In 1784, then-Gov. Patrick Henry of 

 Virginia proposed a canal, and that same year, 

 the Dismal Swamp Canal Company was 

 created. Digging progressed slowly because 

 work had to be done with hand shovels. 



By 1796, the costs of building the canal 

 had far exceeded the projected estimates, 

 prompting the company to stop work and begin 

 a road to connect the two canal sections. The 

 road was completed in 1802. 



nal Commerce 



Three years later, the full canal opened, 

 Walter says. 



Because the waterway was so shallow, it 

 was limited to flat boats and log rafts that were 

 manually poled or towed. Shipments consisted 

 mainly of logs, shingles and other wood 

 products from the swamp's great stands of 

 cedar and juniper. 



"The canal became the first major means of 

 commerce between northeastern North Carolina 

 and southeastern Virginia and opened the trade 

 corridors between the sounds of North Carolina 

 and the Chesapeake Bay," explains Robert Peek, 

 Deep Creek lockmaster and bridge tender. 



Though important to the logging industry, 

 the canal never lived up to its original purpose 

 of serving as a major regional waterway in its 

 first decades. 



In 1 8 1 3, the Feeder Ditch was dug to 

 provide water for the canal and to simplify travel 

 to Lake Drummond in Virginia. The three-mile 

 ditch is about three feet deep and reaches to the 

 heart of the Dismal Swamp Canal. 



When the canal was made deeper in 1 829 

 to accommodate vessels drawing 5.5 feet of 

 water, steamboats began hauling goods through 

 the passage. 



The canal's heyday from 1829 to 1859 

 was the only time that investors were paid 

 well, according to George Ramsey, director 

 of the southeast region of the Virginia Canals 

 & Navigations Society. "They shipped pigs, 

 livestock, meat, beef and pork. The canal also 

 was heavy on tar for naval stores in North 

 Carolina and Virginia," adds Ramsey. "They 

 got the tar — not from the ground — but from 

 boiling down the sap of pine trees." 



During the antebellum period, many slaves 

 also used the canal. 



"There is no telling how many runaway 

 slaves, possibly hundreds, followed the 

 canal and the canal bank road north toward 

 freedom," says Bland Simpson, author of 

 The Great Dismal, A Carolinian 's Swamp 

 Memoir. "The canal is an engineering marvel 

 and a truly wonderful part of America's 

 maritime heritage." 



With the opening of the Albemarle- 

 Chesapeake Canal in 1859, the Dismal 

 Canal's commerce dropped. 



However, the onset of the Civil War put 

 the Dismal Canal in an important strategic 

 position for Union and Confederate forces. 



Following disrepair after the war, private 

 interests revitalized the canal in the mid- 

 1890s. 



By the 1920s, commercial traffic had 

 subsided except for passenger vessels. The 

 infrequent use and poor maintenance of the 

 canal led to the federal government buying it 

 in 1929 for $500,000. 



Throughout its history, much has been 

 written about the canal and the surrounding 

 swamp's dark secrets, ghost stories and tales of 

 hidden runaway slaves. 



These tales have been seasoned with 

 accounts of ferocious bears, screaming bobcats 

 and diverse flora. 



Bob Hines, who grew up on Sawyer's 

 Creek that originates on the east side of the 

 swamp, has seen of a lot of wildlife in and 

 near the swamp — from wild hogs to bears, 

 raccoons and bobcats. 



"One time, my dad and I were driving 

 down the road near the west side of the swamp 

 during the summer, and we saw a cougar," says 

 Hines, a North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries 

 specialist. "It appeared to be black or at least 

 dark in the dim light. It was very catlike and 

 had a long tail. Anyway, no one ever believed 

 that we saw it." 



14 Coastwatch I Spring 2006 I www.ncseagrcmi.org 



