Great Dismal Swamp U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge 3100 Desert Road Suffolk, VA 23434 Great Dismal 757/986 3705 757/986 2353 Fax www.fws/northeast/greatdismalswamp Swamp Federal Relay Service for the deaf and hard-of-hearing National Wildlife 1 800/877 8339 Refuge U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 1 800/344 WILD http://www.fws.gov September 2008 American black bear P. Cuffee/USFWS A gift to the American people — forever. Lake Drummond R. Winn/USFWS A Unique and Welcome to Great Dismal Swamp With a group of share-holders, he Mysterious Place National Wildlife Refuge. Grassroots organized the Dismal Swamp efforts to protect the swamp were Company to drain, farm, and log rewarded in 1973 when the Union portions of the swamp. A five-mile Camp Corporation donated 49,100 hand dug ditch leading from the acres of land to The Nature western boundary of the refuge to Conservancy. The land was then Lake Drummond may be the first This blue goose, transferred to the Department of the “monument” to bear Washington’s designed by J.N. Interior, and the refuge was officially name. “Ding” Darling, established the next year. has become the In the period just before the Civil symbol of the Located within a two hour drive to 1.6 War, the swamp offered shelter and National Wildlife million residents of southeastern refuge for freedom-seekers traveling Refuge System. Virginia and northeastern North north to the port of Norfolk and Carolina, the Great Dismal Swamp beyond. Archeologists are just now National Wildlife Refuge is a uncovering the story of the maroons, marvelous place to connect with those that choose to remain within nature. With more than 111,200 acres the cover of the swamp. Their of seasonally flooded wetland forest numbers remain unknown. and the 3,100 acre Lake Drummond Documented evidence led to the at its center, the refuge contains some designation of the Great Dismal of the most important wildlife habitat Swamp National Wildlife Refuge as in the mid-Atlantic region. an official site on the National Amazing Rich Underground Railroad Network to History of Human Human occupation of the Great Freedom. Involvement Dismal Swamp dates back some 13,000 years. By 1650, the area was inhabited only by Native Americans and the very few European settlers who had ventured into the edges of the swamp. In 1665, William Drummond, the first colonial governor of North Carolina, discovered the lake that now bears his name. Sixty years later, Colonel William Byrd II led a surveying party into the swamp to draw The mystery, remoteness, cover, and a dividing line between solitude of the swamp have attracted Virginia and and inspired people for many North Carolina reasons. Robert Frost, Henry and is sometimes Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet credited with Beecher Stowe, and countless others giving the swamp have used the dismal swamp as a its forbidding stage for their poetry and novels. name. George Stowe’s Dred: A Tale of the Great Washington Dismal Swamp, a sequel to her visited the Uncle Tom’s Cabin, tells of the swamp in 1763. dangerous life of the runaways hiding in the swamp. S W F S U Historical Sign beds. The roads severely disrupted the natural hydrology found in the swamp, blocking the flow of water across the surface of the land. The result is a swamp that is drier in some locations and is more prone to flooding in other areas. The effects of logging, a drier swamp, and the suppression of wildfires—fires that had cleared the land for new seed S germination—created conditions less W F favorable to the survival of cypress S U / and cedar trees. As a result, red n n i maple and other forest types have W . become more predominant. R Atlantic white cedar Protection with The primary purpose of the refuge Resource As surrounding populations grew, purpose resource management program is Management— people began to drastically alter the to restore and maintain the natural striving to pre- landscape of Great Dismal Swamp. biological diversity that existed serve, protect and Agricultural, commercial and prior to the alterations caused by restore a unique residential development consumed humans. Essential to the swamp ecosystem more than half of the land within the ecosystem are its water, native historical boundaries of the swamp. vegetative communities, and varied wildlife. Water is being conserved Logging proved to be a successful and managed by manipulating commercial activity, and the entire water control structures in the lake swamp has been logged at least once. and the ditches. Plant diversity is Before the refuge was established, restored and maintained through more than 150 miles of roads were forest management activities, such constructed to provide access for as selective cutting and prescribed timbering. Ditches were excavated to burns that simulate the ecological improve drainage; the ditch spoils effects of wildfire. Wildlife is were used to build the adjacent road managed by ensuring the presence Fall trees of required habitats, with hunting as a tool to balance specific wildlife populations with available food sources. S W F S U / S s s W o Prescribed F R S . J fire U Wildlife and Plant Communities Plant Diversity Five major forest communities and three non-forest communities comprise the vegetation types found within the swamp. The forests include pine, Atlantic white cedar, maple-blackgum, tupelo-baldcypress and sweetgum-oak popular. The others are a remnant marsh, a sphagnum bog and an evergreen shrub community, also known as pocosin. Red maple is currently the r e most abundant and widely d i e distributed tree species; it has n h c expanded throughout the swamp due S . to the lingering effects of past D © logging, extensive draining and wild Pine warbler fire suppression. Tupelo-baldcypress and Atlantic white cedar, formerly Birds dominant forest communities, More than 200 bird species have currently account for less than 20 been identified since the refuge’s percent of the total cover. establishment, ninety-six of which have been reported as nesting on or near the refuge. Birding opportunities are best during spring migration from April to June when the greatest diversity of species (particularly warblers) occurs. Two southern species, the Swainson’s Warbler and Wayne’s Warbler (a sub- species of the Black-throated Green Warbler), are more common in the Great Dismal Swamp than in other r o coastal locations. Winter brings l y a massive movements of blackbirds r Virginia least T . and robins to the swamp and trillium W thousands of ducks, geese and swans There are three rare species of can be seen on Lake Drummond. plants deserving special mention, the Other birds of interest are the Bald Virginia least trillium, silky camellia, eagle, barred owl, pileated and log fern. Beds of Virginia least woodpecker, prothonotary warbler, trillium are found in the wood duck, and woodcock. northwestern section of the refuge and bloom briefly for a two-week period in March. Nearby, although less abundant, silky camellia are found on hardwood ridges. The log fern, one of the rarest American S ferns, is more common in the Great W F Dismal Swamp than anywhere else in S U / n the country. i Great purple a K . hairstreak T To Williamsburg Portsmouth 10 664 58 32 264 64 To Norfolk s ypas 64 and 58 B 337 58 Virginia 460 166 Chesapeake O Beach 460 58 M ld 460 R ill 13 oa Martin d J ohnson R 104 s oad 7 s 1 pa Suff olk By h s 58 Ditc B s son ig E e 17 iam ntr n 58 Will y Di i 165 tch s New u itch Ditch B Jericho ell D h 32 dn H c Hu u t Lane d i ne D ary 1 l h em 3 l h os B D t R 17 c u itch t y 13 d i D p t i a J c o 104 64 a e h D Gloucester ss r m 13 o t h i s c t s c r R h t o a o i h E c h D P it D st D s it thea Wi lliamsburg r c r n h No n a y h 17 Hampton itc l L D i 13 M Camp Wakefield a r e T 460 t 642 Norfolk i h l Virginia ddle Ditc Wi ndsor h Mi a 64 Beach 32 n Franklin 165 604 W a 58 C Suffolk Chesapeake p Virginia 13 168 4 1⁄2 miles to lake m N. Carolina a S. w 258 Sunbury Wa shin S Elizabeth Refuge gton l City D a itch Office m s Railroad Ditch i D 604 Lake 17 N h Drummond c Fee t der Ditch 0 Miles 3 642 i Interior Ditch ack R D lah oa t Bal d s 0 2 e d W Kilometers a o R t r South Ditch e Virg inia s Great Dismal Swamp e North Carolina D National Wildlife Refuge D a 17 Legend n Dismal Swamp i e l l s a R State Park n Refuge Office d a . C p Parking Area m a w Boar dwalk Trail S l a Auto Tour Route m s by Permit i D Trail Entrance 32 Refuge Area Pas qu South Hiking / Biking Trail ot an Mills 158 k Ri Boat Access Area v e Sunbury r 17 158 Camping 158 To Outer Banks turtles, lizards, salamanders, frogs, and toads have been observed on the refuge.