The woman who answered the phone at the cabin reservation desk said the swamp's western access was the most beautiful of the three. Early European settlers, trying to navigate their tongues around the foreign syllables, came up with "okefenokee," their version of the Native American name. The Native Americans called the place the "land of the trembling earth," a reference to the many spongy islands of peat and other vegetation that float above the swamp's sandy bottom. While the Sunday funnies have spread Okefenokee's fame, it's been known and inhabited for hundreds of years. Okefenokee Swamp Park, at the swamp's northern entrance, has a small Pogo museum honoring his legacy. The rich ecosystem may be the main attraction for the swamp's more than 400,000 visitors a year, but Kelly's characters and imagination still play a role. It's also home to three types of carnivorous plants, 16 species of salamanders and something called the Pygmy Sunfish.īut its most notable denizens probably belong to that alternative Okefenokee universe found in the "Pogo" comic strip created by cartoonist Kelly.įrom 1948 to 1973, in newspapers across the country, Pogo, Albert, Churchy, Miz Hepzibah and others dispensed gentle wisdom, word play and biting political satire in the moss-draped, slightly ominous liquid landscape of Kelly's Okefenokee. It's been a wildlife refuge since 1937, and the place teems with animals, snakes, birds (more than 200 species) and all those alligators. The water is neither still nor stagnant - rather, it's a huge watershed draining slowly south, giving birth to two rivers, the Suwannee and the St. Technically, it's called the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and it's not exactly a swamp. There isn't much to be said about the surrounding landscape: it's as boring as statistics class - flat, low and covered in wire grass or miles of fast-growing "slash" pine developed and planted in endless rows by timber companies.īut amid the monotony is the Okefenokee, among the more surprising 436,000 acres in the world. Foster Park, an 82-acre enclave leased from federal land by the state. We'd flown into Jacksonville, Fla., and driven two hours northwest to the most remote entrance, leading to the Stephen C. There are three entrances to the Okefenokee. When we paddle back an hour later, the gator is there, still stone still.
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The gator doesn't blink an eye at us or the two motor boats that stop by filled with a dozen people pointing, snapping pictures and talking excitedly. Rangers say that alligator metabolism slows down so much in winter, gators often stop eating altogether.Įmboldened by this information, we paddle within an oar's length.