Mar/Apr 2007

Giving Dismal Its Due

The newly opened Dismal Swamp Canal Trail gives us a little more access to the region's largest natural wonder.

By Deborah R. Huso

You have probably noticed it casually—the still, nearly black waters, reflective as glass alongside Route 17 through southern Chesapeake. You may even have wondered at the dripping green hammocks of dense forest that cradle it. But how much consideration have you really given this Hampton Roads landmark—the Dismal Swap Canal?

With the opening of the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail last year, along old Route 17, the canal has garnered more local attention in recent months, playing host to a new series of visitors, including hikers, bikers, horseback riders and even participants in the annual Paddle for the Border in May. But still, the canal, the swamp that borders it, and the dime-shaped lake at its center all seem as shrouded in mystery today as they did 200 years ago.

“Communication Between the Waters”: The Canal’s Beginnings

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Dismal Swamp Canal extends 22 miles along the border of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, connecting the Chesapeake Bay with Albemarle Sound via the Elizabeth and Pasquotank rivers. Hosting some 1,700 pleasure craft a year, the canal is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, which runs all the way from Norfolk to Miami.

Before European settlers began to establish a foothold in the Hampton Roads region, the Nansemond Indians made the northwestern portion of the Great Dismal Swamp their home. In the 1600s, the first European to explore the swamp and see the mysterious shallow lake at its center was William Drummond, first royal governor of North Carolina and Lake Drummond’s namesake. Decades later, in 1728, William Byrd II was appointed to survey the swamp in an effort to settle a boundary dispute between Virginia and North Carolina. Byrd, like so many Europeans after him, was quick to refer to the swamp as a wasteland that would be put to better use if drained for agriculture.

In 1763, George Washington attempted to do just that, organizing the Dismal Swamp Land Company. Washington hoped the swamp might provide new space for agricultural endeavors, but his hopes were dashed. Nevertheless, the Dismal Swamp Land Company surveyed the swamp and started digging the numerous ditches that crisscross the swamp today, opening it to logging and other commercial ventures.

Washington never saw his investment return a profit before he sold his interest in the company in 1795. However, his company was not the first to see commercial opportunities in Great Dismal. Hugh Williamson of Edenton, N.C. wrote the future first president in 1784, stating, “I have long been satisfied of the practicability of opening communication between the waters which empty in Albemarle Sound thro’ Drummond’s Pond and the Waters of Elizabeth or Nansemond Rivers.” Thomas Jefferson, too, corresponded with Williamson in this regard, and in 1784, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company was created.

For the rest of this story, see the March/April issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.