Cypresses, Spanish moss and algae at Merchants Millpond
About this photograph
- Date created
- November 4, 2006
- Location
- Gatesville, North Carolina
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
See this photograph in context
- Antebellum North Carolina: Primary sources and readings explore North Carolina in the antebellum period (1830–1860). Topics include slavery, daily life, agriculture, industry, technology, and the arts, as well as the events leading to secession and civil war. (Page 1.11)
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for coastal pond, cypress trees, Gates County, Gatesville, Merchants Millpond, Merchants Millpond State Park, millpond, North Carolina, state park, swamp forest, swamps, tupelo gum, and wildlife.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
Cypresses, Spanish moss, and algae make up the landscape at Merchants Millpond in Gatesville, North Carolina. One of North Carolina’s rarest ecological communities, Merchants Millpond State Park is a unique mingling of coastal pond and southern swamp forest. At its upper end lies Lassiter Swamp, “an ecological wonderland containing remnants of an ancient bald cypress swamp, and the eerie enchanted forest of tupelo gum whose trunks and branches have been distorted into fantastic shapes by mistletoe.” A variety of reptiles, amphibians, and mammals such as beaver, mink and river otter make their homes here.
