Above: View from the canal in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Note how dark the water is and the incredible reflections it produces. Below, one of the most famous comic strips from "Pogo" by Walt Kelly. The characters lived in the swamp.
The first time I was in Southeast Georgia, it was on a family trip to Disney World in 1986. We took the minivan south through I-95 and noted that it was swampy. And it was a hot summer day and it smelled too.
It actually was tidal lands, but at that point in my life, who knew the difference? Or cared? We were heading for Orlando’s theme parks and took little interest other than to note the place was fairly ugly.
On the return trip, we stopped at a motel and the ex got sick, possibly from the pool water. Thus, there was no desire – ever – to stop in the area again. Fast forward a quarter century and I found a place of peace and serenity there after finalizing the divorce papers and selling the house. I had actually come across the town of St. Marys because there was a state park to camp at. The weather was so mild and the park so attractive, that I stayed about ten days rather than travel on to Florida. It wasn’t until I realized Spring Training Baseball was almost over that I moved on.
This year, I am spending a month here and again enjoying it. I’ve spent more time at the state park – though I am camped across the street at a very friendly RV court where people return every winter. Some of them remembered me from my brief weekend with a Sunday potluck supper on St. Patrick’s day in 2011 and I was happy to repeat the experience this year. And I’ve made day trips to Cumberland Island National Seashore, a gambling boat trip in Brunswick, GA and a day in St. Augustine, FL. The nearest city is Jacksonville and I’ve been there a couple of times to take care of some banking and making purchases that no local store could provide. But today was the time to get away from the coast and visit a real swamp.
Thus it was time to go to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. A 700 square mile refuge that is definitely swampland. Now anyone who grew up in my day, and was halfway intellectual, knew Okefenokee and its residents well. Our daily date with Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” comic strip gave us more than a few wicked grins as its inhabitants made shrewd observations about the state of mankind. I’ve included perhaps his most famous strip made on Earth Day, 1971.
“Okefenokee” was the name used by the indigenous Creeks and was believed to mean, “Land of Trembling Earth”. As it turns out, that’s a popular but very loose and many believe incorrect translation. “Oka” means water in the Hitchiti Creek language and “Fenoke” means shaking in Hitchiti. So the original meaning of Okefenokee is more like “Waters Shaking” not the commonly held “Land of Trembling Earth.” But the land indeed trembles. Most of what appears to be land is vegetation floating on the surface of the water and if you step on it, you will find yourself in several feet of water if you are lucky. A lot of it is called “swamp muck” which is a type of quicksand.
But truth is far different than what the comics usually tell you, but I did meet a version of Pogo. His name is Charlie and he is a tour boat guide. I took an instant liking to Charlie because he is who he is and doesn’t give a damn what others think of him. He has a number of lower front teeth missing and just carries on with his business, not worrying about what he can’t control.
He says he’s been living along the swamp for more than 40 of his 60 years. Lean and wiry, he uses a loud voice to share the secrets of the swamp. For example, we started going along a straight line of water that stretched at least a couple of miles in one direction and I thought to myself that this surely isn’t natural. Turns out I was right. Charlie told us the story of how people tried to dredge a canal to harvest the cypress trees in the swamp, but only made it about ten miles before giving up. But the canal is one of the few places to enter the swamp on a boat and so we benefit from it a century later.
Along the route, Charlie pointed out many alligators and other wildlife such as turtles and heron and described their functions in the swamp’s ecology. He noted that water levels are about two feet lower than normal and there are far fewer birds than normal, which is ironic because the government established the swamp as a migratory bird habitat in 1936. He told us that with these conditions, raccoons would eat the birds’ eggs and so the area was no longer very attractive. He did point out that the alligators more than welcomed the raccoons as yet another source of food.
Having viewed ‘gators in the wild at Florida’s Great Cypress National Wildlife Refuge, I was used to seeing them in the wild. But I was impressed by the karma of a gator’s life. When they are small, they are food for many of the swamp’s mammals, for example, turtles. But the hunters become the hunted by the time the gators grow up and they become the top of the food chain.
Another aspect of the gators is they do not feed very often in the winter months. Though there is rarely a frost on the swamp, during the winter months they can slow down their metabolic rate and remain that way for days. It also enables them to spend hours underwater without needing to come up to breathe. Because of the heavy amount of tannic acid in the water along with a bottom of peat moss, the water is black in appearance. You can’t see more than an inch or so into the water, which enhances the gator’s ability to hunt.
Yet the water is also pure enough to drink, although you will have to realize there is some “Gatorade” in it. All the water in the swamp is the result of rain and it drains into the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers. In fact, should you get lost in the swamp, you could survive on it as well as a plant that grows in the water. It’s orange tip, which looks a little like asparagus, tastes somewhat like celery with a mild spice. The area abounds in many varieties of fish as well.
You can also rent a canoe or a kayak to explore the area, but the water level is too low for a skiff with a motor. In fact the outboard motors of the tour boats can get clogged with peat rather often.
As we returned towards the docks after our tour, I asked Charlie about how people in the area make a living in the area. Not too well, was the answer. Charlie was a former park ranger and so driving a tour boat came rather naturally. He said he has lived in the swamplands for about 40 of his 60 years. There’s employment to be had in the timber industry and there is a nearby town, Folkston, with some retail stores. Folkston is also known as a mecca for train watchers as the main tracks heading to and from Florida converge there. Check out YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaPQZ706_4k&feature=player_embedded for a fascinating report on this attraction.
But he also mentioned that drug smuggling is big here. Planes will drop their loads into the swamp to be retrieved by swamp dwellers who pass it up through a supply line. He said there are a couple of “outlaw towns” in the area that will follow a strange vehicle passing through the town. Moving drugs are the new way of making a living and are far more profitable than distilling moonshine. Now I don’t know if Charlie was pulling my leg or not, but I’m not at all tempted to visit these towns.
In addition to pushing a guideboat, Charlie goes into the swamp (but not on parkland he says) to harvest water lilies. A local business will pay him $15 each for plants which are in bloom and are resold to people who have residential gardens and ponds. Now I’m not saying what happened, but two days after Charlie pointed out that fact, I took the tour with someone else and the water lilies, which were starting to bloom in numbers, were gone. I asked Charlie about it, and he gave me the face and voice of an angel telling me how he would never go into the Refuge to illegally poach the plants. He reminded me of a girl I knew in high school. Whenever the teacher left the room, she would start a spitball fight and never, ever would the teacher believe our accusations about her. Yes Sandra Raff, this means you, wherever you are.
But anyhow, while Okefenokee remains a national treasure, people like Charlie make it worth visiting.
