The 1600s
1665 Lake discovered by William Drummond
1728 Dismal Swamp Canal proposed by William Byrd
1763 Lake Drummond charted by George Washington’s surveyor
1764 Dismal Swamp Land Company chartered
1787 Dismal Swamp Canal authorized by Virginia Legislature
1790 Dismal Swamp Canal authorized by North Carolina Legislature
1793 Work on the Dismal Swamp Canal began
A Young George Washington. With no existing portraits of Washington before the age of 40, Mount Vernon convened a team of experts who used imaging, documents, clothing and likenesses of Washington to create life-size models of him as a 19-year-old surveyor, a 45-year-old general and a 57-year-old president. These life-size models are displayed in three of the 16 galleries of the Mount Vernon Education Center.