NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1971 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1035

HOUSE BILL 749

 

 

AN ACT APPROPRIATING FUNDS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PURCHASE OF LANDS TO ESTABLISH THE DISMAL SWAMP STATE PARK.

 

Whereas, there is situated in Northeastern North Carolina an unique and valuable ecological phenomenon known as the Great Dismal Swamp; and

Whereas, its national prominence as a geological wonder is indicated by its lengthy recognition in encyclopedias and standard reference books; and

Whereas, the Dismal Swamp is regarded by students of natural history as of equal importance with the Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglades Swamp; and

Whereas, these other famous swamps have been set aside for use by future generations as state and national parks; and

Whereas, the Great Dismal Swamp has engaged the attention and influenced the lives and works of great Americans who played an important role in the formation and development of our nation, such famous Americans as George Washington, Colonel William Byrd, Patrick Henry, Governor William Drummond, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Sir Thomas Moore over a period of three centuries; and

Whereas, the Dismal Swamp Canal which runs through the swamp is the oldest surviving artificial waterway in the United States surveyed by George Washington and dug by slave labor and this canal, a portion of the intracoastal waterway, is said to be the most beautiful and scenic portion of the New York to Florida route; and

Whereas, there is no state park east of Raleigh and north of Goldsboro with the exception of Pettigrew Park in Washington County; and

Whereas, the site has been visited and approved by the State Parks Committee, approved by the Board of Conservation and Development; and 13,474 acres of the most beautiful portion has been, or is being purchased by the Nature Conservancy, to be held in trust for the State of North Carolina; and

Whereas, the citizens of State Planning Region R and the Albemarle Area Development Association, comprising the counties of Gates, Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington strongly endorse the establishment of a State Park at the Dismal Swamp; and

Whereas, it is understood that one-half of the cost of $1,911,750 for the purchase of the aforesaid land will be provided from non-State sources; Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  It is hereby declared to be the express intention of the 1971 General Assembly that, of the $1,000,000 appropriated to the Division of State Parks of the Department of Conservation and Development for Capital Improvement Projects in Section IX, Item 3 of Chapter 693 of the 1971 Session Laws, $200,000 is for the purpose of purchasing such lands as are necessary to acquire the Dismal Swamp and enough surrounding land to establish a State Park at the Dismal Swamp in Camden County for the benefit of this and future generations of citizens of the State.

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective on July 1, 1971.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 21st day of July, 1971.