Dancing Point
A tale elaborated by William Chesterman, hints of future problems.Where the Chickahominy enters the James is a spot still called Dancing Point, long reputed to be haunted. A man, appropriately named Lightfoot, owned a plantation there with a marsh which he wished to drain. The Devil, cast here as a kind of an early advocate for wetland preservation, opposed the scheme, so they agreed to meet for a midnight "trial of dancing" to decide the issue. "Flaming torches and shooting stars rising from the swamp lighted the ground upon which the contest took place." Lightfoot was still dancing at dawn when he discovered his swamp had become a "field, high and dry" but, as it developed, unable to grow grass or herb. Lights are still said to dance at night over the bare area. and "no fox seeks here his prey." The moral is either that no one wins a dispute with the Devil, or do not fool with the delicate balances of the estuary.
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