THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240214
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 85 lines
Carolina bays, unusual depressions in the landscape in the southern half of the city, may as well have been created by space aliens for all one knows about their origin.
Or by whales. They have the popular name of ``whale wallow,'' probably because the depressions are so big that folks figured they could only have been made by a whale.
Actually, Carolina bays are much bigger than whales. These large basins in the land can be as big as 100 acres. A high rim of sandy soil surrounds about two-thirds of a Carolina bay and there are other distinct features as well.
They are oval-shaped and are always oriented northwest to southeast. With rich, poorly drained soil, Carolina bays are not found in the northern part of the city and few people, other than geologists, know of their existence.
Bonney Bright is one of them. He raises crops in Pungo and Knotts Island on land that includes several Carolina bays. When he stands in the Carolina bay that he farms on Knotts Island, he can't see over its sandy rim to the other side. Conversely if he's standing outside the bay he can't see a big combine working behind the high sandy rim.
That particular bay is about 25 acres large and its sandy rim could be as much as 12 feet high. Other bays Bright is familiar with have rims that are about 6 feet high.
When Bright first started growing crops in these areas, he did not know what the features were called. He only knew they were rich and productive and that everything grew better in a Carolina bay than in surrounding soil.
``The soil is real black,'' Bright said, ``and never packs hard. It's always loose. We could make more money off it by putting it in bags and selling it to homeowners for their gardens!''
The soil is rich because of all the leaves and other organic matter that have washed down into the low-lying areas over thousands of years, said Louis Cullipher, director of the city's Department of Agriculture.
``They are like a bathtub,'' Cullipher said, ``accumulating loamy matter for 60,000 years.''
The bays exist only on the Mid-Atlantic coastal plains and are called Carolina bays because they are more numerous in the Carolinas that anywhere else, he explained.
In Virginia Beach there are a dozen or so of them, all between Pleasant Ridge and the North Carolina line. The rim of sandy soil is visible in aerial photos and on the landscape, too, in some cases.
The farmer's only problem with a Carolina bay is that it's lower than the surrounding land and very wet. It must be drained before crops grow well there and that's sometimes hard with the high rim that surrounds it.
Although farmers agree on their productivity, no one agrees on their origin, Cullipher said. Some conjecture that the bays were created by meteorites that hit the landscape and threw up the sandy rim. Other theories hold that the bays are sinkholes or extinct lakes or lagoons.
There also has been the suggestion that Carolina bays were created by meandering streams that almost encircled certain parts of the landscape and then dried up, leaving low-lying, damp areas behind.
Cullipher pulled out a map of the North Landing River and pointed out the oxbows or curves in the waterway and how much they look like the shape of Carolina bays in an aerial photo. Maybe Virginia Beach's Carolina bays were created by an old stream bed of the North Landing River, he said.
Or, maybe it really was a whale.
``It's one of those intriguing things in nature that no one understands,'' Cullipher said.
P.S. A BALTIMORE ORIOLE has been dining at Grace Holdren's feeder since before Christmas. Holdren, who lives in the Birchwood South area, said she just started feeding the birds this fall and when she first saw the beautiful oriole, she thought she was seeing a red leaf!
IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT NOT SEEING MANY BIRDS thus far this winter, worry no longer. I put a birdbath on the deck railing recently and kept it full of fresh water during the freeze. Since it was nearby, I could readily see all the birds that stopped to drink - my first goldfinch of the season, as well as robins, cedar waxwings, mockingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, doves, chickadees, tufted titmice and several other little birds. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555.
Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet
address: mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
In an aerial photo of a Carolina bay in Virginia Beach, the rim of
sandy soil is visible. The low-lying bays can be as big as 100
acres.