The Dismal Swamp Canal

Straddling the North Carolina-Virginia border far to the east of Interstate 95 is a “vast body of dirt and nastiness”—at least as described by the sardonic William Byrd in 1728. But Byrd was biased. He was angry because he had the job of surveying the dividing line between North Carolina and Virginia which ran directly through this “vast body” of wilderness, also known as the Great Dismal Swamp. It must have been a brutish, nasty and biasing job.

The Swamp is indeed big, about 600 square miles—but in Colonial times the Swamp was much bigger, probably over 2,000 square miles. In the heart of the Swamp are the dark, shallow, tannin-stained waters of Lake Drummond—a 3,000 acre natural lake “discovered” by the first governor of North Carolina, William Drummond, in 1665. The Swamp’s western edge is defined by the Nansemond Escarpment—a plateau which marks the original and ancient coastline of this area. The eastern edge of the Swamp is marked by Highway 17 and a 22 mile long man-made ditch known as the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Since 1805, this canal has connected the Chesapeake Bay with the Albemarle Sound. It is the oldest continually operating canal in the United States. William Byrd, the surveyor of the dividing line between North Carolina and Virginia, was the first to muse about draining the Dismal Swamp and building a canal through the swamp to connect the Chesapeake and the Albemarle. Years later the young entrepreneur George Washington became interested in the project.

Washington toured and surveyed the swamp several times beginning in 1763, and he formed a company to undertake the projects. Although the company ultimately folded, it did successfully complete one drainage project— the “Washington Ditch,” which runs northwest from Lake Drummond to the Nansemond Escarpment. This ditch still exists today. Talk of the canal began again in 1784 and counted Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Patrick Henry among its supporters.

The Virginia legislature passed supporting legislation in 1790. The actual digging began in 1793. As can be imagined, the work moved slowly. The canal was dug entirely by hand, mostly with slave-labor, in trying conditions.

Money was tight and labor always in seeming short supply. The

digging began at both ends of the proposed canal—the Pasquotank River on the southern end and the Deep Creek tributary of the Elizabeth River on the northern end. The ditches were finally joined in 1805 but long stretches of the canal had not been dug to the required depth and width—the canal was described as “little more than a muddy ditch.” It was also realized that the canal would need to be filled with water from Lake Drummond, so a three and a half mile long “Feeder Ditch” was dug in 1812 connecting the two. A series of locks were also built and deepening of the canal continued. Finally, on June 11, 1814 the first ship completed the passage from the Albemarle to the Chesapeake along the Dismal Swamp Canal.

It was the first of many. The Canal was a huge success from 1814 until the Civil War years. The British had blockaded the mouth of Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812 proving the value of a protected intercoastal waterway to continued shipping in times of war. And the Canal was convenient and well-maintained.

Commercial traffic—and so toll receipts—grew spectacularly in the first half of the 19th century. And a distinctive social life developed for Canal travelers. Next to the Canal, straddling the North Carolina-Virginia border, an impressive hotel was built in 1829, first known as the Lake Drummond Hotel and later as the Half-Way House. Because of its location (i.e., not easily accessible and close to the limits of each state’s legal jurisdiction), the Half-Way House became a popular destination for gambling, duels, elopements and trysts.

One legend reports that Edgar Allen Poe wrote his ominous poem, “The Raven,” while a guest at the Half-Way House. The Canal’s very success led, however, to its undoing. In 1859, a new canal, the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, was opened that also connected the Chesapeake and the Albemarle. Because this canal was shorter and had fewer locks, it began to siphon off customers of the Dismal Swamp Canal.

And the outbreak of the Civil War made the Canal a strategic target for both sides. In the spring of 1862, after defeating the Confederate’s small naval flotilla and occupying Elizabeth City, Federal troops turned their attention to the Dismal Swamp Canal—to either capture or destroy the canal’s locks located at South Mill. The Union generals were concerned that the Confederacy might use the Canal to send Virginia ironclads down to the North Carolina waterways. So the Federals marched on South Mill with two thousand men.

The Confederates had only several hundred men but they were entrenched in defensive earthworks and repulsed the Federals in a five hour battle marked by several frontal assaults and use of “roasted ditch” defense. The Canal remained in Confederate hands for a time, only to fall when the Federals captured Norfolk. After the Civil War the Dismal Swamp Canal fell into major disrepair and the bulk of commercial traffic shifted to the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. Private investors funded some major improvements for the Canal in the late 1890s, resulting in a modest return to prosperity at the turn of the century.

But this recovery was short-lived. In 1911 the federal government purchased the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, making it both federally maintained and toll-free—and ending the Dismal Swamp Canal’s practical competitiveness. The federal government finally bought the Dismal Swamp Canal in 1929. The Canal is presently operated and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, and is still used by pleasure boaters headed to the Albemarle from Chesapeake Bay.

Because conditions of the canal may vary, before proceeding boaters should always call the Army Corps of Engineers at the Deep Creek Lock for canal status and lock schedule. Sites to visit: The site of the Battle at South Mills, with the “roasted” ditch still visible, is about three miles south of South Mills on Highway 343, near the intersection with Sawyers Lane. The canal locks are also still visible at the Canal in South Mills. If you have a boat you can travel up the Feeder Ditch at Arbuckle Landing several miles to reach Lake Drummond—ask about this trip at the Visitor Center.

The site of the Half-Way House is on Highway 17 at the Virginia border. The Washington Ditch is accessible on the western edge of the Swamp in Virginia off White Marsh Road (Highway 642). For more information: • Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor Center (three miles south of the Virginia border), 2356 U.S. Highway 17 North, South Mills, N.C. 27976 (telephone: (919) 771-8333; e-mail address: dscwelcome@coastalguide.com 142 • Alexander Crosby Brown, The Dismal Swamp Canal (Norfolk County Historical Society, 1970) • Bland Simpson, The Great Dismal (UNC Press, 1990) • Thomas Moore, The Lake of the Dismal Swamp (1803)(a melancholy poem about searching for a maid who paddles her white canoe at night on Lake Drummond by the light of her firefly lamp). • For more details on the “roasted ditch” defense and other Civil War skirmishes in this area, read Clint Johnson, Touring the Carolinas’ Civil War Sites (John F.

Blair, 1996).