Okefenokee Swamp
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Canal Diggers Trail in early spring. |
The
Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000
acre (1600
km²),
peat-filled wetland straddling the
Georgia-
Florida border in the
United States. A majority of the swamp is protected by the
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the
Okefenokee Wilderness.
It is the largest peat-based "blackwater" swamp in
North America. The name means "trembling earth" in a
Native American language, a reference to its spongy bogs. The swamp was formed over the past 6,500 years by the accumulation of peat in a shallow basin on the edge of an ancient Atlantic coastal terrace, the geological relic of a Pleistocene estuary. The swamp is bordered by
Trail Ridge, a strip of elevated land believed to have formed as coastal dunes or an offshore barrier island. The St. Marys River and the
Suwannee River both originate in the swamp. The Suwannee River originates as stream channels in the heart of Okefenokee Swamp and drains at least 90% of the swamp's watershed southwest towards the Gulf of Mexico. The
St. Marys River, which drains only 5 - 10% of the swamp's southeastern corner, flows south along the western side of Trail Ridge, through the ridge at St. Marys River Shoals, and north again along the eastern side of Trail Ridge before turning east to the Atlantic. The
Suwanee Canal was dug across the swamp in the late nineteenth century in a failed attempt to drain the Okefenokee. After the company's bankruptcy, most of the swamp was purchased by the Hebard family of Philadelphia, who conducted extensive cypress logging operations from 1909 to 1927. Several other logging companies also ran train tracks into the swamp until 1942, remnants of which can still be seen crossing swamp waterways. On the west side of the swamp,
Billy's Island,logging equipment and other artifacts of a logging town of 600 residents. Most of the Okefenokee Swamp is included in the 403,000-acre (1630 km²)
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
There are four public entrances or landings to the swamp:
* Suwannee Canal Recreation Area at
Folkston, Georgia* Kingfisher Landing at
Race Pond, Georgia*
Stephen C. Foster State Park at
Fargo, Georgia* Suwannee Sill Recreation Area at
Fargo, GeorgiaIn addition,a private attraction,
Okefenokee Swamp Park, provides access near
Waycross, GeorgiaFlorida State Road 2 passes through the Florida portion between the Georgia cities of
Council and
Moniac.
Many visitors enter the
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge each year. The swamp provides an important economic resource to southeast Georgia and northeast Florida. About 400,000 people visit the swamp annually, with many guests from such distant locations as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, China and Mexico. Service providers at the Refuge entrances and several local outfitters offer guided tours by motorboat, canoe and kayak.
A 50-year
titanium mining operation by
DuPont was set to begin in
1997, but
protests and public/government opposition over the possibly disastrous environmental effects throughout 1996-2000 caused the company to abandon the project in 2000 and retire their mineral rights forever. In 2003, DuPont donated the 16,000 acres (65 km²) it had purchased for mining to The Conservation Fund, and in 2005, nearly 7,000 acres (28 km²) of the donated land was transferred to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
The Okefenokee Swamp is home to many wading
birds, such as
herons,
egrets,
ibises,
cranes and
bitterns, as well as many
alligators and
insects.
* In
Walt Kelly's
comic strip Pogo, the characters made their home in the Okefenokee Swamp.
* In
Piers Anthony's
Xanth novels, the fantasy realm of Xanth is a
parallel universe of Earth's Florida, and includes a mirror of the Okefenokee, called the
Ogre-fen-ogre Swamp.
* The Okefenokee Swamp is considered to be one of the
Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia.
*
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge*
Okefenokee Swamp and National Wildlife Refuge*
Okefenokee Adventures home page*
Okefenokee Pastimes home pageCurrent Events On The Okefenokee, Dupont, and Bruce Babbitt (as of May 27 1997)
