Updated January 3, 2014.
January 3, 2014. Bill Holman. The Conservation Fund
(TCF) purchased the 425 acre Flyway Farms on Knotts Island
from Ogden Rogers and Mary Louise Reid in a bargain sale for
$2,400,000 on December 19, 2013. TCF plans to sell most of the
property to the US Fish & Wildlife Service to be added to the
Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge. Conservation of Flyway
Farms has been a long standing priority of USFWS and conservation
organizations.
Flyway Farms is adjacent to the 8,320 acre Mackay Island NWR . It
stretches from Back Bay across Marsh Causeway (NC State Route 615)
to the North Landing River. It is one of the last of the famous
Currituck Sound and Back Bay duck hunting clubs that is still
privately owned. Flyway Farms currently maintains open water
blinds on Back Bay and a number of blinds in the marshes.
Conservation of Flyway Farms helps protect habitat for migratory
waterfowl, wildlife and fish; helps protect water quality in Back
Bay and Currituck Sound; and provides more recreational
opportunities for the public. Back Bay and Currituck Sound are
famous for migratory waterfowl.
TCF plans to carve out the historic Flyway Lodge and barn along
with 7-12 acres and sell it to a private conservation buyer.
September 17 2010. Comment Janet Grimstead Simons: The privately owned hunting lodge was built in 1920 by Ogden R. Reid, owner and editor of The New York Herald Tribune. The lodge overlooks the Currituck Sound where it meets the North Landing River. The original lodge was destroyed by fire in 1958. Nelson Rockefeller, who was friends with Odgen Reid, sent his own architect to Knotts Island to rebuild the lodge from the original plans. The Flyway is now owned by Ogden R. Reid family of New York. Reid was publisher of the former New York Herald Tribune and the ambassador to Israel during the John F. Kennedy administration.
Russell Harvey Grimstead was caretaker and guide until his death in 1983. He was born on Knotts Island in 1924, served in the Coast Guard and Navy during World War II. He served with his brother William on the U. S. Coast Guard Cutter George M. Bibb. Following WW II, he became the caretaker and guide at the Flyway Club. Robert Halstead today serves as caretaker and the lodge is used as a vacation home by the Reid family.
January 3, 2014. On September 1, 1978 Russell Harvey Grimstead purchased for $10 1 acre of land on Rt 615 from Ogden Reid. It is .78 miles south of the NC/VA border.
October 27, 2010. ROBERT HALSTEAD obituary
May 9, 2011. Janet Simons: My cousin (Beverley Dixon Rainey) and I worked with our other cousins, Linda and Butch Grimstead, during high school holidays at Flyway Club during the early 1960's. My Uncle Harvey and Aunt Rosa were caretakers then. Beverley and I earned our first "real" money: cleaning, cooking and helping with the Reid children. Daddy took Grandma Grimstead, Aunt Frances, Beverley and I downtown Norfolk shopping. We each purchased a camel hair coat with a raccoon collar and brown high-heel shoes! We were "styling!" Beverley later also went to New York during summers to work at the Reid's home in New York.
October 8, 2012 From Jane Brumley.
These are photographs of the original building of the Flyaway
hunting club. The stable is the only original building left. The
club house burned and was rebuilt some years ago. The boathouse is
not there either. Flyaway if located north of the Knotts Island
Causeway and that area is known as Morse Point.
January 2, 2014. From Dan Banks
