterfowl. More than 200,000 ducks, geese and swans come to the refuge from November through February.

About Hyde County

Hyde County is located along the Southern-most range of North Carolina’s Northern coast. The county lies adjacent to the Pamlico Sound, the largest lagoon along the North American East Coast. Several Algonquian Indian tribes originally populated Hyde County. In 1712, English settlers named the area after Lord Proprietor Edward Hyde, one of eight Englishmen King Charles II granted ownership of land in the New World called “Carolina” for remaining loyal to the Crown or had aided Charles’s restoration to the English throne. The land became Hyde County in 1739.

Europeans explored the islands and inlets of Hyde County from the sixteenth century through the seventeenth as they established colonies in the state. During the eighteenth century, the region’s port communities and sea vessels were plagued by pirate raids, including those led by Blackbeard.

Hyde County’s natural and cultural attractions include the Mattamuskeet Wildlife Refuge, the Ocracoke Lighthouse, which was built in 1823, and the Ocracoke Museum.