"The Dismal Swamp Canal" South Mills Things to Do Tip by etfromnc

The Dismal Swamp Canal, which forms the eastern border of the Dismal Swamp, is the oldest hand-dug canal in the United States which is still in use today. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In the spring of 2004, it was recognized as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program and is a segment of both the North Carolina and Virginia Civil War Trails. The "Underground Railroad" was a very informal, but nevertheless well organized system by which people opposed to the institution of slavery helped slaves escape from the Southern States to freedom in the North in the years before the American Civil War. Much of eastern North Carolina is swampland and the water was very helpful in masking the scent of escaping slaves although that same water and the wildlife indigenous to the swamplands posed significant danger as well.
As part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, beautiful pleasure boats
transit the Canal.

Address: 2356 Highway 17 North, South Mills
Phone: (252) 771-8333