A Visit to the Great Dismal Swamp!

The Great Dismal Swamp helped inspire Freewater. It has an amazing history of African Americans using it for refuge during slavery. Here are some pics from a visit my family took there in 20015.

The lovely tall trees of the Great Dismal.

The Dismal has edible wild herbs, grapes and berries.

This is Washington Ditch. It's named after President George Washington. He had several business ventures in the swamp. This ditch was built mainly by enslaved people. It was brutal work. The ditch was used to transport goods from the swamp to nearby cities.

Here's a great hollow tree. It reminds me of Suleman's hideaway!

We took a boat ride on the famous Lake Drummond. It's located in the Dismal and is quite round and large. No one knows for sure how it came to be. Some say it's from a meteor landing others say it was formed by an ancient glacier. It's known for its brown tannin water. The water is said to have been quite valuable. The tannins kept it fresh for travel. Here I am with my son who is less than pleased about having to wear a life vest. The waters of Lake Drummond are not very deep, but just in case.

These are cypress trees growing right out of the water on Lake Drummond!

The National Park Service does a great tour of Lake Drummond. Here's the Park Ranger talking about the great history of the lake.

Here's a tour we went on in the swamp. The swamp is no longer 1500 square miles of muck and mud that it had been during slavery. Today, it's much smaller and now parts even have these nice wooden paths to keep visitors out of the mud. Here's a great tour guide telling visitors all about plants and trees in the Great Dismal.