Great Dismal Swamp Is a Quiet Virginia Refuge

The Great Dismal Swamp is at its best in early morning before the wind rises and the mosquitoes stir.

It’s so quiet that the slightest sound--a sudden shower of dead leaves fluttering to the ground, the whirring call of an owl, the faint gurgle of water from Washington’s Ditch--makes you snap to attention.

You keep an eye out for snakes, but you don’t have to worry. They won’t be on the road until evening, and if you’re tramping through the swamp you will make enough noise to frighten them away.

Walk 3 1/2 miles from the gate that guards the refuge from unauthorized vehicles and find its heart, Lake Drummond, an irregular circle of still, silent, mahogany-colored water. Seven streams flow from this shallow lake, which is rimmed with trees.

A duck glides a few feet above the lake’s surface, then splashes in, feet first, setting off ripples that break the stillness. There it rests, its long neck extended, its head swiveling to survey its domain.

As you explore the Great Dismal Swamp, you quickly realize that the duck is more at home here than you could ever be.

The Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge covers 106,000 acres in Suffolk and Chesapeake counties here in Virginia and in Gates, Camden and Pasquotank counties in North Carolina.

More Peat Bog

Since 1974 it has been under the control of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Part of the swamp in North Carolina is a state park.

Great Dismal is more a peat bog than a swamp, not nearly as watery. It has roads, trails and waterways, so you don’t have to slog through stagnant water and muck to explore it. But most of its land is heavily forested and its soggy ground is home to snakes, ticks, yellow flies and bears.

William Drummond, the Colonial governor of North Carolina from 1663 to 1667 and the discoverer of the lake that bears his name, went into the swamp with a hunting party. He was the only one who emerged alive. No one knows what happened to the other men.

Col. William Byrd II, who helped survey the swamp in 1728, found it a nasty place. He often gets the credit for dubbing it “Dismal,” but records have shown that the name was used at least a year or two before Byrd went into the swamp. Others say Dismal came from the Indian name for the swamp.

If you had visited the area during the Ice Age, you would have found ocean-front property. If you dig in the swamp you might uncover a seashell. And if you submerge yourself in the shallow waters of Lake Drummond you will find white beach sand on the bottom.

The swamp isn’t on low ground, it’s on a slope. And Lake Drummond isn’t at the swamp’s lowest point but at one of its highest. And most of the streams that cross the swamp flow out of it, not into it.

It’s a Mystery

It’s a mystery, but then the swamp is a mysterious place, home to eerie legends and tall tales. Take the story of the phoenix, the firebird that Indians believed once inhabited the swamp.

The basin that is Lake Drummond was formed, so goes the legend, when a baby phoenix fell from its nest and set the land on fire.

Here the earth burns. Peat covers the swamp at depths ranging from a few inches to 20 feet. It began forming thousands of years ago, and its presence makes the swamp vulnerable to fire.

In 1923 the swamp caught fire and burned for three years. In 1974 a peat fire destroyed several hundred acres of swamp. Another year, five peat fires burned at once. Lightning can set the earth afire.

To protect the swamp against fire and drought, the Fish and Wildlife Service has installed water controls that enable the staff to hold water back from portions of the swamp and to flood other sections. But man didn’t always have such a protective attitude toward the swamp.

George Washington, who visited the swamp in 1763 and found it “a glorious paradise,” nevertheless wanted to drain it and dig a canal through it to connect Chesapeake Bay and Albermarle Sound.

He formed two companies--Dismal Swamp Land Co. and Adventurers for Draining the Great Dismal Swamp.

Better Politician

His first achievement was Washington’s Ditch, a five-mile canal stretching from the edge of the swamp to Lake Drummond. It is believed to be the oldest man-made waterway in North America.

Washington was a better politician than surveyor. Those digging the ditch had to make a 90-degree turn near its end, or they would have missed the lake. Washington failed as a swamp farmer, finding that peat wasn’t suitable for growing cotton and rice.

The interstate canal Washington had talked about was eventually dug and opened in 1805, six years after Washington’s death.

Much of the swampland eventually came under the control of Camp Manufacturing Co., a predecessor of Union Camp Corp.

Union Camp donated the land, valued at about $12 million, to the U.S. Department of the Interior through the Nature Conservancy in 1973. It was at that time the largest single land donation made to the government for wildlife refuge.

Between Washington’s day and the early 1970s, nobody thought much about saving the swamp. Much of the land was drained and developed, shrinking the swamp to less than a third its original size. Stands of virgin timber were destroyed. Logging continued until the day the Nature Conservancy took over the swamp.

At one point, plans were made for concession stands and amusement-park boat rides for the swamp. Some talked about building a huge airport to serve Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.

The swamp is safe from development now. No one lives in the refuge, which once offered a hiding place for runaway slaves and other fugitives. No one is allowed to camp or build fires here. Permits are required to drive a motor vehicle along its roads. There are no bathrooms, candy machines or water fountains here. This is a wild area.

Best Times to Visit

If you want to go into the refuge, you must walk or ride a bicycle. Hours are sunup to sundown, seven days a week. If you want to see the animals that inhabit the swamp, go early in the morning or late in the evening. They disappear into the woods for most of the day.

Spring is the best time to visit the swamp, before the bugs take over and before the migratory birds that winter here head for home.

More than 200 species of bird have been seen in the swamp, including the bald eagle. Seeing an eagle, said Martin C. Kaehny, the swamp’s acting project leader, thrills most visitors. He never tires of watching the eagles soar.

In spring the black bears emerge from their dens and roam the swamp, just 20 miles from the city of Norfolk.

Although visitors are wary of the big creatures--the biggest bear trapped and tagged on the refuge weighed 435 pounds--they hope to catch a glimpse of one. If they do, it will be fleeting.

“They’re not like Smoky Mountain bears,” Kaehny said. “They’re quite wild. As soon as they realize you’re human, they’re gone.”

The swamp is home to beavers, muskrats, minks, river otters, bobcats, whitetail deer and a variety of bats. It also harbors cottonmouths, copperheads and canebrake rattlesnakes.

Some plants grow at their southernmost range, others at their northernmost range. The swamp gets a little more rain than the surrounding area, and its growing season is said to be a little longer. The Dismal Swamp fern that has evolved little since prehistoric days grows nowhere else in the world.

Abloom With Wildflowers

In spring the swamp is abloom with wildflowers, including dwarf trilliums, trumpet vines, coral honeysuckle and yellow jasmine.

All year the floor of the forest is a tangled thicket of greenbrier, catbrier, brier berry, swamp blackberry, rattanvine, crossvine, wild grape, gall-berry, fetterbush, myrtle, switch cane and alder.

Bears love the berries of the devil’s walking cane, one of the swamp’s nastiest plants. The plant, which can grow to 40 feet, is covered with sharp spines.

Red maple, black gum, yellow poplar and bald cypress trees flourish. The bald cypress, with its tall, straight trunk, was a favorite tree for ships’ masts in Colonial times.

In the wetter parts of the swamp, the cypress flares out at the bottom to anchor itself to the ground. Peat offers little support; when it gets wet and the wind blows, trees fall over.

If you can’t visit the swamp in the spring, fall will do. Imagine the calm waters of tree-rimmed Lake Drummond reflecting the flame and gold leaves against an October sky.

Avoid visiting in summer. Ticks and chiggers lurk in the undergrowth. Mosquitoes swarm. The yellow flies are worse. When they bite, they take big chunks and the wound swells.

If the weather is hot in the area, it will seem hotter in the swamp where the water in the ditches creates high humidity. Much of the time, a mist clings to the swamp.

On this day the mist disperses as the sun climbs higher. A heron soars above the stretch of road that leads to Lake Drummond, then dips to glide through the corridor formed by trees along the road. A woodpecker announces its presence with a staccato burst of sound.

At the outer edge of the swamp a group of seventh- and eighth-graders follow a guide down a wooden walkway that stretches three-quarters of a mile through the swamp. The guide points out various plants and trees and explains what makes this area unique.

Limited Accommodations

The swamp’s entrance is closest to Suffolk. Accommodations are limited.

The Holiday Inn, 2864 Pruden Blvd., and the Econo-Lodge, 1017 N. Main St., provide pleasant lodging. Room rates at the Holiday Inn are $43 to $57 for a double room; at the Econo Lodge, $34.95 for a double.

Fishing and hiking year-round at Davis Lakes and Campground, 200 Byrd St. Full camper hookups--water, electric and sewer--run $14 a night.

Locals enjoy country cooking at Bunny’s restaurant, 1901 Wilroy Road. You can’t spend more than $6.95 for an entree and you can eat a full meal for as little as $3.50.

Try the boiled dinners, fried chicken or barbecued spareribs and, if you’re adventurous, the pigs’ feet. Veggies? Choose from as many as 15 offerings, including yams, black-eyed peas and stewed tomatoes. For good prime rib ($9.95) there’s George’s Steak House, 1260 Holland Road.

Just 20 miles from the swamp, the bright lights of Norfolk beckon. The city is 20 miles from Virginia Beach and 45 miles from the historic cities of Williamsburg and Jamestown. Norfolk lies on the edge of one of the world’s largest natural harbors and is home to the world’s largest naval base.

Places in Norfolk

If you make Norfolk your base for a trip to the swamp, here are some suggestions for lodging and meals:

The Omni International Hotel, 777 Waterfront Drive, (804) 622-6664, overlooks the waterfront. Double rooms cost $81 to $141 a night.

The elegantly refurbished Hotel Madison, at Granby and Freemason streets, (804) 622-6682, was built in 1905 and restored four years ago in Colonial style. Double rooms cost $85 in high season, March 1-Nov. 30.

Bed and Breakfasts of Tidewater, Va., phone (804) 627-1983 or (804) 627-9409, lists B&B; establishments in Norfolk and nearby Portsmouth. Rooms, including those in the charming Victorian homes of Norfolk’s Ghent section, cost $35 to $55 for a double.

Seafood is a specialty in Tidewater, and you can’t go wrong with steamed crab and shrimp from Phillips Waterside at 333 Waterfront Drive. Entrees are $7.95 to $24.95. Also try the $14.95 seafood buffet at Fisherman’s Wharf Seafood, 14 Ivy Home Road in nearby Hampton.

Or, as residents have done for more than 20 years, take a break from seafood and try the Greek, Italian and charcoal-broiled specialties from $2.75 to $6.25 at the Orapax Inn, 1300 Redgate Ave.

For more information, contact Great Dismal Swamp, 3100 Desert Road, Suffolk, Va. 23494, (804) 986-3705, or the Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau, Monticello Arcade, 208 E. Plume St., Norfolk, Va. 23510.