45
The Black River is home to bald cypress trees that are
hundreds — even thousands — of years old. Left: This
bald cypress has been dated at 2,624 years old, making
it the fifth-oldest known living tree species on Earth.
to take root. In May and June, spider lilies begin to spring up in the thick
black mud along the shore, bright white starbursts against the dark browns
and greens of the undergrowth. Spanish moss hangs in gray curtains from
the trees. By night, river otters feast on mussels dug up from the bone-white
sand of the river bottom and leave the pearlescent shells to decorate fallen
logs. Birds flit about overhead, chirping and calling and singing from the
branches of the bald cypress trees that make this swamp not only hauntingly
beautiful but unique in the natural world.
In 1981, conservationist Julie Moore was working for the North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program. Knowing she was documenting natural areas
in the coastal plain, a forester named Dan Gilbert invited Moore to Cone’s
Folly hunting preserve, saying he had some trees to show her. A curious
invitation Moore thought, coming from a man who was in the business of
cutting down trees. Moore met Gilbert at a logging camp one early fall day,
and the pair rode in an old pickup to a swamp on the Black River and fell
silent, taking it in, as scores of wood ducks descended for the evening into
the shelter of the bald cypress trees along the banks. “It was one of those
times that you know someone is sharing with you something that is very
important to them,” Moore says. She knew immediately that Three Sisters
was a special place.
210
210
Three
Sisters
Swamp
11
53
53
Ivanhoe
Atkinson
421
B L A C K R I V E R
C AP E F E A R RIV E R
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM