Great Dismal Swamp

Lake Drummond is a freshwater lake at the center of the Great Dismal Swamp, a marshy region on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in the United States. Its surface area is approximately 3,142 acres (13 km2) and its maximum depth is 6 ft (2 m). It is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Geologists believe the Great Dismal Swamp was formed when the continental shelf experienced sudden settling. The entire swamp is underlain by a layer of peat. Several theories exist about the lake's origin. Some postulate that it was created by a large underground peat fire 3,500–6,000 years ago. Native American legends speak of "the fire bird" creating Lake Drummond. Other theories include a meteorite impact and a tectonic shift. Lake Drummond is one of only two natural freshwater lakes in Virginia. The other, Mountain Lake in Giles County, is also of unknown origin. Curiously, both are lakes essentially on top of hills. Drummond is the highest point in the Dismal Swamp, with nine small ditches flowing out of it. The precise time of the Great Dismal Swamp's discovery and settlement is not known, but archaeological evidence indicates human occupation began nearly 13,000 years ago. By 1650, few Native Americans remained in the area, and European settlers showed little interest in the swamp. In 1665, William Drummond, a future governor of North Carolina, found the lake which now bears his name. Several centuries of exploitation and logging reduced the swamp to about 50% of its original size. It was common practice for merchant ships of the time to fill up water casks with the dark-stained water from Lake Drummond. With its high tannin content, the water stayed fresher longer on trans-Atlantic voyages than water from other sources. Lake Drummond and much of the Great Dismal Swamp are within the bounds of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, officially established through the Dismal Swamp Act of 1974. The refuge includes almost 107,000 acres (43,000 ha) of forest wetlands. North Carolina established a state park to protect another portion of the swamp. Dismal Swamp State Park protects 22 square miles (57 km2) of forested wetland.Due to relatively low pH levels caused by the leaching of acidic materials from surrounding peat soils, the lake has a relatively low level of nutrients. A few species of fish are present, including crappie, bowfin, and longnose gar.

The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1974 to help protect and preserve a portion of the Great Dismal Swamp, a marshy region on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina in the United States. It is located in parts of the independent cities of Chesapeake and Suffolk in Virginia, and the counties of Camden, Gates, and Pasquotank in North Carolina.

Wallaceton is a historic home located at Chesapeake, Virginia. The original section was built between 1853 and 1863, as a company store. It was expanded after the American Civil War. It is a 1+1⁄2-story, rectangular, Greek Revival style frame dwelling. It has flat corner pilasters, a heavy box cornice under the eaves, and a full width front porch. Also on the property are a contributing two-room kitchen building and a dairy. About 1910, it was relocated approximately 100 feet to the east of the Dismal Swamp Canal to remove it from canal property. It was named for John Gallaudet Wallace (1840-1910) a farmer and businessman who fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy, as a Captain of Company C, 61st Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Cornland School is a one-room schoolhouse located in Chesapeake, Virginia. "It is believed to be the oldest pre-Rosenwald School still standing in Tidewater Virginia." It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

The Great Dismal Swamp train derailment occurred on the afternoon of May 18, 1986, when a special Norfolk Southern employee passenger train derailed at the Great Dismal Swamp near Suffolk, Virginia. The accident injured 177 passengers; 18 were seriously injured and needed to be airlifted to nearby hospitals in Norfolk, Virginia. The train was pulled by Norfolk and Western 611, a class J 4-8-4 steam locomotive, which was restored to operating condition for excursion service in 1982.

The Dismal Swamp Canal is a canal located along the eastern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina in the United States. Opened in 1805, it is the oldest continually operating man-made canal in the United States. It is part of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Norfolk County was a county of the South Hampton Roads in eastern Virginia in the United States that was created in 1691. After the American Civil War, for a period of about 100 years, portions of Norfolk County were lost and the territory of the county reduced as they were annexed by the independent and growing cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth and South Norfolk. In 1963, voters approved by referendum in two jurisdictions to consolidate the remaining portions of Norfolk County with the much smaller city of South Norfolk; they chose the name city of Chesapeake for the new independent city. Although organized as a city, and one of the larger in Virginia, Chesapeake has both busy suburban and industrial areas, and mostly rural sections. The latter includes a large portion of the Great Dismal Swamp and large tracts of preserved forest land.

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 North Carolina 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 3 miles (4.8 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.

Hampton Roads Executive Airport (ICAO: KPVG, FAA LID: PVG) is a public-use airport seven miles (11 km) southwest of Norfolk and northwest of Chesapeake, Virginia. It is privately owned by Virginia Aviation Associates, L.L.C. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, but Hampton Roads Executive Airport is PVG to the FAA and has no IATA code (IATA assigned PVG to Shanghai Pudong International Airport in China).

East Suffolk Complex is a historic school complex for African-American students located at Suffolk, Virginia. The complex consists of the East Suffolk Elementary School (1926–1927), East Suffolk High School (1938–1939), and the Gymnasium building (1951).

Sunray Agricultural Historic District is a national historic district located at Chesapeake, Virginia. The district encompasses 188 contributing buildings, 90 contributing sites, 2 contributing structures, and 1 contributing object in the early 20th-century immigrant farming community of Sunray. It includes early 20th century vernacular farmhouses, agricultural buildings, Sunray School (1922), and St. Mary's Catholic Church (1915-1916). The district also includes a tidal ditch system, the abandoned Virginian Railway Tracks (1909), and agricultural fields laid out with the platting of 1908.

Cavalier Wildlife Management Area is a 4,550-acre (18.4 km2) Wildlife Management Area in Chesapeake, Virginia. It preserves habitat for a number of species, including black bear, canebrake rattlesnakes, white-tailed deer, eastern wild turkeys, and many varieties of songbirds.The preserve comprises two separate tracts of land. The 3,800-acre (15 km2) main tract is located about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent to the Virginia–North Carolina border; it was once a part of the Great Dismal Swamp but was drained more than 200 years ago. The main tract today is typified by recently logged forestlands planted with young pine. A smaller, 758-acre (3.07 km2) tract lies about six miles (9.7 km) north of the main area of land, immediately adjacent to the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.The area is open to the public for seasonal hunting, trapping, fishing, hiking, and primitive camping. Firearms are prohibited in the Dismal Swamp tract, where only bow-hunting is permitted; firearms may be used for hunting within the main tract. Neither area permits horseback riding.Cavalier Wildlife Management Area is owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Access for persons 17 years of age or older requires a valid hunting or fishing permit, or a WMA access permit.