By far the largest land development scheme in eastern North Carolina
in modern times was First Colony Farms, which covered 376,000 acres
of land in Washington, Tyrrell, Hyde, and Dare Counties. First
Colony Farms came into being in 1973 (Hypotenuse, 1977). The Rich
family, led by Simon B. Rich, Jr., put together a land package that
was acquired by Malcolm McLean of McLean Trucking. The bulk of the
land belonged to West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, but most of
the Washington County land was acquired from Atlantic Farms. First
Colony Farms was headquartered at the former Atlantic Farms grain
elevator on Newland Road. Simon B. Rich, Jr. was named president and
an ambitious development plan was contracted from the Research
Triangle Institute with the assistance of the NC State University
School of Design. Plans included land clearing for agriculture,
cattle, hogs, forestry, wildlife habitat, and peat mining. At the
time, crop prices were favorable and a number of other less
extensive developments were also in progress. Among them was the
tract now operated as Bluestone farms.
The size of the First Colony Farm operation helped galvanize the
environmental community. Most of the First Colony land was
swampland, and a movement was afoot to have such lands protected as
wetlands. There was concern about the water quality impacts of such
large-scale development.
First Colony Farms lasted only a few years. Economic conditions,
environmental opposition, and problems with managing such a large
operation combined to fragment the project. Corporate farming ended
in 1978, and the farmland was rented to tenants. Over time, Mr.
McLean sold or traded most of the land. The last parcel, some
100,000 acres of deep muck land, was involved in a bankruptcy
proceeding and ultimately formed the bulk of the present Pocosin
Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Other First Colony land became the
Alligator River National Wildlife refuge in Tyrrell and Dare
Counties.