In honor of 30 years of The Rivah Visitor’s Guide we are featuring stories that have previously been printed throughout our 30 year history. This feature story appeared in the Fall/Holiday 2014 issue.
by Tom Chillemi –
I push off from shore, breaking gravity’s bond. A thin layer of water floats me away from reality and into a magical world that humans can only visit.
The instant my kayak floats, I know I am “there,” where I want to be. A feeling of freedom from the land and the problems that stay on shore.
The lazy stream takes over as I fall under the spell of the Dragon Run.
If there is a more enchanting place in Rivah Country, I haven’t found it.
My kayak slides effortlessly on the water’s slippery surface, dipping a paddle only to maneuver.
Waving underwater plants hypnotize me. They sway, moving softly in unison to the water’s invisible force. When my paddle interrupts the water’s flow, the long green leaves gyrate in swirling eddies. When I remove my padle, they revert to their slow, rhythmic pulses.
Paddling forms funnel-shaped eddies that spin briefly, pulling leaves into the circle, then dissolve.
Songs of birds brighten the clear air. Geese honking echoes. Ducks scurry over head. Woodpeckers hammer craggy old trees. Water ripples over beaver dams, with a trickle—a soothing sound.
A bug buzzes by. The hum of its wings trails off like a speeding race car whizzing by.
Nary a sound from the industrial man-made world invades this pristine world.
So close, yet so far away.
Not too far from the four lanes of Route 17 is this magical place called Dragon Run.
Somewhere up north springs release groundwater that combines with rain water to form the twisting Dragon Run. It forms the border of King and Queen County to the west, and Essex and Middlesex counties to the east.
During the Civil War when the Confederate government called for all court records to be sent to Richmond for safe keeping, Middlesex officials instead hid theirs in the Dragon Swamp. Protected by a water and wetland maze, the county records escaped the destruction of Richmond.
In the pristine Dragon Run, nature reigns and time is measured by the flow of fresh water that slowly winds 40 miles until it meets the Piankatank River.
Largely undisturbed by humans, its ecosystem remains as it has been for hundreds of years. The sounds of the modern world are barred, replaced by song birds and the trickle of water over beaver dams.
Peepers peer at people as they pass. Hidden by camouflage, they blend into water and leaves.
Mighty bald cypress trees scrape the sky. Their wood has long been prized for its rot resistance. Eagles nest in their towering tops.
Bald cypress “knees” jut from the water. Their cone shapes resemble hooded hobbits in long coats. They appear to be staring back at paddlers. (Some believe cypress knees can move, but they freeze when they hear humans approaching their domain, then come back to life after people pass.)
The water holds mystical elements such as underwater formations that appear to be solid. What looks like sunken wood turns out to be “mermaid hair” and dissolves before your eyes, as in a dream.
It’s a place frozen in time where nature reigns and man is an outsider.
It’s hard to leave the Dragon Run. And time spent there goes by quickly, making the experience all that more precious.
How did Dragon Run get its name?
by Teta Kain, member of Friends of the Dragon Run
- Colonials named it that because they thought it would deter slaves from escaping into the swamp with a name like that. Probably untrue because the name “Dragon Run” appeared in literature of the late 1600s, long before slaves ever arrived in America.
- Also probably untrue because there are no dragons in Africa, and slaves, not being from England, wouldn’t have known what a dragon was or that they should be afraid of it.
- Named because of the many dragonflies on the river. Unlikely. There are many dragonflies on all the rivers in East Central North America.
- Perhaps the small fence lizards may have reminded colonial settlers of dragons. Hardly likely.
- The Dragon area was settled mostly by Portuguese in the 1600, the period when the name was first applied. There may have been a word in Portuguese that sounded like “dragon” and therefore, was applied to the river. This theory is more plausible than most others, but there is no proof that it is true.
- So the answer to question is “No one really knows.”
Dragons REALLY DO exist on the river because I, Teta Kain, have actually seen them. See the above picture of a dripping dragon lifting its head out of the water as it forages in the river weeds. Now who can dispute that, may I ask.
