LAKE DRUMMOND
Lake Drummond is located in the middle of the Great Dismal Swamp along the coastal plain of southeast Virginia. The lake is approximately 3,142 acres (13km²). It is one of only two natural freshwater lakes in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The other natural lake in Virginia is Mountain Lake, located in the western part of the state. Lake Drummond is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
The lake is located at the highest elevation point in the Great Dismal Swamp. This location is not the most logical place for a lake to form, geologically speaking. There are many theories to how this lake came to be located here. One theory is that the lake formed when a natural fire burned a "hole" in the peat that covers the surface of the area. Another theory is that the lake was created by the impact of a meteorite, due to its oval shape.
The lake is named for William Drummond, who discovered it in 1665. Drummond later became the Governor of what is now North Carolina. Mr. Drummond wound up on the wrong side of Bacon’s Rebellion and was hung by order of the Governor of Virginia.
This EarthCache is accessible by land along the Washington Ditch Trail in Suffolk, Virginia or by water from the Feeder Ditch that connects to the Dismal Swamp Canal in Chesapeake, Virginia. It is about a 4.4 mile hike or bike trip (one way) along the Washington Ditch Trail from the parking area to the EarthCache site. The paddle from Chesapeake is appromately 10 miles, round trip. Be sure to mark your entrance point to the lake on your GPSr so you can easily locate it on your return from the cache.
The water in Lake Drummond is an amber color. The lake pH normally ranges from four to five. It was common practice for merchant ships of the 18th and 19th centuries to fill up water casks with the dark-stained water from Lake Drummond because the water would remain fresher longer on trans-Atlantic voyages.
Boating access to Lake Drummond is either by a feeder ditch off the Dismal Swamp Canal (east side of the lake) or a road through the refuge from the west. The closest state ramp to the feeder ditch is on the Dismal Swamp canal along Route 17, south of Deep Creek. It is approximately three miles up the ditch to a lock, and self-operated winch and rail, which can pull boats up to the lake. The lock is managed and serviced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge trails are open everyday for hiking and biking from sunrise to sunset unless otherwise posted. The refuge headquarters is located at 3100 Desert Road in Suffolk, Virginia, and is open Monday through Friday, 7:30 am - 4:00 pm. The headquarters is closed on weekends and federal holidays, the hiking and biking trails remain open. The Dismal Swamp Canal Trail, which runs along the old Route 17 right of way along the Dismal Swamp Canal is a Geocache rich environment.
The oldest and best known of the Dismal Swamp legends is that of the Lady of the Lake, a myth the Irish poet Thomas Moore canonized in 1803 in his poem, "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp." Based on local legends about an Indian maid who died just before her wedding and who is periodically seen paddling her ghostly white canoe across the waters of Lake Drummond, Moore's poem tells how the bereaved lover came to believe that his lost love had departed her grave and taken to the Swamp. He followed her and never returned but was reunited with his Lady of the Lake in death.
The Lake of the Dismal Swamp
"They made her a grave too cold and damp
For a soul so warm and true;
And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp,
Where all night long, by a firefly lamp,
She paddles her white canoe.
And her firefly lamp I soon shall see,
And her paddle I soon shall hear;
“Long and moving our life shall be
And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree,
When the footstep of death is near.”
Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds,
His path was rugged and sore,
Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds,
Through many a fen where the serpent feeds,
And man never trod before.
And when on the earth he sank to sleep,
If slumber his eyelids knew,
He lay where the deadly vine doth weep
Its venemous tear, and nightly steep
The flesh with blistering dew!
And near him the she-wolf stirr'd the brake,
And the copper-snake breathed in his ear,
Till he starting cried, from his dream awake,
"Oh when shall I see the dusky Lake,
And the white canoe of my dear?"
He saw the Lake, and a meteor bright
Quick over its surface play'd,
"Welcome," he said, "my dear one's light!"
And the dim shore echo'd for many a night
The name of the death-cold maid.
Till he hollow'd a boat of the birchen bark,
Which carried him off from the shore;
Far, far he follow'd the meteor spark,
The wind was high and the clouds were dark,
And the boat return'd no more.
But oft, from the Indian hunter's camp,
This lover and maid so true
Are seen at the hour of midnight damp
To cross the Lake by a firefly lamp,
And paddle their white canoe!
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. During the summer of 2008, a fire caused by equipment being used to clear fallen trees left over from Hurricane Isabel (2003) and replant the forest in the surrounding Great Dismal Swamp burned for months (in fact, at the time of this writing, it is still smoldering).
To claim this Earthcache, you need to answer a few questions to finally claim your smiley. Email the answers to me. Please, do not post them in your log. If you would like to put photos in your log, I highly encourage it, but it is no longer required to claim this find!
Question 1:
What is the substance that the Great Dismal Swamp produces that stains the water an amber color?
Question 2:
What is the average depth of Lake Drummond?
Question 3:
On the sign at the end of the platform there are illustrations of wildlife that can be seen on or around the lake. What aquatic mammal is depicted on this sign? The sign is now gone. The answer to the question was "River Otter".
New Question 3: What species of tree grows in the shallow waters of the lake?
Question 4:
What is the device on the platform overlooking the lake?
Any log that gives away answers, even if they are encrypted, will be deleted.
The trails are open from sunrise to sunset. There are restrictions on entry into The Great Dismal Swamp during hunting season. Please be aware that there are wild animals in the Swamp such as deer, raccoons, snakes and bears. Be vigilant!
Congratulations to Lego Fans for being the First to Find!
