South Georgia "A Place Of Beauty" The Okefenokee

Well I guess I just never get tired of painting the Okefenokee Nature Reserve
located in South Georgia.

Here is my latest. I love it if I may say so myself! Click on the image to go to my ETSY Store it's available for a really nice price of only 259 and that includes shipping within the US. Can't beat that for one of my originals.
Okefenokee Swamp
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Canal Diggers Trail in early spring.
The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000 acre (1,770 km²), peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia–Florida border in the United States. A majority of the swamp is protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the Okefenokee Wilderness. The Okefenokee Swamp is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. The Okefenokee is the largest peat-based "blackwater" swamp in North America, and one of the largest in the world.




Location and history
The name comes from the Hitchiti okifanô:ki, meaning "bubbling water",[1] or alternatively "trembling earth" [2], a reference to its spongy bogs. The swamp 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 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 Okefenokee Swamp and drains at least 90% of the swamp's watershed southwest towards the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Marys River, which drains only 5–10% of the swamp's 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 Suwanee Canal was dug across the swamp in the late nineteenth century in a failed attempt to drain the Okefenokee. After the 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 also ran train tracks into the swamp until 1942, remnants of which can still be seen 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 (1630 km²) Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Read More at source

Land Of The Treambling Earth

HistoryOkefenokee National Wildlife RefugeThe swamp has a rich human history including Native American settlement, explorations by europeans, a massive drainage attempt, and intensive timber harvesting.Native Americans inhabited Okefenokee Swamp as early as 2500 BC.[4] Peoples of the Deptford Culture, the Swift Creek Culture and the Weeden Island Culture occupied sites within the Okefenokee.[4] The last tribe to seek sanctuary in the swamp were the Seminoles.[4] Troops led by General Charles R. Floyd during the Second Seminole War, 1838-1842, ended the age of the native americans in the Okefenokee.[4]The Suwanee Canal Company purchased 238,120 acres (963 km²) of the Okefenokee Swamp from the State of Georgia in 1891 to drain the swamp for rice, sugar cane, and cotton plantations.[4] When this failed, the company began industrial wetland logging as a source of income.[4] Captain Henry Jackson and his crews spent three years digging the Suwannee Canal 11.5 miles (18.5 km) into the swamp.[4]Economic recessions led to the company’s bankruptcy and eventual sale to Charles Hebard in 1901.[4] Logging operations, focusing on the cypress, began in 1909 after a railroad was constructed on the northwest area of the swamp.[4] More than 431 million board feet (1,020,000 m³) of timber were removed from the Okefenokee by 1927, when logging operations ceased.[4]The Okefenokee Preservation Society, formed in 1918, promoted nationwide interest in the swamp.[1] With the support of State and local interests and numerous conservation and scientific organizations, the Federal Government acquired most of the swamp for refuge purposes in 1936.[1]In 1937, with Executive Order 7593 (later amended by Executive Order 7994), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the refuge, designating it as "a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife." [1] The establishment of Okefenokee Refuge in 1937 marked the culmination of a movement that had been initiated at least 25 years earlier by a group of scientists from Cornell University who recognized the educational, scientific, and recreational values of this unique area.[1]In 1974, to further ensure the protection of this unique ecosystem, the interior sections of the refuge were designated a National Wilderness Area.[4]

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Here is another painting from that region. The Suwanee River bank painting also availabe in my ETSY store... CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW