Your Town Tuesday

Lisa of 1Wasabi Mommy is hosting a meme sharing views and interest of your town.   The town I am sharing
today, is not where I grew up.  I do have a few photos of my town, that I will share at another time.  My area is steeped in history, very rural. I live in North Carolina, when you drive down the road, there are a couple of farm stands selling their wares. There are fields of corn, soy beans, okra, wheat and cotton all around.   I was told, if you do not have allergies; you will!   (It is true...)

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When I was young, I grew up in a small, coastal town in New England, we had to drive a good hour to go berry picking, now I live close to a patch!  I love it...

The season is officially over,  but there are still are berries to pick; They now operate on the honor
system.

I have only seen this in movies and other spots in rural America.   The highlight of my tiny town is coming.
I do live in a rural area, smaller than where I am from, but I'm 1 1/2 hrs from the Outer Banks, 1 hr from
Norfolk, VA, and 11/2 hrs from Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens.    I can get to the city, but live in the country, for my family and me it is the best of both worlds.

When you drive into the tiny town, the draw bridge can delay you; It goes up when there is water traffic, boats coming through.   I live near the Dismal Swamp;our town has the canal bridge, the oldest man made one in our country.  Two hundred years ago, it was an important part of trading. George Washington and Patrick Henry decided this was necessary to build.  In May 1763, George Washington visited the swamp to see how the work was going. This Intracoastal water way connects the Chesapeake Bay in VA to the Elizabeth River and the Albemarle Sound in NC, via the Pasquotank River.  Today many boaters use this waterway. Lake Drummond is a major part of the swamp.  
 
 Visitors and canal navigators travel where famous explorers and presidents have stood and literary greats have been inspired for over 2000 years. For example, astride the two states’ border is the site where the infamous “Halfway House” hotel was built in the late 1820’s. The hotel was a popular spot for marriages, duels and those escaping the law. Since the hotel was on the state line, this last group simply walked to the other side of the hotel to avoid being captured in either state. It is also said that Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Raven” during one of his stays at the hotel. And, as you follow the canal, you retrace the course of James Adams’ Floating Theatre, where Edna Ferber got the idea to write the novel ''Showboat,'' upon which the famous musical is based. (from the website)

The Dismal Swamp Canal is on the National Register of Historic Places as  Landmark, and is also  a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. In February 2004, the Dismal Swamp Canal was included in the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. It is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a navigational resource along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. 
 Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge consists of 107,000 acres of forested wetlands, surrounding Lake Drummond, a 3,100 acre natural lake located in the heart of the swamp. William Drummond, the first Governor of North Carolina (1663-1667), discovered the oval lake. The depth of the lake is only about six feet, its unusually pure water is essential to the swamp's survival. The amber-colored water is preserved by tannic acids(tea has this kind of acid) from the bark of the juniper, gum and cypress trees, these acids prevent growth of bacteria. Before refrigeration, water from the Swamp was a highly prized, on sailing ships.When put in kegs, it  would stay fresh a long time. People spoke of the magical qualities of the Swamp's tea-colored water and how, if drank regularly, it prevented illness and promoted long life.

There is also a nature trail adjacent to the swamp; You can hike, bike, fish, jog, etc.  Beware of the bobcats,
snakes and bears...

There are sightings and reports of ghosts by visitors and locals recall strange lights at night.

Like all good legends and mysteries, the Lady of the Lake is rooted in reality. Eerie lights in the middle of the night are not uncommon and have been attributed to ghosts, pirates, madmen, or flying saucers. What causes these strange lights is Foxfire (a luminescence given off by the decaying of wood by certain fungi), burning methane escaping from decomposing vegetation, or smoldering peat. (via website)

                                       Our town is steeped in history, during the Civil War.

This updated home use to be a hospital, during the battle of South Mills.  It is called the William Riley
Abbot House, built in 1840, a large plantation type house.  Here it is known as the Nosay House, it is on
Nosay Rd.    The period being 1850-1874, it was used as a hospital. (click on this photo and tell me what you see in the door's reflection; I can't figure it out, there was nothing on the lawn, it is strange).

I cropped it and check it out:   It looks like a woman to me; I see a reflection of the trees across the street.

Thanks for visiting my town with me; It was fun...    Y'all come back now, you hear~(so wrong,  I know, and yes, I still have a New England accent, with a touch of southern, now)  Yeah, it is funny!