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“You won't be Dismal!”
Dismal Swamp State Park is a North Carolina state park in Camden County, North Carolina in the United States. The park was created as a state natural area in 1974 with the help of The Nature Conservancy, and on July 28, 2007 the NC General Assembly re-designated it as a state park. It opened to the public in 2008. This marked the first time that public access to Great Dismal Swamp was made possible in North Carolina. The park covers 14,432 acres (58.40 km2) of protected land on the North Carolina/Virginia border. Park offices are three miles (5 km) south of the border on U.S. Route 17 near South Mills. Features of the park include the canal which is used regularly by boaters using the Intracoastal Waterway and several miles of hiking and biking trails.HistoryBy 1650, few American Indians remained in the Great Dismal Swamp area, and European settlers showed little interest in the swamp. In 1665, William Drummond, future governor of North Carolina, was the first European to explore the lake which now bears his name. William Byrd II led a surveying party into the swamp to draw a dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728. George Washington visited the swamp and called it a "glorious paradise". He then formed the Dismal Swamp Land Company in 1763, which proceeded to drain and harvest timber from part of the area. A five-mile (8 km) ditch on the west side of the current refuge still bears his name. In 1805, the Dismal Swamp Canal began serving as a commercial highway for timber coming out of the swamp.
Beautiful place to visit Was totally surprised to see animals in this area, had no idea we have them here Will be returning Read more
I was so excited to get to go back here! During the pandemic, I did the NC State Park challenge and visited all 42 parks, and the Dismal Swamp was on the top of my list. The black water canal that... Read more
We happened upon this cool spot when we pulled over at rest stop. It's beside and kind of attached to rest stop and was a nice way to stretch the legs from our journey and take a quick break. It... Read more
Dismal Swamp State Park
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