The Great Dismal Swamp

Devil’s Walkingstick

The Great Dismal swamp sits on the Virginia-North Carolina border, surrounded by miles and miles of farmland on all sides. There is some sense of wonder as to how this 111,000 acres of swampland didn’t suffer the same fate as its surroundings. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as developers, like George Washington, carved deep canals through the swamp in an attempt to drain it and provide transportation routes. Canals that still run through the swamp today, one of which even remains in use, connecting the Albemarle Sound to the Chesapeake Bay.

The Dismal Swamp survived, not because it was a beautiful place that prescient minds wanted to preserve, which it is today, but because it was indomitable. The swamp could not be converted to farmland, so thick was its foliage and untamable its wetlands. Robert Frost came to the swamp to commit suicide by getting lost and starving to death, but was rescued by hunters who found him. The swamp served as a refuge for slaves before and during the Civil War, as few would brave the inhospitable place.

The Dismal Swamp serves as a natural monument to the fact that sometimes nature preserves itself.