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Lake bottom 



"This means the lake is shifting or was 

 once larger than it is now," he says. 



But theories about the beginnings 

 of Lake Phelps cannot explain other 

 things that make this lake and its en- 

 virons one of the most unique biological 

 areas in the state. 



"It's amazing," says Shearin. 

 "Largemouth bass flourish in this lake, 

 but they're not supposd to. They sup- 

 posedly can't reproduce in water with a 

 pH below 6.0. But here, the water is 

 about 4.6 pH. We don't know why they 

 live here.' ' 



Then there's the Waccamaw Killi- 

 fish, a tiny fish that's found in Lake 

 Phelps— and further inland in Lake 

 Waccamaw— and nowhere else in the 

 world. 



' 'How do you explain something 

 like that?" Shearin says. "Here are two 

 disjunct populations of a particular fish 

 and no one knows how this happened." 



The most unusual thing about Lake 

 Phelps, and the feature that has given 

 the lake lots of publicity in recent 

 years, is the lake's ability to preserve 

 wood. 



Since 1985, about 30 ancient 

 dugout Indian canoes have been found 

 in the lake's sandy bottom. These 

 canoes range in age from 550 to more 

 than 4,350 years old. 



"We started finding the canoes 

 around 1985, after a fire occurred in 

 the summer of 1984 on the south side 

 of the lake," Shearin says. The fire 

 burned 95,000 acres of timber, and fire 

 fighters pumped millions of gallons of 

 water from Lake Phelps in efforts to 

 control it. 



"The water level in the lake went 

 down about eight inches," Shearin says. 



"That's when the canoes started show- 

 ing up.' ' 



David Phelps, an archaeologist at 

 East Carolina University, notes that the 

 first canoes, as well as hundreds of 

 other Indian artifacts, were discovered 

 by fishermen. Most of the items were 

 seen clearly through the lake's clear, 

 shallow waters. 



In a brochure published last year, 

 Phelps estimated that artifacts spanning 

 11,000 years have been collected by 

 fishermen and archaeologists. He says 

 the 30 Lake Phelps canoes are "the 

 largest number of canoes in the 

 Southeastern United States still in 

 association with the sites where they 

 were manufactured or used." 



Shearin says the longest canoe 

 measures about 37 feet, making it the 

 longest dugout canoe discovered in the 

 South. Nineteen of the canoes have 

 been radiocarbon dated and 16 of them 

 are more than 1,500 years old, he says. 



But why the large number of 

 canoes and how could they have been 

 preserved over centuries, some even 

 longer than the Great Pyramid of Giza 

 in Egypt? 



"This is another area that has 

 caused some speculation, but no real 

 answers," Shearin says. "The canoes 

 are made of cypress, which has a 

 natural tendency to resist decay and 

 they have been under sediments on the 

 lake bottom, which prevents oxygen 

 from reaching them." 



Another reason for the canoes' 

 longevity might be found in the makeup 

 of the water in the lake, which is 

 unpolluted and slightly acid. 



' 'Everything drains away from the 

 lake, nothing drains into it,' ' Shearin 



says. "This means the water is mostly 

 rainfall, and therefore very clean. 

 There's no pollution in it." 



Shearin says the algae and other 

 microscopic plants and animals that 

 would literally ' 'eat up' ' a wooden 

 canoe in normal freshwater lakes and 

 ponds are not present in Lake Phelps. 

 "This is another thing we can't ex- 

 plain, but these organisms just aren't 

 there,' ' he says. 



Though no one has surveyed the 

 water quality of Lake Phelps, recent 

 events may lead to more stringent con- 

 trols of the lake's waters, Shearin says. 



"We're real picky about our water 

 here," he says. "We're getting more 

 fishing here on the lake every year. The 

 fishermen are discovering Lake Phelps 

 because of polluted water elsewhere.' ' 



Hopefully, Shearin notes, the influx 

 of more fishermen will not spell doom 

 for the lake's excellent water. ' 'We want 

 to remain one of the best fishing lakes 

 in the state,' ' he says. 



James Holley believes Shearin's 

 wishes for Lake Phelps can be realized 

 if management of the land in and 

 around the park stays within the 

 public's jurisdiction. 



"One has to consider the possibili- 

 ties of development around the lake, 

 and some of that is already occurring,' ' 

 Holley says. "But the best bet for the 

 lake is public management. We'd do a 

 lot better that way. If it's done private- 

 ly, the land and the lake would most 

 likely be exploited." • 











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Photo by C.R. Edgerton 



