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There were then as today efforts to get a state park at Lake Waccamaw since it was a state-owned lake. The June twenty-fifth, 1925 issue of The News Reporter featured an article, "First steps are Taken to Make Lake State Park". Besides documenting efforts underway to secure land for a park and relating the many reasons the state should own at least some land on a 9,000 acre lake it administers, the article tells of a huge heronary at the lake where there are a great number of nests of the white heron, then an endangered species.

In 1898 Frances Beers Gault came south from Minnesota to join his Uncle Charles Beers and Mr. Short in the lumber and shingle business. In 1910, at the death of his uncle, Francis Gault became the principal stockholder in the organization and reorganized it as the N.C. Lumber Company. By 1920 the new company was valued at a half million dollars.

In 1924 and 25, Mr. Gault designed and had Flemington Hall built on the hill overlooking the lake. He had the choicest lumber laid aside at his mill for a number of years in anticipation of building his own home. In most of the construction he insisted on doubling the supports and size of the timbers normally used. Even the number of cypress shingles used for the siding was doubled. Gault acted as his own contractor and actively supervised construction during the two years it took to complete the house. This home is now the offices for Boys Homes of North Carolina.

The winter of 1917 -1918 was one of the most severe in the recorded history of Lake Waccamaw. Weather records for the area indicate that the temperature dropped below freezing every night but one from December 7 to January 6, and on the majority of the mornings the temperature was recorded at below ten degrees. This extremely long period of cold days and nights was accompanied by one of the largest snow storms ever to hit Lake Waccamaw.

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