"Swamp-Wise" in Waycross

Whether you visit the National Park or the Swampland recreational area, you will enjoy visiting this area. There are tremendous opportunities for those aspiring scientists (like me) to see a wide variety of wild flowers, trees, wildlife, and scenery that cannot be seen in other spots that you might visit. I observed several members of the orchid family that are unique to the area. There were sundew plants and pitcher plants, black widow spiders, rattlesnakes and coral snakes, and alligators. In all, this was a succesful weekend in an area that my wife had never before visited.

Quick Tips:

Stay on the beaten paths. It really is easy to get lost in the swamp if you do not know where you are. be extremely careful playing around in or near the water. The stories of alligators attacking humans are quite real. Take a camera and plenty of film. You will get some excellent sots of different things.

Best Way To Get Around:

You will want to drive from area to area. There is no public transportation around. When you get to the swamp, hike the posted trails or rent a boat from the park service.

My wife and I stayed at the Holiday Inn while we were visiting in Waycross. The building is located on the main highway through town and seems to be centrally located for all of the activities in the area.

The room that we were given was typical of the old style Holiday Inn, with a king-sized bed, a desk, a recliner, and so forth. It was comfortable, but not luxurious. The hotel has a pool, but we did not take advantage of it. The room was clean, but seemed to be a little 'old'.

One of the best parts of the hotel was the free breakfast buffet that we were given each day of our stay. The meal of pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, juices, toast, grits, and other foods was delicious, and we enjoyed this as a part of our stay.

One of the cute places that my wife and I visited on our trip to Waycross was Obediah's Okefenok, a restoration of a frontier homestead from the 1860's. This is a National Historic Landmark.

For $4.50 each, we entered the exhibit and walked around, visiting the different areas. There is a turpentine exhibit, where pine sap is boiled down to produce turpentine, a 1-mile nature trail, a sugar cane mill, a moonshine still, several farm buildings (corn crib, grist mill, smoke house, blacksmith shop), the original (although refurbished) log cabin home, and many other buildings and attractions. We had a great time looking at the old two-seater outhouse and other attractions. It just took us back to a time past that we seldom remember in today's busy world.

Any time that you are in the Waycross area, this should be a short visit that must be taken.

One of my fondest memories from childhood was reading the comics in the Sunday paper. Walt Kelley drew a character named Pogo, a 'possum' that lived in the Okefenokee Swamp. Since I enjoyed this so much as a child, I thought that I would visit the annual celebration in Waycross as an adult.

The afternoon that I attended the festival had a parade, a cartoonist award ceremony, plenty of barbeque to eat, an arts and crafts fair, entertainment, and children-oriented activities. I especially enjoyed the arts ad crats area, but the costumed Pogo character brought smiles to the faces of every child in attendance.

The opportunity to visit with a character from my childhood was of special importance to me. It took away for a moment many of the negative thoughts that were on my mind and gave me a moment of restful peace. I think that each of you should take at least one day during the last weekend in March to visit this celebration and get back to a more pleasant time in your life.

My wife had never seen the "swamp," so I took a weekend to show her what she had missed. Both the Suwaqnee River and the St. Mary's River have their headwaters in the Okeefenokee. They flow in different directions through Florida and eventually go to the sea.

Okeefenokee is an Indian term meaning "Land of Trembling Earth." Vegetation grows in the fertile water. As it dies and sinks to the bottom, bacteria help to decompose the plant material, producing more minerals and methane gas. This gas gets caught in the huge mass of vegetation that has accumulated over time and causes it to float in the water. Huge lumps, or mounds, of this vegetation appear almost solid. It gets so large that they become floating islands (called "batteries"). Plants begin to grow and animals make their homes on these batteries. Over time, more material is added to the floating islands and they become true islands. One of the neat things that you can do (if you dare take the chance) is to get out of your boat and jump on the islands. They will bounce with you.

We rented a small motor boat from the park rangers near Folkston and took a ride through the swamp. It is impossible to see the entire area, since it covers almost 700 square acres. It is entirely possible to get lost in the maze of passageways, so we stuck to the marked areas. We saw several people who were fishing, many who were canoeing, and several who were just enjoying the view.

We saw the famous cypress trees with their knees. There were many alligators. We even saw a brace of Sand Hill Cranes (an endangered bird species) and were able to get a photo of them. Thank God I didn't see any, but all four of the poisonous types of snakes found in the United States can be found in the swamp (Rattlesnake, Copperhead, Water Moccasin, and Coral Snake). I took a university course and visited the swamp a few years ago to study the various plants that grow in the area. We saw our share of pitcher plants, sundews, and others while my wife and I visited the swamp. She had never seen a pitcher plant.

When we returned the boat, we drove about 3 miles down the highway to an observation platform, from which we could see the swamp from a wider viewpoint. We could have spent more than a day, but with the time available, it was a pleasant adventure.

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.