Okefenokee Swamp Park

katyw
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
2
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3
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Editor Pick

Okefenokee Swamp Park

  • June 11, 2002
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Coach Bear from Trenton, Illinois
Okefenokee Swamp Park

My wife and I took the opportunity to stop at the privately owned Okefenokke Swamp Park, at the northern entrance to the swamp. This has an entrance fee of $12 for adults, with different fees for seniors and children.

There is a 1 1/2 mile railroad that runs around the theme park property, allowing access to several different vistas. There is a country store at which souvenirs may be bought. But, the main theme of the park seems to be the emphasis on the swamp life. A nature center gave us the chance to hear lectures about how the swamp was formed and the envirnmental impact of different stresses on the swamp, see alligators up close (I walked with 3 feet of a huge alligator - about 15 feet long), see a deer park and bear observatory.

There is a boardwalk that gives views of the swamp from a closer perspective, an area that has many more swamp animals in an enclosed area, and there are demonstrations of snake and alligator handling. We spent about four hours walking around and viewing what was offered. There is more information than you can get than you would by going to the Wildlife Area and viewing things on your own, but the area is more "staged", and does not have the natural feel. All in all, we enjoyed the diversion.

From journal "Swamp-Wise" in Waycross

Editor Pick

Okefenokee Swamp Park

  • September 7, 2000
  • Rated 4 of 5 by katyw from Blairsville, Georgia
The Okefenokee Swamp Park introduces you to some of the swamp 'critters' up close and personal. The animals here are featured in their own type habitats. The pens are spacious and there are only enough bars and fences for safety. One six or seven foot alligator dozes on the bank of a pond with no fences between him and you. You visit the otters from a boardwalk around their land and pond combination home. Some choose to sleep, curled nose to tail in a hollow on the bank. Others frolic in the water and beg for a handout. Of course animal food machines are available, but the inhabitants appear well fed. The racoon prefers to spend his time curled up inside hollowed out stump and even food doesn't tempt him. The bobcat perches on a tree limb. When he yawns, you see why the chainlink fence is necessary.

A swamp version of the 'odd couple', are bears and turkeys. You observe their extremly large area from behind glass. Both bear and bird seem happy with the arrangement.

Along with the larger animals, the park has a fine Serpentarium. Fortunately, here all the snakes are in sturdy, glass fronted cages.

Perhaps the most educational portion of the park is the Swamp Creation Center. Even the worst photographer can't miss getting a good picture of an alligator here. Just aim your camera at Old Roy, a stuffed alligator named for a former director of the park. There's quite a tale attached to Old Roy in more ways than one. He died in the summer of 1972 of old age after living in the park for twenty years. He was estimated to be about ninty when he died. The reason he came to live in the park in the first place is because of a bad habit he developed in wild. He learned to attack the boats of fishermen and help himself to their catch. He weighed 650 pounds, was twelve foot ten inches long and had a girth of seventy inches. When you see him you understand why local fishermen breathed a sigh of relief on hearing of his capture.

The remainder of the center tells the history of the swamp and how it was formed.

From journal Waycross,Where the Ways Cross

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