Sailing Kiawah: The Dismal Swamp

Two waterways diverged on the ICW, and we-

We took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

Okay, so I stole that from Robert Frost. I thought it fitting though, as apparently Frost also chose to venture to the Dismal Swamp. The story has it that an unrequited love affair forced Frost to retreat to the Dismal Swamp with intentions of killing himself. He wandered through the night contemplating his situation and soon realized that if he actually did muster up the courage to off himself, no one would ever find him or even know how he met his demise. That's hardly any fun at all if your intention is to bestow pain and guilt on your unresponsive lover! Lucky for American literature, he sucked it up, brushed off the mosquitoes, came out, and kept on writing. He also ended up marrying the lass. Things always have a way of working out.

Our reasons for going to the Dismal Swamp weren't nearly as dramatic. We just thought it sounded really neat.

At one time the Dismal Swamp covered over a million acres in North Carolina and Virginia. Early European settlers referred to such swamp land as "dismals", deeming it uninhabitable wasteland. Apparently they did not confer with the thousands of species of plants and animals that made their homes there, or the Native Americans who used the area as prime hunting and fishing grounds. So, in the true European tradition of the time, they commenced to exploit it. They harvested what timber they could access via existing waterways. In the late 1700's, seeking greater access to timber and a way to transport wood products to market, they began construction of the Dismal Swamp Canal. This 22 mile trench was completed in 1805. The brawn behind this massive undertaking was of course, you guessed it, slave labor. Enslaved men dug for 18 years, waist deep in mud and water, mosquito larva and leeches. Day in. Day out. The ones who worked really hard were rewarded with a blanket to sleep in at night.

As Kiawah made her way down this arrow straight canal, it was so serene and beautiful. Turtles sunned themselves on exposed logs, warblers sang from dense thickets, and ducks and geese courted in the eddies. As peaceful as it was, I couldn't help but envision the scene 200 years ago. White men supervisors looking down from the safety and comfort of the high banks- barking out commands to the hoards of laboring slaves in the ditch, "Dig harder! Nineteen miles to go!"

But as much as the Dismal Swamp was hell for so many slaves, it also provided a safe haven many who chose to run away. Some lived in maroon colonies deep within the swamp. Others used the swamp as a safe place to rest on their journeys north to freedom. The Dismal Swamp is recognized as a site on the National Underground Network to Freedom.

Amen.

Here are some shots of our adventures at the Dismal Swamp State Park.

Each year the park hosts a Paddle for the Border event. You can barely make out the last of 300 kayakers making their way 7.5 miles to the Virginia boarder.