The red antique tractor sitting proudly at Sweet Valley Ranch, a 300-plus-acre farm in Fayetteville, tells a story that stretches back generations.
It belonged to the ranch owner’s grandfather, a sharecropper who worked his own land out of necessity, loaning that same tractor to neighbors when times got tough.
Today, that tractor stands as a monument to how far love can carry a family and how the value of community spans generations.
And the love at the heart of Sweet Valley Ranch starts between Fred and Anita Surgeon, the owners of the ranch, and their acres of Cumberland County countryside. What began as a USDA-licensed meat processing farm has evolved into a ranch where 350-plus animals thrive alongside thousands of visitors who discover its magic each year.
Sweet Valley Ranch offers everything from ATV adventures to haunted attractions and luxury cabin retreats, the ranch’s newest offering.
“We never imagined opening our private spaces to the public,” Anita admitted. “But when people kept asking, ‘How can we stay here?’, we realized that sharing these spaces meant sharing our family’s story.”
Newest feature
Their Farmhouse Retreats — cabins where guests can stay overnight on the property — started welcoming guests seeking connection over convenience earlier this year.
Queen’s Landing (sleeps four), Bear and Whitetail Cabins (sleep six each), and cozy Elk Cabin (sleeps five) offer guests the chance to experience farm life while surrounded by 350-plus animals, from Highland cattle to peacocks to Aldabra tortoises.
When Sweet Valley Ranch needed guest accommodations, Fred didn’t hire contractors; he bought a sawmill, used timber from their land and felled wood from a 2017 logging operation. Every beam in Queen’s Landing Log Cabin grew from the soil where guests now sleep.
“It’s named in honor of my wife,” Fred said with unmistakable adoration. The cabin represents everything their partnership has built: something beautiful, functional and rooted in the land.
The area around Queen’s Landing tells its own love story.
“I remember trying to select the area on the farm where to put Queen’s Landing, and I chose that area because there was a lot of beautiful wildflowers and overgrowth,” Fred recalls.
“This is more than just a place to sleep, it’s a place to connect,” Fred emphasized. “We want families to unplug, slow down and experience farm life comfortably while right in the middle of the action.”
But success isn’t measured in acres or attendance — it’s measured in lives touched.
“I would like to be remembered for what we did for other people, not what we have,” Fred said. “Before Anita, it was the next business deal, the next … how can I make money? But she flipped the script.”
For guest Latasha Murray, a Robeson County resident, something magical happened when she turned off Interstate 95 near Fayetteville and drove just a few miles to Sweet Valley Ranch. The city noise faded, tension melted away and suddenly, she remembered what it felt like to breathe deeply.
“I didn’t have to drive far to get everything I needed,” reflected Latasha, who recently stayed at Queen’s Landing. “I found the perfect getaway without the hassle of long-distance travel.”
Another new feature, an event space called The Sweet Spot, is coming to Sweet Valley Ranch in the spring of 2026. It will host its first event: Fred and Anita’s celebration of love.
In addition to the overnight stays, Sweet Valley Ranch offers year-round attractions that transform with the seasons. Fall brings Backwoods Terror Ranch, where the peaceful farm transforms into one of the area’s largest outdoor haunted experiences, featuring six mazes and a quarter-acre cemetery.
Guided Farm Tours are offered during other events. But for those who feel more adventurous, golf cart rentals let guests explore at their own pace, discovering hidden corners or following trails. Three stocked ponds offer world-class fishing for bass, catfish and brim, and some retreats allow casting right from the porch.
Hills & Thrills ATV adventures provide guided tours across diverse landscapes. Seasonal events include Dinosaur World, with 35-plus life-size animatronic dinosaurs, and the winter Festival of Lights, which transforms the entire property into a glittering wonderland.
Love, family and animals
The love story between Fred and Anita Surgeon began in the early 2000s, but their shared understanding runs much deeper. Both carry the soil of rural North Carolina agriculture in their blood.
Fred is from Greensboro, where his grandfather worked as a sharecropper, and Anita is from the Red Springs area, where she spent summers harvesting crops on local farms as a young girl.
“We both had an interest in helping people,” Fred explains. “We’re kindred spirits when it comes to wanting to help people.”
When they met at their job, Fred immediately knew Anita was special.
“I look at my life as ‘B.A.,’ Before Anita, and ‘A.A.,’ After Anita,” Fred said. “If you had a graph and you charted my life, you would see it’s been a complete transformation since Anita came into my life.”
After five years of marriage, they started their business venture in 2016 and opened Sweet Valley Ranch to the public in 2020.
What makes their love story remarkable isn’t just romance; it’s the way Anita embraced Fred’s wildest entrepreneurial dreams. Most wives might balk when their husbands come home wanting to buy a zebra, a camel or a 20-foot dinosaur. Anita saw the possibility.
“She was extremely supportive and encouraging of me, not just in the Sweet Valley Ranch venture, but because I’m an entrepreneur and we have other businesses,” Fred explains. “It’s not every day that you come home and tell your wife I want to buy a zebra.”
Their approach to family extends far beyond blood relations. Three employees have worked with them for 18 years; over time, more than eight family members have been part of their business operations.
Ashley, Fred’s 23-year-old daughter who lives in Texas, spends every summer at the ranch with friends.
“Anita would have one of her nieces come over, all about the same age,” Fred remembers. “All of our summers were packed with adventure.”
Anita, who never had biological children, has become “mom” to many.
And perhaps nothing captures Sweet Valley Ranch’s spirit better than the relationships between the Surgeons and their animal family.
The incredible menagerie includes quarter horses, Angus cattle, llamas, pot-bellied pigs, macaws, fainting goats, miniature horses and strutting peacocks.
One of the most unique experiences a guest can have is “Hanging with the Highlands.” This experience offers a private and up-close encounter with the gentle Highland cows.
Each animal represents the Surgeons’ conscious choice to create a place where humans reconnect with the natural world. The reptile house, Aldabra tortoise enclosure and elaborate aviary systems demonstrate a deep commitment to animal welfare and education.
Honoring the heritage
Legacy and family history live in everything the Surgeons do at Sweet Valley Ranch. Fred’s grandfather wasn’t just working the land but building a community and lending his tractor to neighbors who needed help. That spirit of mutual aid flows through Sweet Valley Ranch today, where families find affordable getaways.
“My grandfather was a sharecropper,” Fred explains. “The tractor was used not just by us, but also in the community, because we would loan it out.”
Anita’s agricultural roots run just as deep.
“My grandfather was a sharecropper too,” she shares. “We had community people who worked on chicken farms and cucumber farms. As a young girl, getting on the farm was my summer thing.”
Their shared understanding of farm life, born from necessity, not luxury, keeps them grounded. While they now welcome guests who come for recreation, they never forget that for their grandparents, farming meant survival.
“How proud our ancestors would be that this tractor is part of what we’re doing,” Fred reflects. “It can be so inspirational.”
Another way the Surgeons honor their family is through a 20-foot lighthouse replica on the property that honors Fred’s Aunt Mary, who ensured the family could travel to North Carolina’s Lost Colony and other historical sites. Like everything at Sweet Valley Ranch, it connects past to present and personal history to shared experience.
“A lot of things we do kind of look back at our family,” Fred explains. “In every decision that we have made, whether with our business or personally, we always kind of check ourselves to make sure it aligns with our beliefs.”
Looking ahead
At Sweet Valley Ranch, Fred and Anita hope every moment provides a reminder to visitors that the best adventures often lead not to distant shores but to a deeper appreciation for the beauty surrounding us daily.
“We’ve been able to touch a lot of lives,” Fred reflected. “We’ve been able to make a positive difference in a lot of lives.”
And, as Latasha discovered, sometimes the most profound experiences happen closest to home.
“There’s something to be said for being able to pack light and arrive refreshed instead of exhausted,” Latasha noted. “I could focus on relaxing instead of recovering from travel.”
At Sweet Valley Ranch, love isn’t just the foundation; it’s the daily practice that turns a working farm into a place where families reconnect and city visitors remember the peace from watching Highland cattle graze in Carolina sunshine.
This land has become a place where others find joy, rest and renewal. It’s a story that keeps growing, one guest, one animal, one act of generosity at a time.
Sweet Valley Ranch Farmhouse Retreats is now accepting reservations. Visit sweetvalleyranchnc.com or call 844-622-3276. Fall activities, including Backwoods Terror Ranch and seasonal farm tours, are available through November.
Read CityView Magazine’s “Fall in Fayetteville” September 2025 e-edition here.
