Dismal Swamp State Park preserves 14,432 acres of the Great Dismal Swamp on the North Carolina-Virginia border near South Mills and became North Carolina’s first public access point into this historic wetland when it opened in 2008. Established as a state natural area in 1974 and redesignated a state park in 2007, it includes the still-active Dismal Swamp Canal and former logging routes now used as trails. The broader swamp was explored by William Drummond and William Byrd II, later tied to George Washington’s land company and canal-era timber commerce, and also served as a refuge for runaway slaves and maroon communities before and during the Civil War.