On a night roughly 45 years ago, a young park employee drove down the Washington Ditch Trail in the Great Dismal Swamp in Southeastern Virginia. As he headed out of the swamp, his dog began barking in anger. That’s when his headlights shined brightly on a young man and woman dressed in colonial-era clothing walking hand in hand. The couple walked silently, never saying a word or even acknowledging the man or his dog. At first, it took the park employee off guard, but he tried to assist the couple when his dog went into a frenzy. He looked down to calm the dog, and when he finally glanced up, the couple was gone. The employee looked in the woods, in his truck, and even down the trail, but found nothing.
The legend began more than two hundred years ago, when a small town was established in the swamp in the 1760s. It was named Dismal Town.
A young man and woman who had grown up in the town had fallen in love and decided to marry. On the day of the wedding, the young man decided to journey into the swamp to go fishing, but never returned.
Light began to fade as the search party continued searching for him. His beautiful bride waited in her simple white wedding dress for a safe return. Finally, the bride decided to enter the swamp to look for her lover.
In the end, the search party successfully made it out, but the bride and groom did not.
The legend says they found each other in the swamp that night, but could never find their way out or back home.
Their ghosts are said to haunt the Washington Ditch Trail at night, always walking toward Dismal Town, but they never make it.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.
Source: The Virginian-Pilot, August 8, 2019
Image Credit: Go Hike Virginia