Okefenokee Swamp

The name is attested with more than a dozen variant spellings of the word in historical literature. Though often translated as "land of trembling earth", the name is likely derived from Hitchiti oki fanôːki "bubbling water".^[3]

The Okefenokee 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 the 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 the swamp and drains at least 90 percent of the swamp's watershed southwest toward the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Marys River, which drains 5 to 10 percent of the swamp in its 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 earliest known inhabitants of the Okefenokee Swamp were the Timucua-speaking Oconi, who dwelt in or on the margin of the swamp. Spanish friars built the mission of Santiago de Oconi in order to convert them to Christianity. The Oconi's boating skills, developed in the hazardous swamps, likely contributed to their later employment by the Spanish as ferrymen across the St. Johns River, near the riverside terminus of northern Florida's camino real.^[4]

Modern-day longtime residents of the swamp, referred to as "Swampers", are of overwhelmingly English ancestry. Due to relative isolation, the inhabitants of the Okefenokee used Elizabethan phrases and syntax, preserved since the early colonial period when such speech was common in England, well into the 20th century.^[5] The Suwannee Canal was dug across the swamp in the late 19th century in a failed attempt to drain the Okefenokee. After the Suwannee Canal 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 ran railroad lines into the swamp until 1942; some remnants remain visible crossing swamp waterways. On the west side of the swamp, at Billy's Island, logging equipment and other artifacts remain of a 1920s logging town of 600 residents. Most of the Okefenokee Swamp is included in the 403,000-acre (163,000 ha) Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

The largest wildfire in the swamp's history began with a lightning strike near the center of the refuge in May 2007, eventually merging with another wildfire that had begun near Waycross, Georgia, in April when a tree fell on a power line. Named the Bugaboo Fire, the fire burned more than 600,000 acres (240,000 ha), or more than 935 square miles, and remains the largest wildfire in both Georgia and Florida history.^[6][7] In 2011, the Honey Prairie Fire consumed 309,200 acres (125,100 ha) of land in the swamp.^[8][9][10] In April 2017 a lightning strike started the West Mims Fire,^[11] which burned about 152,000 acres (62,000 ha).^[12]

Many visitors enter the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge each year. The swamp provides an important economic resource to southeast Georgia and northeast Florida. The refuge receives more than 600,000 visitors annually. Public access to the swamp includes:

• 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, Georgia
• Okefenokee Swamp Park provides the northernmost access near Waycross, Georgia.

State Road 2 passes through the Florida portion between the Georgia cities of Council and Moniac. The graded Swamp Perimeter Road encircles Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Gated and closed to public use, it provides access for fire management of the interface between the federal refuge and the surrounding industrial tree farms.

The Okefenokee Swamp had been listed as one of America's Most Endangered Rivers in 2020^[20] and again in 2023 on account of the mining threats.^[21]

The Okefenokee Swamp is part of the Southeastern conifer forests ecoregion. Much of the Okefenokee is a southern coastal plain nonriverine basin swamp, forested by bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) and swamp tupelo (Nyssa biflora) trees. Upland areas support southern coastal plain oak domes and hammocks, with thick stands of sand live oaks. Drier and more frequently burned areas support Atlantic coastal plain upland longleaf pine woodlands of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris).^[22]

The swamp has many species of carnivorous plants, including Utricularia, Sarracenia psittacina, and the giant Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis. A species of mushroom-like fungus Rogersiomyces okefenokeensis J.L. Crane & Schokn. 1978 is found in the swamp. The swamp is home to many wading birds, including herons, egrets, ibises, cranes, and bitterns, though populations fluctuate with seasons and water levels. The swamp also hosts numerous woodpecker and songbird species.^[23] Okefenokee is famous for its amphibians and reptiles such as toads, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, and an abundance of American alligators. The oldest known alligator, named "Okefenokee Joe" after environmentalist Okefenokee Joe, died in September 2021, at almost 80 years of age.^[24][25] The Okefenokee Swamp is also a critical habitat for the Florida black bear.

• Wildlife of Okefenokee Swamp
• 
  Okefenokee giant hooded pitcher plant
• 
  Green-striped grasshopper
• 
  Eastern lubber grasshopper nymph
• 
  A large American alligator
• 
  White-tailed deer

• The films Swamp Water, Lure of the Wilderness, and Gator are set in the swamp.