Great Dismal Swamp - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Great Dismal Swamp is a marshy area on the Coastal Plain Region of southeastern Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

and northeastern North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

between Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County and Camden County in the State of North Carolina. With a population of 18,683 at the 2010 census, Elizabeth City is the county seat of Pasquotank County....

in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is located in parts of southern Chesapeake

Chesapeake, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 199,184 people, 69,900 households, and 54,172 families residing in the city. The population density was 584.6 people per square mile . There were 72,672 housing units at an average density of 213.3 per square mile...

and Suffolk

Suffolk, Virginia

Suffolk is the largest city by area in Virginia, United States, and is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 84,585. Its median household income was $57,546.-History:...

in Virginia, as well as northern Gates

Gates County, North Carolina

Gates County is a small rural county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2010, the population was 12,197. Its county seat is Gatesville. It is part of the Albemarle Sound area of the Inner Banks...

, Pasquotank

Pasquotank County, North Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 40,661 people, 13,907 households, and 9,687 families residing in the county. The population density was 154 people per square mile . There were 14,289 housing units at an average density of 63 per square mile...

, and Camden

Camden County, North Carolina

-Schools:There are five schools in Camden County: Grandy Primary School, Camden Intermediate School, Camden Middle School, Camden County High School, and CamTech High School. However one other former school lies in Shiloh. It was a community school for the Shiloh area. The school is now home to a...

Counties in North Carolina. It is a southern swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

, one of many along the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

's coast including the Everglades

Everglades

The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...

and the Big Cypress Swamp in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, the Okefenokee Swamp

Okefenokee Swamp

The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000 acre , peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia–Florida border in the United States. A majority of the swamp is in Georgia and protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the Okefenokee Wilderness. The Okefenokee Swamp is considered to be...

in Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, the Congaree Swamp

Congaree National Park

Congaree National Park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. Located in South Carolina, the 26,546-acre national park received that designation in 2003 as the culmination of a grassroots campaign which had started in 1969...

and Four Holes swamps of South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, and some of the Carolina bay

Carolina Bay

Carolina bays are elliptical depressions concentrated along the Atlantic seaboard within coastal Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and northcentral Florida...

s in the Carolinas and Georgia. Along the eastern edge runs the Dismal Swamp Canal

Dismal Swamp Canal

The Dismal Swamp Canal is located along the eastern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina in the United States. It is the oldest continually operating man-made canal in the United States, opened in 1805...

, completed in 1805.

Essential to the swamp ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

are its water resources

Water resources

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....

, native vegetative

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

communities, and varied wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....

species. The Great Dismal Swamp's ecological

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

significance and its wealth of history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

and lore make it a unique wilderness

Wilderness

Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...

. It is one of the last large and wild areas remaining in the Eastern United States.

After centuries of logging

Logging

Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...

and other human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

activities which were devastating the swamp's ecosystems, the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1974 to help protect and preserve a portion of the Great Dismal Swamp, a marshy region on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina in the...

was created in 1973 when the Union Camp Corporation

Union Camp Corporation

Union Camp Corporation was an American pulp and paper company and a private owner of timberland in the United States. In 1999 it was acquired by International Paper.-Company creation:...

of Franklin, Virginia

Franklin, Virginia

Franklin is an independent city in Virginia. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Franklin with Southampton county for statistical purposes. The population was 8,582 in 2010.-History:...

donated 49,100 acres (200 km²) of land; the refuge was officially established through The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974.

The refuge

Wildlife refuge

A wildlife refuge, also called a wildlife sanctuary, may be a naturally occurring sanctuary, such as an island, that provides protection for species from hunting, predation or competition, or it may refer to a protected area, a geographic territory within which wildlife is protected...

consists of over 111,000 acres (500 km²) of forested wetlands. Lake Drummond

Lake Drummond

Lake Drummond is located at the center of the Great Dismal Swamp, a marshy region on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina in the United States. Surface area of the lake is approximately and the...

, a 3,100 acre (13 km²) natural lake

Lake

A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

, is located in the heart of the swamp. Outside the boundaries of the National Refuge, the state of North Carolina

North Carolina

has preserved and protected additional portions of the swamp, as the Great Dismal Swamp State Natural Area.

History

Scientists believe the Great Dismal Swamp was created when the continental shelf made its last big shift. The swamp consists mainly of peat and water. The origin of Lake Drummond, one of only two natural lakes in Virginia, is not entirely clear. Native American legends tell of a giant "firebird" that made a nest of fire in the swamp; the nest later filled with rain.

There is archaeological evidence that 13,000 years ago, people lived in the swamp. In 1650, there were Native Americans in the Great Dismal Swamp, but white immigrants showed little interest. In 1665, William Drummond

William Drummond (colonial governor)

William Drummond was the first colonial governor of Albemarle Sound settlement in the Province of Carolina and a participant in Bacon's Rebellion....

, the first governor of North Carolina, discovered the lake, which was subsequently named for him. In 1728, William Byrd II

William Byrd II

Colonel William Byrd II was a planter, slave-owner and author from Charles City County, Virginia. He is considered the founder of Richmond, Virginia.-Biography:...

, while leading a land survey to establish a boundary between the Virginia and North Carolina colonies, made many observations of the swamp, none of them favorable. He is credited with naming it the Dismal Swamp. In 1763, George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

visited the area, and he and others founded the Dismal Swamp Company, a venture to drain the swamp and clear it for settlement. Later the company turned to the more profitable goal of timber harvesting.

We also know that several African American maroon societies lived in the Great Dismal Swamp during early American history. These marooners consisted of runaway black slaves who were seeking safety and liberty.

The Dismal Swamp Canal

Dismal Swamp Canal

was authorized by Virginia in 1787 and by North Carolina in 1790. Construction began in 1793 and was completed in 1805. The canal, and a railroad constructed through part of the swamp in 1830, permitted timber to be harvested. The canal deteriorated after the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal

Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal

The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal was built by a corporation in 1856-1860 to afford inland navigation between the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle Sound...

was completed in 1858, but in 1929 the U. S. Government bought the Dismal Swamp Canal and began to improve it. It is now the oldest operating artificial waterway in the country. Like the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, it is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway

Intracoastal Waterway

The Intracoastal Waterway is a 3,000-mile waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Some lengths consist of natural inlets, salt-water rivers, bays, and sounds; others are artificial canals...

.

At one point the Great Dismal Swamp was home to a settlement of escaped slaves

Fugitive slave

In the history of slavery in the United States, "fugitive slaves" were slaves who had escaped from their master to travel to a place where slavery was banned or illegal. Many went to northern territories including Pennsylvania and Massachusetts until the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed...

. Its role in the history of slavery in the United States is reflected in Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...

's second novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp
Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp
Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp is the second novel from American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was first published in two volumes by Phillips, Sampson and Company in 1856. Although it enjoyed better initial sales than her previous, and more famous, novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, it was...

. A permanent exhibit of fugitive slave life will be established in the Fall of 2011 documenting recent archeological finds.

Preservation

In the mid 20th century, conservation

Conservation movement

The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....

groups from all over America began demanding that something be done to preserve what was left of the Great Dismal Swamp. In 1973, the Union Camp Corporation

Union Camp Corporation

Union Camp Corporation was an American pulp and paper company and a private owner of timberland in the United States. In 1999 it was acquired by International Paper.-Company creation:...

, a paper company based in Franklin, Virginia

Franklin, Virginia

, which had had large land holdings in the area since the beginning of the 20th century, donated just over 49,000 acres (198 km²) of its land to The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....

, which transferred the property the following year to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

was officially established by the U.S. Congress through The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974. The refuge consists of almost 107,000 acres (433 km²) of forested wetlands.

The refuge's resource management programs aim to restore and maintain the natural biological diversity that once existed in the swamp, including its water resources, native vegetation communities, and wildlife species. Water control structures in the ditches help conserve and manage water. Forest management activities which simulate the ecological effects of wildfire

Wildfire

A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

s are used to restore and maintain plant diversity. Wildlife is managed by insuring the presence of required habitats, with hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

used to balance some wildlife populations with available food supplies.

Today

The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

lies wholly within the Middle Atlantic coastal forests

Middle Atlantic coastal forests

The Middle Atlantic coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of the United States.-Setting:The Middle Atlantic coastal forests stretch along the Atlantic coast of the United States from the Delmarva Peninsula south to the Georgia coast...

ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

. It harbors a wide range of plant and animal species. Bald cypress, tupelo

Tupelo

The tupelo , black gum, or pepperidge tree, genus Nyssa , is a small genus of about 9 to 11 species of trees with alternate, simple leaves...

, maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

, Atlantic white cypress, and pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

are among the tree species found on the refuge and support the wildlife within. The swamp is home to many mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

, including black bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, bobcat

Bobcat

The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...

, otter

Otter

The Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....

, and weasel

Weasel

Weasels are mammals forming the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. They are small, active predators, long and slender with short legs....

, along with over 70 species of reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s and amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s. More than 200 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

species can be seen at the swamp throughout the year, while 96 of those are known to nest on the refuge.

Lake Drummond is the middle of activity in the swamp today with many fishermen, sightseers, and boaters. Camping is not allowed on the refuge but is allowed on the Lake Drummond Reservation (Corps of Engineers

United States Army Corps of Engineers

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...

' site) which is located at the Feeder Ditch spillway. Access to this site is by boat only.

External links

36°32′01"N 76°27′44"W

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