landonstudios · carolyne d. landon
The Dragon Run Story
Dragon Run Story.pdf© published by The Nature Conservancy 2007
photographs and text by Carolyne D. Landon
EXCERPTS
Inside cover
"To love a region is not provincial but universal. It brings out in us
the emotions most worth fostering: a sense of identity, a joy based on
shared experiences, a tie that keeps us rooted in the soil of loyalty
and love. Without this sense of place we cease to be as understanding
and appreciative of our past and thus less confident of our future."
Louise Eubank Gray, Reflections: Window on the past
Louise Eubank Gray, Reflections: Window on the past
Page 2
It is a mild, foggy January
morning. Dogs bay in the distance. Hunters stalk the swampy woods.
Drifting downstream above the ancient current, a mist rises and falls
above the dark waters of Dragon Run.
Standing on the edge of the Dragon during any season, one easily slips back in time to imagine the Powhatan Indians who roamed this primeval habitat and the English explores who discovered a wilderness of promise.
Then as now, to enter this narrow strip of wilderness running some 40 miles through the eastern Virginia counties of Essex, King & Queen, Middlesex and Gloucester is to passs into a timelessness of the imagination.
Whether it's walking the woods, paddling the serpentine waterway, or working to protect their beloved Dragon Run – hearts beat faster and goose bumps rise as people relate their diverse experiences here. We hope the stories that follow will capture some of this sense of history and passion that the Dragon inspires.
Standing on the edge of the Dragon during any season, one easily slips back in time to imagine the Powhatan Indians who roamed this primeval habitat and the English explores who discovered a wilderness of promise.
Then as now, to enter this narrow strip of wilderness running some 40 miles through the eastern Virginia counties of Essex, King & Queen, Middlesex and Gloucester is to passs into a timelessness of the imagination.
Whether it's walking the woods, paddling the serpentine waterway, or working to protect their beloved Dragon Run – hearts beat faster and goose bumps rise as people relate their diverse experiences here. We hope the stories that follow will capture some of this sense of history and passion that the Dragon inspires.
JOHN SMITH AND ENGLISH SETTLEMENT
Capt john Smith became the first
Englishman to traverse Dragon Run in 1607. Captured by a band of
Indians, Smith was marched across the swamp to his fateful meeting with
Chief Powhatan and Pocahontas. On Smith's 1712 map, a cross marks his
passage through Dragon Run, labeled as a continuation of the
"Parankatank Flu" – now called Piankatank River.
By the mid 1600s, thousands of men, women and children had left English civilization behind and immigrated to the colonies. Many sailed to Virginia and settle within the watershed of Dragon Run, where they worked hard and many eventually prospered.
Some of their descendants still own land along the Dragon today. But whether one is from a long line of landowning ancestors, a recently arrived inhabitant, or a visiting wildlife enthusiast, the wilds of Dragon Run represent a shared inheritance of nearly four centuries of land stewardship.
By the mid 1600s, thousands of men, women and children had left English civilization behind and immigrated to the colonies. Many sailed to Virginia and settle within the watershed of Dragon Run, where they worked hard and many eventually prospered.
Some of their descendants still own land along the Dragon today. But whether one is from a long line of landowning ancestors, a recently arrived inhabitant, or a visiting wildlife enthusiast, the wilds of Dragon Run represent a shared inheritance of nearly four centuries of land stewardship.
NATHANIEL BACON AND QUEEN ANNE OF THE PAMUNKEYS
In 1673, cartographer Augustine Herman labeled the upper regions of the "Parankatank" as "Dragon Swamp," noting 10 plantations along its margins. Herman marked the lower section, between present-day Route 17 Bridge and[...]
photograph of Prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) © Dave Spier
Megs Bay, as "Great Swamp,"
and added five additional plantations. Between the lower Great Swamp
and upper Dragon Swamp, Herman wrote, "The Swamp here abouts not Paffable nor Inhabbitable." Very likely this stretch of the swamp is where Queen Anne of the Pamunkeys hid her bribe during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676.
Rebelling against Governor William Berkley and his policy of maintaining peace among violently fractious English colonists and Indian tribes, Nathaniel Bacon declared war on the native population. Although Queen Anne's warriors had fought alongside the English against other tribes, Bacon reportedly led some 400 armed men into the Dragon Swamp wilderness in pursuit of the Pamunkeys.
Bacon's men endured several days of hardship, eating "chinquapins and horseflesh" to ward off starvation. With his force reduced to 200 men, Bacon discovered the Pamunkey camp on a remote island. Still heavily outnumbered, the Pamunkeys were forced to surrender following a brief skirmish. Queen Anne and a young boy, however, escaped, remaining deep in the swamp for another two weeks.
Rebelling against Governor William Berkley and his policy of maintaining peace among violently fractious English colonists and Indian tribes, Nathaniel Bacon declared war on the native population. Although Queen Anne's warriors had fought alongside the English against other tribes, Bacon reportedly led some 400 armed men into the Dragon Swamp wilderness in pursuit of the Pamunkeys.
Bacon's men endured several days of hardship, eating "chinquapins and horseflesh" to ward off starvation. With his force reduced to 200 men, Bacon discovered the Pamunkey camp on a remote island. Still heavily outnumbered, the Pamunkeys were forced to surrender following a brief skirmish. Queen Anne and a young boy, however, escaped, remaining deep in the swamp for another two weeks.
P.T. WOODWARD
As the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861, the Gloucester "Dragon
Hotes," led by Capt. W.J.J> Thrift, were among the able-bodied men
who mustered throughout Tidewater Virginia. Dragon Run's most
interesting wartime figure, however, may be a county clerk rather
than a soldier. According to Larry S. Chowning, a reporter for
Urbanna's Southside Sentinel, Middlesex
County Clerk Philemon T. Woodward likely prevented important records
from falling into Union hands by hiding them on an island in Dragon Run.
Chowning points to an article in his paper by Walter Rayland, owner and editor from 1898 to 1915. Rayland writes, "P.T. Woodward....suggested to circuit court Judge Joseph Christian that Richmond would be the most unsafe place in the world to send our records." Judge Christian granted the clerk authority to conceal the records, and one local legend suggests that Woodward hid the documents in a grave at Union Shiloh Baptist Church. While Woodward may indeed have hidden dummy records in several locations, Chowning believes the Woodward family farm on remote Little Island, not far from Saluda, was the logical place for the clerk.
According to Ryland, Woodward thought "the Yankees would never get to that desolate island in the Dragon Swamp." Although wrong about the Union soldiers penetrating the swamp, Woodward had luck on his side:
Chowning points to an article in his paper by Walter Rayland, owner and editor from 1898 to 1915. Rayland writes, "P.T. Woodward....suggested to circuit court Judge Joseph Christian that Richmond would be the most unsafe place in the world to send our records." Judge Christian granted the clerk authority to conceal the records, and one local legend suggests that Woodward hid the documents in a grave at Union Shiloh Baptist Church. While Woodward may indeed have hidden dummy records in several locations, Chowning believes the Woodward family farm on remote Little Island, not far from Saluda, was the logical place for the clerk.
According to Ryland, Woodward thought "the Yankees would never get to that desolate island in the Dragon Swamp." Although wrong about the Union soldiers penetrating the swamp, Woodward had luck on his side:
The Yankees...during
Kilpatrick's raid...did visit the desolate island and fed their horses
out of the very barn in which the records were concealed...[F]fortunately they did not go deep enough into the fodder to discover the boxes.
When the war ended in 1865, Woodward returned the records safely to the courthouse in Saluda, where they remain to this day.
JIMMY AND HARVEY MORGAN
As the region recovered from the Civil War and struggled through the Great Depression, Dragon Run saw its heaviest timbering, hunting, trapping and fishing. Virginia Revere was among the conservationists who appealed to the rising generation to protect the Dragon's forests:
Besides the supply of lumber and fuel, the forests serve other valuable purposes: they protect the sources of water supply; tend to moderate the climate: serve as a home for the birds and game; give shelter from the heat of the sun; and add beauty to the landscape.
When the war ended in 1865, Woodward returned the records safely to the courthouse in Saluda, where they remain to this day.
JIMMY AND HARVEY MORGAN
As the region recovered from the Civil War and struggled through the Great Depression, Dragon Run saw its heaviest timbering, hunting, trapping and fishing. Virginia Revere was among the conservationists who appealed to the rising generation to protect the Dragon's forests:
Besides the supply of lumber and fuel, the forests serve other valuable purposes: they protect the sources of water supply; tend to moderate the climate: serve as a home for the birds and game; give shelter from the heat of the sun; and add beauty to the landscape.
Among
the youth who may have taken Revere's words to heart was James Vincent
Morgan, older brother of current Virginia Del. Harvey B. Morgan.
Abroad smile graces Del. Morgan's face as he recalls camping with his brother along the Dragon and cleaning up logging debris: "My brother organized several trips into the Dragon Run with bow saws, chain saws and axes, and we cut a way through so that you could have a canoe trail." To help paddlers navigate the serpentine waterway, the Morgans blazed the trail with yellow dragon heads designed by Jimmy. Having earned a reputation as a caretaker of the Dragon, Jimmy Morgan was approached by a landowner interested in preserving her property. He then organized a meeting at the family-owned Morgan's Drug Store in Gloucester Courthouse. "We decided that night we would try to find a way to purchase that property, and so we organized the Friends of Dragon Run," recalls Del. Morgan.
Asked about Conservation easements and his vision for Dragon Run, Del. Morgan says, "It's a win-win for everyone. Every time you develop a piece [of land] it suddenly becomes an expensive item for the localities, for the state," says Morgan, who hopes all the Dragon's bald cypress will eventually be protected by easements.
LEONARD LANDON
Born in 1923 on his family's Gloucester County farm, near Old Dragon Swamp Bridge, Leonard Landon enjoys fond childhood memories of fishing beneath the bridge: "There were cracks in the boards, When a car or wagon came by, we would stick our fishing poles through the cracks and they would go clack, clack, clack!"
Fishing was central to Landon's life on the Dragon. During the Great Depression, his father, Ed, built skiffs that the family rented out for a dollar a day. But Leonard could earn double by paddling customers to prime fishing holes in the brackish waters between Rt. 17 Bridge and Megs Bay. At 15, Leonard Landon caught the first rockfish know to be hooked in the Dragon, and locals referred to the spot long thereafter as Rock Hole.
The Depression years also brought "Gypsies" to the Dragon in early spring, when they would harvest young willow branches to make baskets. "Not everyone welcomed the Gypsies," Landon says, but his parents "allowed the Gypsies to camp on their land."
Abroad smile graces Del. Morgan's face as he recalls camping with his brother along the Dragon and cleaning up logging debris: "My brother organized several trips into the Dragon Run with bow saws, chain saws and axes, and we cut a way through so that you could have a canoe trail." To help paddlers navigate the serpentine waterway, the Morgans blazed the trail with yellow dragon heads designed by Jimmy. Having earned a reputation as a caretaker of the Dragon, Jimmy Morgan was approached by a landowner interested in preserving her property. He then organized a meeting at the family-owned Morgan's Drug Store in Gloucester Courthouse. "We decided that night we would try to find a way to purchase that property, and so we organized the Friends of Dragon Run," recalls Del. Morgan.
Asked about Conservation easements and his vision for Dragon Run, Del. Morgan says, "It's a win-win for everyone. Every time you develop a piece [of land] it suddenly becomes an expensive item for the localities, for the state," says Morgan, who hopes all the Dragon's bald cypress will eventually be protected by easements.
LEONARD LANDON
Born in 1923 on his family's Gloucester County farm, near Old Dragon Swamp Bridge, Leonard Landon enjoys fond childhood memories of fishing beneath the bridge: "There were cracks in the boards, When a car or wagon came by, we would stick our fishing poles through the cracks and they would go clack, clack, clack!"
Fishing was central to Landon's life on the Dragon. During the Great Depression, his father, Ed, built skiffs that the family rented out for a dollar a day. But Leonard could earn double by paddling customers to prime fishing holes in the brackish waters between Rt. 17 Bridge and Megs Bay. At 15, Leonard Landon caught the first rockfish know to be hooked in the Dragon, and locals referred to the spot long thereafter as Rock Hole.
The Depression years also brought "Gypsies" to the Dragon in early spring, when they would harvest young willow branches to make baskets. "Not everyone welcomed the Gypsies," Landon says, but his parents "allowed the Gypsies to camp on their land."
mother, Lillie, and cooked
on an open fire. "They sang and told stories of their travels," recalls
Landon, who joined the Gypsies around their nightly campfires. Their
patriarch, known as "uncle Belcher," wove baskets by firelight shaping
them on his knee. One spring the Gypsies simply did not return. But
more than 75 years later, Leonard Landon still cherishes the basket
given to his mother and the craftsmanship of Uncle Belcher.
In the collective mind of the Landon family, Dragon Run remains a symbol of childhood memories and ancestral roots running like cypress knees through the landscape.
In the collective mind of the Landon family, Dragon Run remains a symbol of childhood memories and ancestral roots running like cypress knees through the landscape.
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