Lolligag Adventures: The Great Dismal Swamp History Lesson

The Great Dismal Swamp is a marshy area between Norfolk, Virginia and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It is a southern swamp like many along the Atlantic Ocean’s coast which include the Everglades, Big Cypress Swamp and Okefenokee Swamp. Because the GDS is such a cool place, the crew of the Lolligag (me) thinks it deserves a history lesson before we take you into the swamp canal. Essential to the swamp ecosystem are its water resources, native vegetation and varied wildlife. The Great Dismal Swamp's ecological significance and its wealth of history and lore make it extremely unique. It is one of the last large and wild areas remaining in the Eastern United States.

After centuries of logging and other activities which were devastating the swamp's ecosystems, the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was officially established by the US Congress through The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974. The refuge consists of over 111,000 acres of forested wetlands. Lake Drummond, a 3,100 acre natural lake, is located in the heart of the swamp. Outside the boundaries of the National Refuge, the state of North Carolina has preserved and protected additional portions of the swamp, as the Great Dismal Swamp State Nature Area. The whole swamp has a peat bog lying just under the surface.

There is archaeological evidence which indicates human occupation began nearly 13,000 years ago. Some scientists believe the Great Dismal Swamp was created when the Continental Shelf made its last big shift. The origin of Lake Drummond, one of only two natural lakes in Virginia, is disputed.

Other scientists believe the lake could have been created by the impact of a meteoroid because it is oval shaped. They think it was made by a big meteoroid like the ones that are thought to have made the Carolina Bays. Other people believe it was made by a large underground peat burn about 3,500 to 6,000 years ago. Indian legend talks about "the fire bird" creating Lake Drummond.

By 1650, few American Indians remained in the area and European settlers showed little interest in the swamp. In 1665, William Drummond, a future governor of North Carolina, was the first European to explore the lake which now bears his name. A surveying party entered the swamp to draw a dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728.

George Washington visited the swamp and then formed the Dismal Swamp Land Company in 1763, which proceeded to drain and harvest timber from part of the area. A five-mile ditch on the west side of the current refuge there still bears his name. In 1805, the Dismal Swamp Canal began serving as a commercial waterway for timber from the swamp.

Painting: Fugitive Slaves in the Dismal Swamp, Virginia by David Edward Cronin 1888

Before and during the Civil War, the Great Dismal Swamp was a hideout for runaway slaves. Some people believe there were at least a thousand slaves living in the swamp at one time. This was the subject of Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, Harriet Beecher Stowe's follow-on to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

While all efforts to drain the swamp ultimately failed, logging of the swamp proved to be a successful commercial activity. Regular logging operations continued as late as 1976. The entire swamp has been logged at least once, and many areas have been burned by periodic wildfires. The Great Dismal Swamp has been drastically altered by humanity over the past two centuries. Agricultural, commercial, and residential development destroyed much of the swamp, so that the remaining portion within and around the refuge represents less than half of the original size of the swamp. A drier swamp and the suppression of wildfires, which once cleared the land for seed germination, created ecological conditions that were less favorable to the survival of cypress stands. As a result, plant and animal variety decreased.

In the mid 20th century, conservation 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, a paper company which had had large land property in the area since the beginning of the 20th century, donated just over 49,000 acres of its land to The Nature Conservancy (way to go Chuck!) which transferred the property the following year to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The primary purpose of the refuge's resource management programs is to restore and maintain the natural biological diversity that existed prior to the human-caused alterations. Water is being conserved and managed by placing water control structures in the ditches. Plant community diversity is being restored and maintained through forest management activities which simulate the ecological effects of wildfires. Wildlife is managed by insuring the presence of required habitats, with hunting used to balance some wildlife populations with available food supplies. Many species including black bear, bobcat, otter, and weasel, along with over 70 species of reptiles and amphibians call the swamp home. More than 200 bird species can also be seen at the swamp throughout the year.