09.22.08

Dismal

Posted in at 12:08 am by Stephanie

(Cross-posted from Blither, Blather, Bloviate)

While reading excerpts from William Byrd II’s The History of the Dividing Line (ca. 1841), I read about a place in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina called The Great Dismal Swamp. I kid you not. It cracks me up that he didn’t name it Byrd Swamp or something that would edify him and the surveyors who were working together to demarcate the boundaries between Virginia and North Carolina. No, Byrd proved his sense of humor by using a descriptor to name the swamp. The Great Dismal Swamp seems like something that belongs in Harry Potter’s world, not US History.

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