Lassiter Swamp Trail

The Lassiter Swamp Trail explores the most primordial and visually striking landscape in Merchant Millpond State Park, entering the haunting interior of the largest natural millpond in North Carolina where ancient bald cypress and water tupelo create a flooded forest of extraordinary atmospheric character. The trail begins at the edge of the main millpond and threads through a swamp of towering bald cypress draped in Spanish moss, their massive fluted bases rising from the dark tannin-stained water on swollen buttresses that function as root supports in the saturated soil. Water tupelo trees crowd between the cypress, their branches reflecting in mirror-still pools that connect invisibly beneath a continuous carpet of duckweed and water hyacinth. The effect is of a prehistoric landscape, primeval and silent except for the calls of prothonotary warblers and the occasional splash of a river otter or water moccasin entering the water from a cypress knee. The millpond itself was created in 1811 when a dam was constructed across Bennetts Creek, backing water up into the existing swamp and creating the ghostly drowned forest visible today. Bald cypress can live for over a thousand years, and some of the largest trees in the swamp may predate the colonial period. Evening canoe trips through the swamp are among the most atmospheric outdoor experiences in the coastal plain of North Carolina.