04/27/2026
Perhaps you've seen this sign while passing through Anson County. We take great pride in being the First in Conservation! If you'd like to know more about our, district feel free to reach out to us anytime!
Hugh Hammond Bennett, born in Anson County in 1881, became the first director of the Soil Conservation Service on April 27, 1935, a position he held until his retirement in 1952. Known as "Big Hugh," he grew up in the P*e Dee River drainage basin, where he developed an early and abiding awareness of the damage caused by soil erosion.
Bennett spent 50 years with the federal Department of Agriculture, devoting his career to convincing a skeptical public and resistant policymakers that topsoil was worth saving. His prescribed remedies included terracing, contour plowing, cover and strip cropping, grassed waterways, and crop rotation. The Dust Bowl catastrophe of the mid-1930s gave his arguments a new urgency and his work a national audience. He also advised on soil conservation projects in Alaska, Brazil, Cuba, and South Africa.
In 1937, Bennett established the Brown Creek Soil Conservation District in his native Anson County, the first organization of its kind in the nation. His influence on American agricultural policy was profound and lasting. Today he is honored as the "father of soil conservation."
Marker located in Anson County, NC: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/11/hugh-hammond-bennett-1881-1960-k-55
