Gaddy’s Geese Refuge

Since 1934, thousands of Canadian geese have been flying south to Ansonville, N.C. to spend the winter at Lockhart Gaddy’s Wild Geese Refuge.

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Gaddy was born in Anson County, and worked as a naturalist.  He planted special grains and enlarged the lake on his property in order to attract more geese as they flew South.  Gaddy died of a heart attack in 1953 as he was feeding the geese.

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The refuge was a popular attraction for tourists and school field trips, and in a pamphlet dated at or after 1972, the admission fee was listed as 75 cents for adults and 50 cents for children.  Gaddy’s refuge was later folded into the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge in 1963.