THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504060186
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SOUTH MILLS LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
THE CANADIAN CAME up to Penny Leary-Smith and asked about bubbles coming from the bottom of the Dismal Swamp Canal.
Did a boat just go by? she asked.
No, he answered.
So she followed him to the docks to investigate. Sure enough, big balls of air were bursting on the surface of the murky waters.
Leary took the man's name and address and promised she'd write him with the explanation. She did, relating what a marine biologist had told her about underwater plant debris fermenting under certain conditions.
``Yes, it took time, and I had to do a little research, but he'll remember this place. And that's real important,'' said Leary-Smith, who has run the Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor & Welcome Center since it opened six years ago this month.
If this year matches the last, more than half a million motorists and almost 2,000 boaters will stop by the facility on U.S. 17 to relax, read up on the area and use the restrooms.
Lois and Kenneth Dale, both in their 70s, have been in scores of rest stops since leaving their northern Iowa home for a cross-country trip.
``This place looks nicer to me,'' Lois said after her husband received directions to Colonial Williamsburg. ``The ladies' restroom was perfectly clean.''
``And that,'' Kenneth said, ``is something that doesn't happen often.''
It's also rare to see boaters pulling up at the same time motorists are pulling in. The Dismal Swamp Canal center is the only welcome station in the state - perhaps in the country - that serves both waterway and highway traffic.
It can get pretty crowded at the docks during the peak months of May and October. Up to 23 boats heading to or from Chesapeake have come in at one time.
Saturdays are especially hectic for the small staff of four paid employees and a handful of volunteers.
Ever since its opening year, which saw 414,410 ``facility users,'' the Dismal Swamp Canal center has surpassed expectations.
``We wonder what did all these people do before we were here,'' Leary-Smith said.
Even locals may be surprised to discover the array of services offered beside the restrooms and picnic facilities.
The welcome center staff will help chart your journey through the state, arrange hotel and motel accommodations (some requiring use of a telephone calling card), reserve a ferry spot, fill you in on upcoming events and find help if your vehicle breaks down.
A television broadcasts promotional videos, while brochures on a nearby table announce upcoming garden shows. There are recipes for peanuts and soybeans and even a shelf full of paperbacks for a Boaters Book Exchange.
The first of six state welcome centers to be built off a major interstate highway, the Dismal Swamp Canal facility has its regulars.
There's the couple from Petersburg, Va., that stops by almost monthly during trips to their Outer Banks cottage.
A set of parents brings New York-style bagels each time they drive down to visit family in Elizabeth City.
A Baltimore couple drops a postcard to let everyone know the next time they're coming through.
``They look forward to us, and we look forward to their return,'' Leary-Smith said.
``So, it's just not a pitstop,'' she said. ``It establishes lasting friendships.''
It also has helped establish tourism in the area outside the best-known attraction - the Outer Banks.
More people are asking for directions to places like Edenton and Belhaven and remarking about the landscape and historical attractions in towns along U.S. 17.
``There are a lot of people who've never seen a row of crops a mile long,'' Leary-Smith said.
``People come here from California, and it's like England would be to us because they don't have many things that date back to the 1800s.''
Raymond Couturier came here to get a break from the interstate on his way to Florida.
``It's nice. It's clean. And it has very helpful people,'' the former restaurateur from New Hampshire said while eating a bagel and pasta salad from his cooler. ``This place is a little different. I like it.'' ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Boaters prepare to spend the night at the Dismal Swamp Visitors
Center. Last year, more than half a million motorists and almost
2,000 boaters stopped by the facility on U.S. 17.
by CNB