Sheltered Lands

D I S M A L   S W A M P,   V A  In the 1700’s, at the southeast corner of Virginia’s border with North Carolina, the land was dismal – a million acres of swampy, thickly-vegetated, and useless wetland forest. An early survey by William Byrd declared the land “ a miserable morass where nothing can inhabit ”.   But a young entrepreneur named George Washington thought he could drain the swamp. He saw its lucrative real estate flip potential. His new company constructed drainage ditches and roads, hoping to dry out large swaths of sellable land in the young country’s most populated state. But ultimately, mother nature resisted, and the plan failed.   George was persistent though. His company changed focus and was able to squeeze out a little lumber income as well as successfully complete the Dismal Swamp Canal connecting the Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound which today is the oldest continually operating man-made canal in the U.S.  ...

Cranesville Swamp, Terra Alta, WV T E R R A  A L T A,  W V Thirty years ago I graduated from Frostburg State College – a small liberal arts and former state normal school in the mountains of western Maryland.  It was a place where my love of the outdoors was fostered by time away from class spent camping, rafting, hiking, and just generally roaming around in a beautiful area.  The school’s location in the Appalachian Mountains was a tremendous draw to a flat-lander having grown up in the suburbs of Washington D.C.  Little did I know then just how unique those mountains are. As the prevailing winds cross the high mountains of Maryland they shed their moisture in a process known as orographic lifting, making it one of the wettest areas in the region.  And it’s one of the coldest too due to its elevation.  In this intersection of height and cold, along the state’s western border with West Virginia sits a low depression in the mountains shaped ...