Dragon Swamp extended some 20 miles in a relatively straight line; and winding through the swamp was an impassable creek, Dragon Run. A navigable channel into the swamp was desired, not to carry passengers or farm products, but to provide access to valuable swamp timber—the motive also behind most of the canals in the Dismal Swamp. Claudius Crozet, of the Virginia Board of Public Works, outlined the possibilities of a Dragon Swamp Navigation in his1828 report:

"Dragon Swamp...is a sluggish stream, which shapes its course all the way between swamps covered with fine timber, mostly of the cypress kind. The opening of the navigation of the creek would effect the double object of procuring a market for this very valuable article of commerce, now unproductive; and, after its removal, of enabling the proprietors of the swamps to reclaim them for cultivation."

In 1836 an act of the Virginia Assembly directed a survey of the proposed navigation, and by 1839 the Dragon Swamp Navigation Company, Thomas W. Fauntleroy, President, had begun the first phase of the operation.

In preparation for a more permanent improvement, obstructions were removed from the course of the stream, which, except for large trees across it, and where there were sharp angles or shoals, was made navigable for shallow-draft batteaux and flatboats. No mention is made in the records of the use of mechanical equipment such as dredging machines; this work was done by hand, with axe, saw, shovel and main strength. The task was made easier by working during low water when possible. A big setback came when for a few months no work could be done "because of the usual sickliness of our section of the country"; perhaps this sickness was malaria, famous for its work during the building of the Erie Canal through the Montezuma Marshes.

In March, 1840, President Fauntleroy announced that $3,722.24 had so far been spent on the navigation and that the channel was now navigable as far as the New Dragon Bridge, about 20 miles running, for lighters up to 45 feet long, ten feet wide, and 22 inches draft. Above the bridge (presumably as far as Ware's Bridge, the original goal of the navigation) the channel had been opened for ten miles, but was not yet suitable for transportation.

And this seems to have been the greatest extent of the Dragon Swamp Navigation. It was never completed to Wares Bridge, but it wound through good timber stands for at least 20 miles; and at the head of the navigation, at the New Dragon Bridge, was Manus's Mill, one of the steam sawmills in the swamp, which was expected to use the navigation extensively to haul logs to the mill, and to ship lumber to market. (Although not explicitly stated in the records, it is presumed that the head of navigation remained at the New Dragon Bridge; that this was the location of Manus's Mill; and that it was one of the steam sawmills mentioned.)

The stockholders of the Dragon Swamp Navigation Company must have been very disappointed, for if they had a toll-gatherer waiting beside the channel, he would have been extremely lonely. Perhaps some tolls were taken during the first several years, as the swamp was opened to the lumbermen, but after reporting in 1841 that the navigation was used "a little," we read, "all navigation stopped"(1842),"Losing money... no traffic"(1843), and "no funds... stopped work"(1845). The crowning injustice was performed by Manus's sawmill, the company's main hope, which instead of sending lumber down the navigation, carted everything eight miles overland to be shipped down the Rappahannock.

Sometime soon thereafter, during the1850s, the Dragon Swamp Navigation Company quietly faded away; but it has left us a little swampy wilderness with a history. It is hoped that Dragon Swamp and its old navigation will someday be protected from further encroachment, so that many generations will have the chance to enjoy its solitude and search for the remains of man's works.