Great Dismal Swamp

The Dismal Swamp will reopen on 10/31/17 after being closed for more than a year because of damage from Hurricane Matthew. The trees have been cleared, but there's a layer of green duckweed now.

Dismal Swamp Canal To Reopen Under Restricted Conditions

Rebecca Martinez

The Dismal Swamp Canal will reopen Tuesday under restricted conditions. The Army Corps of Engineers closed it more than a year ago, after damage from…

Environment

Peat Soil, The Great Dismal Swamp, And An Attempt To Slow Climate Change

Will Michaels

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to reverse more than two centuries of damage to sensitive peat soil in the Great Dismal Swamp. In the 1760s,…

Great Dismal Swamp, in Virginia and North Carolina, was once thought to be haunted. For generations of escaped slaves, says archaeologist Dan Sayers, the swamp was a haven.

Fleeing To Dismal Swamp, Slaves And Outcasts Found Freedom

Sandy Hausman

Most Americans know about the Underground Railroad, which allowed Southern slaves to escape to the North. But some slaves stayed in the South, hidden in a place where they could resist enslavement.

The State of Things

Taking Refuge in the Great Dismal Swamp

Amber Nimocks

It's tough to imagine the 112,000 muck-filled, bug-swarmed acres of the Great Dismal Swamp looking like paradise. But for enslaved people in the 18th- and…

The State of Things

Taking Refuge in the Great Dismal Swamp

Amber Nimocks

It's tough to imagine the 112,000 muck-filled, bug-swarmed acres of the Great Dismal Swamp looking like paradise. But for enslaved people in the 18th- and…