“The Land of the Trembling Earth”

The Okefenokee Swamp

The Okefenokee Chapter of the Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship was named for the Okefenokee Swamp in Southeast Georgia.  I thought it might be nice if we took some time to learn a little about the famous landmark that gave us our chapter name.

The Okefenokee Swamp covers over 438,000 acres or approximately 700 square miles of South Georgia and North Florida.  It is one of the oldest, most well preserved, fresh water areas in America.  The swamp measures approximately 38 miles north to south and approximately 25 miles east to west.  The famous Suwanee River and the St. Mary’s River find their source in the swamp.  

Native American Indians inhabited the Okefenokee Swamp for many years before any Europeans came to America.  People of the Deptford culture, the Swift Creek culture, and the Weenen Island culture occupied sights within the Okefenokee.  The last Indian culture to seek sanctuary in the swamp was the Seminole Indians.  The Second Seminole War, 1838 – 1842, ended the age of Native Americans in the Okefenokee Swamp.

Native Americans gave the swamp the name “Okefenokee” which means “Land of the Trembling Earth”.  The Indians gave the swamp this name because peat deposits, up to 15 feet thick, cover much of the swamp.  These deposits are so unstable in spots that trees and surrounding bushes tremble by walking on the surface of these floating islands.

There were a lot of settlers who also lived in the Okefenokee Swamp after the Indians were removed.  All of the settlers were intelligent, hard working people.  They had to be in order to survive living in the swamp.

In 1936 the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve the swamp.  Then in 1974 a large part of the Wildlife Refuge was designated as a National Wilderness Area.

The Okefenokee Swamp is a unique area of primitive wetland that is home to hundreds of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.  The water in the swamp looks like a black mirror.  Even though it looks unclean, it is actually very pure and safe.  The black color comes from tanic acid in the water that is produced by the peat deposits.

The Okefenokee has four features:  the prairies, the houses and hammocks, the lakes, and the islands.

 The prairies are the parts of the Swamp that are open.  These prairies contain a lot of shallow water and tall grass.  You will not fine any trees in the prairies. 

The houses and hammocks are scattered throughout the swamp.  These are small clusters of trees and underbrush.  The early Settlers to the swamp gave the name of “houses and hammocks” to these small clusters. 

There are many lakes scattered throughout the Okefenokee.  Sixty of these lakes are big enough to be named.  Some are forty feet deep! Others are only two or three feet deep. 

The Okefenokee Swamp is home to around seventy islands.  Some of the islands are just small bits of land covered by cypress trees.  Other islands are larger, and are places where people settled and lived long ago.

The swamp is home to many different animals.  Here is a list of some of them:  alligators, black bears, white tailed deer, otters, raccoons, bobcats, wild turkey, red tailed hawks, sand hill crane, osprey, egrets, heron, as well as a selection of snakes such as the water moccasin, copperhead, coral, and rattlesnake.

There are also a lot of plants in the swamp.  Some of them are the pitcher plant, bladder wort, sun dew, saw palmetto, sassafras, cypress tree, golden club, black gum tree, bay tree, and water lilies.

I hope you enjoyed our little tour of the Okefenokee Swamp and maybe learned something about the namesake of the Okefenokee Chapter of the Frontiersmen Camping fellowship.