Tag Archives: history

Tour of Ichetucknee Springs 2023-12-14

Thanks to Rangers Cole and Owen for an informative tour of Grassy Hole, Mill Pond Spring, and Devils Eye Spring on the Ichetucknee River.

[Three springs on the Ichetucknee River: Grassy Hole, Mill Pond, and Devils Eye 2023-12-14]
Three springs on the Ichetucknee River: Grassy Hole, Mill Pond, and Devils Eye, 2023-12-14; see the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail, including the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers.

This tour was part of the agenda of Stacie Greco’s Santa Fe River Springs Protection Forum.

Join us to paddle past these springs this Saturday on Iche Nippy Dip Day Swim and Paddle, Ichetucknee River 2024-01-06.

Apparently there was quite a town at Mill Pond Spring, formed around the undershot water wheel of the mill. Hurricanes, economic changes, and wars caused the demise of the town.

Water lettuce, the main topic of the Forum, is cultivated in nurseries at Devils Eye Spring.

Here’s a video on YouTube of some highlights of the tour.
https://youtu.be/WthagPBbUvI

Or on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/1019535769126733

There are more pictures below.

Or on facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/posts/pfbid02DqDjVAdDJtnS7ZyYu84KSM5eqNEn24kBAeDeCyUUY1GD1AaHqhqqZdDh4TjQNAmSl Continue reading →

Fishing Access in Georgia: House Committee Report 2023-12-01

Update 2024-02-28: Navigability in HB 1397 in GA House Natural Resources & Environment Quality Subcommittee 2024-02-26.

Here is the Final Report with Recommendations after four public input meetings and a decision meeting of the Georgia House Study Committee on Fishing Access to Freshwater Resources.

[Chair Rep. James Burchett and GA House Fishing Access Study Committee 2023-11-30, plus fishing, fish, boating, and trash]
Chair Rep. James Burchett and GA House Fishing Access Study Committee 2023-11-30, plus fishing, fish, boating, and trash

Basically, they want to preserve both fishing rights (and private property rights) while preserving boating right of passage. The Study Committee found right of passage tied to navigability, so its key recommendations are to determine and delineate which parts of which rivers and streams are navigable.

If you know Committee Chair Rep. James Burchett or any of the committee members, please contact them asking for maximum navigability while preserving private property rights. Or contact your Georgia state house member.
http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ Continue reading →

Ockolocoochee, Little River 1889-01-29

Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west.

[Withlacoochee River labeled Suwanee R. in 1823 Irwin and 1834 Lowndes County maps; current WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail map]
Withlacoochee River labeled Suwanee R. in 1823 Irwin and 1834 Lowndes County maps; current WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail map

You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee.

Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer. Continue reading →

Fannie Gibbs Begins WWALS Webinars 2024-01-11

Update 2024-01-14: Video: Fannie Gibbs Begins WWALS Webinars 2024-01-11.

Hahira, Georgia, December 26, 2023 — WWALS Webinars is a new monthly series of lunchtime talks via zoom about topics related to the Suwannee River Basin.

On Thursday, January 11, 2024, from noon to 1PM, we are starting with Fannie Marie Jackson Gibbs of Brooks County, Georgia, long active in issues near the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers, especially involving African-American family history. She will talk about the ongoing sewage problems in Quitman, the annual Juneteenth celebrations she organizes at Reed Bingham State Park Lake where WWALS brings boats, family history, and anything else she wants to discuss.

[Fannie Gibbs in a boat at Reed Bingham State Park, Junteenth 2020]
Fannie Gibbs in a boat at Reed Bingham State Park, Junteenth 2020

“We thank Fannie Gibbs for speaking at WWALS River Revue 2023 in September, and we welcome her back to speak longer in this first WWALS Webinar,” said WWALS President Sara Jay Jones.

“I’m honored to have worked with Fannie for many years, and I hope you will all zoom in to hear what she has to say,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuf-igpjsuG9JKDeCUtmqgxujGcIkFZIz3 Continue reading →

The Real Trash Problem is the Producers, and How to Stop It 2023-12-23

The Crying Indian was Italian, and that ad was paid for by the producers of single-use trash, to shift blame onto individuals. Here’s what can be done about that trash.

Sure people shouldn’t litter, but Anheuser-Busch and other beer makers, as well as Nestlé, Coca Cola, and Walmart, should stop making and selling disposable bottles and cans.

[Single-use trash, The fake Crying Indian, and what can be done about that]
Single-use trash, The fake Crying Indian, and what can be done about that

Fifty years ago those things had deposits on them, and people would collect them for the cash. That could be useful to a lot of people, and a lot more cleanups would happen. Sure, there was still trash back then, but not as much.

People still do in Hawaii and nine other states: California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Vermont, plus Guam. They don’t have nearly as big of a litter problem.

But Georgia or Florida do not have such container deposits. Maybe we should change that.

No, recycling will not solve this problem. There’s no market for plastic to recycle, and recycling has been pushed by big oil for years as an excuse to make more plastic throw-away containers. Laura Sullivan, NPR, 11 September 2020, How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled.

You’ve probably seen the famous ‘Crying Indian’ ad from 1971:

Crying Indian
A Keep America Beautiful advertisement by the Ad Council, which was launched in 1971. (Ad Council) – Original Credit: (HANDOUT)

Well, the “Indian” was Italian-American, and that ad was part of a campaign by the trash-producer front group Keep America Beautiful. Continue reading →

Pictures: C.B. Adams speaks about Okefenokee Swampers at Griffis Fish Camp Suwannee Paddle 2023-12-08

Update 2023-12-19: Videos: Food at Griffis Fish Camp on the Suwannee River with Seminole Pumpkin 2023-12-09

Naturalist C.B. Adams spoke at Campfire Cooking at Griffis Fish Camp and Suwannee River paddle. He brought bring props and artifacts, including a Seminole pumpkin and a flintlock musket.

This was Friday evening, December 8, 2023, before we paddled from Stephen C. Foster State Park down the Suwannee River through the Sill back to Griffis Fish Camp on Saturday.

[C.B. Adams speaks around the campfire at Griffis Fish Camp 2023-12-08]
C.B. Adams speaks around the campfire at Griffis Fish Camp 2023-12-08

He told many stories, such as about a man and a bear, about a woman fighting a lion off her child, and about the Seminole pumpkins that the Native Americans used to feed themselves while hiding out in the Okefenokee Swamp.

He brought such a pumpkin, which he says he saw in pictures somebody took after a WWALS Banks Lake Full Moon paddle. For what happened to this pumpkin after Chris gave it to Shirley Kokidko, stay tuned.

Chris “Turtleman” Adams is Continue reading →

Logging Railroads in the Okefenokee Swamp 1889-1942

Here are maps of logging railroads in the Okefenokee Swamp, and detailed maps of railroads and the town on Billys Island.

[Logging Railroads and Billys Island, Okefenokee Swamp]
Logging Railroads and Billys Island, Okefenokee Swamp

The Billys Island maps are by Chris Trowell or revised from his maps. As the redrawn map says, Billys Island is 1.8 miles from Stephen C. Foster State Park, upstream on the Suwannee River and its East Fork. As you can see by the map, it was quite a bustling place. Until the trees ran out.

I don’t know who drew the map of all the railroads in the Swamp, but I would guess Chris Trowell may have had something to do with it. This is presumably the same C.T. Trowell frequently cited in the documents for Floyds Island in the National Register of Historic Places, and his paper included, “Seeking a Sanctuary: A Chronicle of Efforts to Preserve the Okefenokee,” C.T. Trowell, 1998.

These railroads did not all exist at the same time, since they pulled up tracks from one place to go another place.

These maps came from a ranger at Stephen C. Foster State Park, back in 2021. Naturally, right now I cannot find the email he sent with the maps. Continue reading →

Floyds Island 1838, Hebard Cabin 1925, Okefenokee Swamp

Update 2024-12-09: Pictures: Departing Floyd’s Island, Okefenokee Swamp 2023-11-05.

Answers to some popular questions about Floyds Island, up the Middle Fork of the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp.

Meanwhile, you can help stop a proposed strip mine near the Swamp:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining

[Collage, Floyds Island]
Collage, Floyds Island

Who was Floyds Island named for?

The Okefenokee was a Creek hunting ground in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Briefly in 1836 and for most of 1838 theSecond Seminole War in Florida extended into the Okefenokee. Roads and forts were built around the perimeter of the swamp, and Georgia militia and U.S. army troops patrolled intensively. They burned down a Seminole village on an island that they subsequently renamed Floyds Island, for Charles Rinaldo Floyd. In response to this violence, the Seminole began to leave the swamp in 1838, but skirmishes continued to occur along the Georgia-Florida boundary as late as 1840.

C.T. Trowell, New Georgia Encyclopedia, Originally published Sep 20, 2002, Last edited Feb 23, 2022, Human History of the Okefenokee Swamp.

Who was Charles Rinaldo Floyd? Continue reading →

Dark Sky Observatory, Cultural History, and Natural History around the Okefenokee Swamp 2023-10-19

Thanks to Kim Bednarek, Executive Director of the Okefenokee Swamp Park, we now know the answer to what puzzled the Clinch County Commission when they reserved $50,000 for cash match for a Dark Sky Observatory: where will it be?

[Dark Sky Observatory, Cultural and Natural History around the Okefenokee Swamp]
Dark Sky Observatory, Cultural and Natural History around the Okefenokee Swamp

The answer is: to the left of Eco Lodge Drive, as you approach the Suwannee River Eco-Lodge, north of Fargo on US 441. Continue reading →

Winners: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2023-09-22

Hahira, GA, September 25, 2023 — Hahira, Georgia, September 25, 2023 — Ten musicians wrote songs and seven sang them, about the delights of the waters of the Suwannee River Basin and the need to preserve them against numerous threats. Jane Fallon came all the way from Dunedin, Florida, to the Turner Arts Center in Valdosta, Georgia, to sing a story about legendary Sun Daughters reflecting on a proposed mine near the Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the Suwannee River. The three judges marked her high on storytelling and presenting the value of the waters, on originality of lyrics and music, and on performance, with extra credit for naming waterways. She took home First Prize in the Sixth Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

[Winners: Suwannee Riverkeeper; Cindy Bear and Franc Robert, Best Folk; Jane Fallon, First Prize; Bacon James, Best from Outside; Kyle Bird Chamberlain and David Rodock, tie for Best from Inside; Chamberlain, Best Blues; Rodock, Best AmeriKinda; Keven Stephenson, Best Country --Chuck Roberts]
Suwannee Riverkeeper with the Winners: Cindy Bear and Franc Robert, Best Folk; Jane Fallon, First Prize; Bacon James, Best from Outside; Kyle Bird Chamberlain and David Rodock, tie for Best from Inside; Chamberlain, Best Blues; Rodock, Best AmeriKinda; Kevin Stephenson, Best Country; and Robert Thatcher (not pictured). Photo: Chuck Roberts

Jane Fallon said, “Thank you for the honor in recognizing my song ‘Chant For The Okefenokee’ in your contest. It is always a special feeling to sing a song for an audience that truly understands its meaning. Thank you also for the work you do in trying to preserve the waterways. It is so important.”

Here is the first half of her lyrics: Continue reading →