Great Dismal Swamp

The Great Dismal Swamp is a marshy area on the Coastal Plain Region 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 southern Chesapeake and Suffolk cities in Virginia and northern Gates, Pasquotank and Camden counties in North Carolina. It is a southern swamp, one of many along the Atlantic Ocean's coast including the Everglades and the Big Cypress Swamp in Florida, the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, the Congaree Swamp and Four Holes swamps of South Carolina, and some of the Carolina bays in the Carolinas and Georgia. Along the eastern edge runs the Dismal Swamp Canal, completed in 1805.

Essential to the swamp ecosystem are its water resources, native vegetative communities, and varied wildlife species. The Great Dismal Swamp's ecological significance and its wealth of history and lore make it a unique wilderness. It is one of the last large and wild areas remaining in the Eastern United States.

Some estimates place the size of the original swamp at over 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha). It stretched from Norfolk, Virginia to Edenton, North Carolina. After centuries of logging and other human activities which were devastating the swamp's ecosystems, the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1973 when the Union Camp Corporation of Franklin, Virginia donated 49,100 acres (200 km²) of land; the refuge was officially established through The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974.

The refuge consists of over 112,000 acres (500 km²) of forested wetlands. Lake Drummond, a 3,100 acre (13 km²) natural lake, is located in the heart of the swamp. Lake Drummond is one of just two natural lakes in Virginia and is a remarkably circular body of water.

Outside the boundaries of the National Refuge, the state of North Carolina has preserved and protected additional portions of the swamp by establishing the Dismal Swamp State Park. The park protects twenty-two square miles of forested wetland.