Day 20: Nature and History in Georgia

How many of you that read this have heard of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  We did but could not  quite remember why.  Well, we went there this morning and were very thankful we did.  The "Swamp" is the size of Rhode Island, or about five and one-half times the size of Klamath Lake Oregon, and has three entrances (we only did the main entrance - east side).  It is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Mary’s Rivers.

What we learned about:

ALLIGATORS:  The males have a mating call.  That they fight for their territory and the females in their territory.  We saw the heads of a few and two swimming but not close to the boat.  We did see a baby alligator on the road of a scenic drive we took.

WATER: It is black because of the peat on the bottom.  The water is only about 5 1/2' deep.  It is incredibly still water.  The reflections are perfect and your eyes can play tricks on you and make you think you are looking at something 3 dimensional--very difficult to explain.  

FLORA: Many yellow and white water lilies--very pretty.  Several species of carnivorous plants--yes, ones that eat bugs. Spanish moss everywhere, but is not Spanish or moss, but a type of air plant.  Part of the time there weren't many trees (cypress and pine) because of a fire in 2007.

HISTORY:  There are only a few man-made features in the entire park--the waterway we were on, and a long abandoned homestead of the Chesser family.  The canal was hand dug the beginning of the 1900's in order to try to "drain the swamp".  It didn't work.

That was nature, then there was a quick lunch because we wanted to know about what we heard was an "underground" fort.  Well, it wasn't really underground, but it was still interesting.

Ft. McAllister (South of Savannah)

FORT MC ALLISTER--named after the father of the man who donated the land for the Confederate
fort which was on the Ogeechee River.  The "underground" parts were mainly ammunition storage and an infirmary which was also used by the officers during naval battles.  There were tall, thick soil berms around the fort that provided more protection from enemy shelling than did wood or stone walls used in other forts. The Union Army did capture this Confederate fort in December 1864.

KAREN'S PONDERINGS:  War is so cruel.  People thinking something is so important that they are willing to kill (or have others kill for them) to get what they want.  It is too much for me to comprehend in light of what is going on between Russia and Ukraine.  My two scriptures for this are: "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."  Micah 6:8.  And "Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ Jesus forgave you."  Ephesians 4:32.  But I know that some people don't understand and some DON'T WANT to understand.  It makes we sad.