Fulfilling Washington’s
Prophecies About Swamp
Huge hind sale brings more of Dismal
Swamp region under control of de¬
velopers.
By STEPHEN C. THOMPSON
A sale of approximately 100,000
acres of coastal plain lands in south¬
eastern Virginia and adjacent North
Carolina to a single purchaser was
completed last year by Charles L.
Glcavcs. president of the American
Land Company. In the center of a
region that George Washington once
surveyed, enthusiastically extolled and
at another time actively promoted, the
total area of the two separate tracts
sold as a unit was almost seven times
the size of Manhattan.
This sale closed one chapter in a
remarkable story of modern, large-scale
land development. At the same time
it also opened the way for scholarly
but businesslike Gleavcs, a 1928-31
Rhodes Scholar, to start another chap¬
ter of a considerably different char¬
acter.
Scarcely ten years ago. back in 1954
and 1955. Cleaves acquired approxi-
DITCHES MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. A »ection ol
lypicol dromaqc ditch, with
о
roodwoy built on
top ol the excavated moteriol <ol left t , in the
network of more thon 400 mile» ol conolt dug
by the American Lond Compony in its progrom
lor turning 150.000 ocrc» ol rich, Hot, coo»tol
ploin twompt into well-drained. eotily-occettible
ond eosily-cultivotcd agricultural tract».
mately 350,()()() acres in the Great
Dismal Swamp area, a designation that
he and
С.
T. S. Keep, his associate
and fellow Rhodes Scholar, then me¬
thodically proceeded to turn into a mis¬
nomer. Straddling the boundary of
tidewater Virginia and North Carolina,
the vast timber and undeveloped agri¬
cultural lands that Cleaves had pur¬
chased covered a total of 515 square
miles, or the equivalent of one-half of
Rhode Island's total land area.
In one respect. American Land
Company was scraping the bottom of
its barrel after the 1 00.000-acrc sale,
the largest single transaction in its his¬
tory. All it has left now in this region
are five parcels covering a mere 20,-
000 acres.
However, these "remnants." so to
speak, potentially could bring the com¬
pany even more than it has received
for all the other 330.000 acres it has
sold. The choice tracts the company
has retained for residential, recrea¬
tional and industrial development are:
A 9.400 acre tract along U.S. Route
17 just nine miles out of Norfolk and
Portsmouth. Virginia. Here the com¬
pany contemplates the development of
a new "satellite city" or model suburb
of the rapidly-growing Norfolk metro¬
politan area.
A I ().()()() acre holding on Camden
Point, a peninsula on the north shore
of Albemarle Sound 10 miles south of
(Elizabeth City. North Carolina, and
about 40 miles south of Norfolk.
This property has 25 miles of water¬
front. a large portion of it along the
North River section of the Inland
Waterway, and the company intends
to develop this with vacation com¬
munities and club sites.
165 acres of oceanfront and bay
property about 15 miles south of Vir¬
ginia Beach. This tract, adjoining a
National Wildlife Reservation on the
south, has been retained by the com¬
pany for first-class resort and recrea¬
tional development.
Two industrial park sites of approxi¬
mately 86 and 42 acres in the Nor-
folk-Portsmouth area — both sites
having direct rail and navigable water
access as well as highway frontage.
One of the two tracts of approxi¬
mately 50.000 acres each that Gleavcs
sold in 1965 was in the so-called Wash¬
ington's Forest area about 25 miles
southwest of Norfolk astride the Vir¬
ginia-North Carolina border. The
other, about 50 miles farther south,
was in North Carolina on the large
flat peninsula between Albemarle and
Pamlico Sounds. Both tracts are pri¬
marily agricultural land and were in
various stages of reclamation in the
American Land Company's revolution¬
ary agricultural land development pro-
< Continual on page 2D )
AREA OF LARGE SCALE LAND DEVELOPMENT
OPERATIONS — Mop of Virgmio ond North
Carolina area where Americon Lond Compony is
entering the »econd pho»e in developing 350.000
acre» equol to oneholf of oil the lond in Rhode
l»lond which it ocquired there in 1954 ond 1955.
1 1 1 14-tquore-mile site for
о
new "tatcllite
city" or model tuburb of Norfolk, fronting 5 mile»
on U.S. Route 17. <2 ond 3* Two oreo» in Vir-
ginio ond North Corolina where the compony
told opproximotely 100,000 ocret of reclaimed
agricultural lond to
о
tingle farming ond food
procciimg tyndicatc early in 1965. 41 Camden
Point, where it ho» retained 10,000 acre» with
25 mile» of waterfront on Albemarle Sound ond
the Inland Wotcrwoy for rccrcotional develop¬
ment.
'5»
Occon and boyfront troct of 165
ocre», 15 mile» touth of Virginio Bcoch ond od-
loccnt to Notionol Wildlife Retervotion, alw
tloted for rccrcotionol development
During the pott ten yeort American Lond
Compony ol»o told opproximotely 180,000 octet
of timber lond», mo»tly in the »outhern ond eo»t-
ern section» of the lorge peninsulo between Albe-
morlc ond Pomlico Sound», and onother 50,000
octet of virgin agricultural londt creoted by it»
lorge reclamation operotiont in oreo» numbered
2 ond 3.
