. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Early this March. I disappeared into the Great Alligator Swamp.* After being cooped up all winter, I needed to get into the wild. At the first hint of spring. I drove to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, between Columbia and Manteo, and slipped my boat into an amber- red creek fragrant of peat and sweet bay. Only in ancient peat swamps — the Dismal, the Croatan, the Okefenokee — have I ever smelled earth so uproariously rich in life. I loaded my boat with groceries, gear and extra clothes and p
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Early this March. I disappeared into the Great Alligator Swamp.* After being cooped up all winter, I needed to get into the wild. At the first hint of spring. I drove to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, between Columbia and Manteo, and slipped my boat into an amber- red creek fragrant of peat and sweet bay. Only in ancient peat swamps — the Dismal, the Croatan, the Okefenokee — have I ever smelled earth so uproariously rich in life. I loaded my boat with groceries, gear and extra clothes and paddled into the swamp, never looking back. I picked the Great Alligator because it's such a grand wilderness, more than 160,000 acres of remote, uninhabited swamps, hammocks and lakes. But I also wanted to see what remained of Buffalo City. This abandoned sawmill village thrived by * Historically, the vast swamp that covers most of mainland Dare and Tyrrell counties has been called by many different names, but I like "Great Alligator Swamp," a name used in the 18th century. Skidder used by Dare Lumber Company and similar firms to haul trees to rail line Mill Tail Creek in the heart of the swamp between 1885 and 1925. It was once the largest town in Dare County and boasted one of the busiest sawmills in North Carolina. Dozens of mill towns like Buffalo City sprang up in coastal North. Carolina between 1880 and 1920. American timber compa- nies had exhausted the forests of New England and the Great Lakes, so they moved to the South. Soon they logged our old-growth forests and moved on too. When the last of the Atlantic white cedar (juniper) was cut. Buffalo City became a ghost town. As I paddled into the Great Alligator. I had a guidebook better than all of my topographical maps. My barber and friend Bud Midgette, who hails from Columbia in nearby Tyrrell County, had recently honored me with a copy of his late uncle's unpublished reminis- cences. His uncle Benjamin
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