THE RIVER: BEAUTY, HISTORY
AND MYSTERY

The portion of the long Virginia-Carolina waterway that is known as the Chowan River is about 50 miles in length, drifting generally north-to-south from the state line to Edenton. It varies in width from a quarter-mile to almost three miles.

It is a geological anomaly that ~ combined with the Albemarle Sound ~ separates much of low-lying Northeastern North Carolina from the rest of the state.

The land east of the big river is a broad, flat plateau ~ mostly swampy.

The land west of the river also is a broad, flat plateau ~ also mostly swampy ~ but the plateau on that bank of the Chowan is generally 20 feet or so higher than the plateau to the east.

Looking to the east when traveling the river, the water takes a long while to blend into forested higher ground.

But to the west ~ all up and down the watercourse ~ there is a very noticeable bluff, the base of which has been eroded over eons by the action of the wind and the waves.

This bluff is punctuated frequently by breaks, or ravines, where runoff from the higher ground has long fought its way toward the sea.

Some of these ravines are narrow and short, from 40 to 50 yards wide and several hundred yards in length, with only a trickle of water at their bottoms.

But some are wide and long ~ up to a half-mile in width at the river and many miles in their lengthy meanders as swamp-drainers. These ravines carry big creeks and waterways, some of which in their own right are worthy of the name "river." These include the Potecasi-Meherrin, the Wiccacon and the Salmon.

Below Petty Shore the Chowan is virtually at sea level, and the only noticeable current is wind-current. Tunis has a tide of about six inches.

The river, which was patrolled by Union gunboats all through the Civil War, probably is one of the prettiest in the world.

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Two intriguing mysteries have long gone unexplained in Northeastern North Carolina, and they both have connections to the Chowan River.

One is the disappearance of the Lost Colony from Roanoke Island while John White was in England trying to round up supplies.

The other is "the Schooner of the Dismal Swamp."

According to Don Upchurch, the rotting hulk of this two-masted boat was discovered in the mid-1800s near Acorn Hill (between Sunbury and the Dismal Swamp) in Gates County ~ but was soon forgotten and then never located again.

A letter written by Upchurch and published in Roanoke-Chowan area papers in 1997 pointed out the intriguing parts:

1.--The colonists were left with a two-masted pinnace and other smaller boats.

2.--They wanted to go to Chesapeake Bay.

3.--The Albemarle Sound and Chowan River would have been the safest inland deep-water route of the time between Roanoke Island and Chesapeake, and the colonists had maps and were well aware of this route.

The problem: The place where the two-masted wreck was discovered in the 1800s is around the narrow headwaters of Bennetts Creek and as the crows still fly, it's at least 10 long miles northeast of the Chowan.

Upchurch's 1997 letter theorized that the Colonists were using the Chowan as their chosen route to their original destination at Chesapeake Bay, and for some reason proceeded up Bennetts Creek when they arrived at the broad entrance to that waterway.

As we said, intriguing, to say the least.

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Four hundred years of intensive ditching and drainage have gone by since the Colonists would have headed for Chesapeake. Today's big "swamp" is hardly half the size it was at that time. Where we see plowed fields today, once there were wide creeks, beaver dams and a lot of standing water.

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The Gates County theory put forth by Upchurch is not as far-fetched as a lot of other ideas that have been pursued on the subject.

It certainly is not reasonable to think that the Colonists would have headed for "Robeson County" (Lumbee country) or "Warren County" (Haliwas). They knew where "South Carolina" was located, and if they had wanted to go there, they would not have headed for Chesapeake in the first place.

They knew that when White returned, he would look around Roanoke Island and then assume they had headed generally north to the place they had wanted to go when they were put ashore prematurely.

They weren't looking for "Wilmington," "Charleston," or even "Jamestown."

They just wanted to reach the south shore of Chesapeake Bay ~ "Norfolk," on today's maps.

They didn't want to take their little boats back out into the fearsome Atlantic Ocean to get there. And the northern sound was too wide, too choppy, too shallow, too short and too marshy. The nearer northern rivers were short, and wound up in wet, almost impenetrable forest.

And all their ideas of travel focused on boats. They had no mules and wagons, and they didn't want to carry their supplies on their backs any further than necessary.

The Upchurch theory gains credence from the fact that the Chowan River was explored country. The Colonists knew where it was, and they knew the general direction of its creeks.

It is entirely possible they may have headed up Bennetts Creek deliberately when they reached the point where the Chowan takes its abrupt ~ if temporary ~ western turn.

They may have intended to go as far as they could by boat, and then trek the remainder of the distance.

And it cannot be denied that this particular tributary would have taken them closer to their intended destination than any other route.

They probably didn't know that along the way they would encounter what we now call the Great Dismal Swamp, however, and it may have been an impassable barrier.

But then, again, they may have reached Chesapeake.

That's the way you'd go to Suffolk and Chesapeake today.

There has been previous historical conjecture that the Colonists did reach the south shore of the Chesapeake and lived with a few Indians there who were not under Powhatan's control. Also, that later, Powhatan attacked this group and killed and enslaved them along with the Colonists, and later tried to hide that fact from John Smith's people.

The Upchurch Theory of the Lost Colony is worthy of a lot of study. When you really get down and ponder the maps, it's the most logical idea yet.

And Don is still working on it today ~ searching and studying.

We hope he finds it.

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The beauty of the Chowan River is captured in this Lucy Daniels photo, "The Point on a Clear Day," taken from her residence on a bluff near Mount Gould