Bob Mills and myself should with any luck be leaving Baltimore around the 5th or 6th of April and within three days of that should be transiting the Dismal Swamp.
The Dismal swamp is the oldest continually operating canal in the United States, it connects Virginia to the northeastern portion of North Carolina, and Elizabeth City North Carolina.
The swamp was explored by Colonel William Byrd in 1728 and deemed so miserable that he named it the Dismal Swamp. George Washington surveyed the swamp and five fellow investors invested in the building of the canal in order to transport timber in 1764.
The Canal was dug by hired slaves and was part of the underground railroad. There were communities of blacks that lived in the swamp and they were known to hide escaped slaves.
Along the Dismal swamp about half of the 60 miles there is a visitors rest stop. It is the only rest stop in the country where visitors visit by both boat and car.
The canal through the dismal swamp was taken over by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1929. It is now a national historic civil engineering landmark.
I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to transit this canal as it passes through this expanse of wilderness as often as I have the last few years and get to travel back through time a bit. I will be posting pictures in face book and keeping a log during this trip. If you would like you can join my facebook fan page. Also the web page for the Dismal swamp is
www.dismalswamp.com for more accurate information.
