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Topography and Mosquitoes at Sewall's Point, 1907
(For more Norfolk geography tidbits, click here.)
(from The Official Blue Book of Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition, The Colonial Publishing Co., Norfolk, 1907, p.749:
"LANDSCAPE DEPARTMENT (Will M. Dixon, Esq., Director of Works):
TOPOGRAPHY
The site of the Exposition was Sewell's Point, a, low-lying peninsula bounded by the Elizabeth River on the west; Hampton Roads on the north, and Willoughby Bay on the east. The highest, elevation above sea-level was fifteen feet, the lowest three feet and the mean nine feet. The soil consisted, for the most part, of sandy silt and was broken by large marshes, both fresh and salt.  There were a few wooded portions, but the great bulk of the land had been cleared and used many generations for farming....
EXTERMINATING MOSQUITOES
The territory lying south of the Exposition site, besides having many fresh water marshes, had numerous tidal inlets extending from one hundred to three hundred yards on each side of Boush Creek. The apices of the inlets received the fresh water drainage from the land, and as the salt tide reached them only three or four times a year they formed excellent breeding places for the anopheles and the culex sollicitans. This condition necessitated the digging of a large number of ditches and laterals in order to prevent the spread of malaria by the anopheles and to shield visitors from the annoyance caused by the culex sollicitans and other species of mosquitoes. The method used consisted in cutting a main ditch down the center with connecting laterals on either side. The ditches varied in depth from six inches to three feet. Other measures directed to mosquito extermination consisted in the filling of many low spots liable to be converted into fresh water pools by the rains, the dredging of certain channels which were needed to add to the natural beauty of the grounds, the stocking of the reservoirs and lagoons with top minnows and beetles, to destroy mosquito larvae, and the oiling of those places where these measures could not be applied."
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