Wildlife Preserves

Lesson 3: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Our next stop is Okefenokee (Oh-kee-feh-'no-kee - Indian word for "Land of the Trembling Earth"), the great Georgia swamp. The habitat and wildlife in this humid, waterlogged area are very different from those found in our previous two refuge visits.

History

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, at 396,000 acres, is the largest national wildlife refuge in the eastern United States. It was established in 1937 in order to preserve a large portion of the 438,000-acre Okefenokee Swamp. It is home to a number of endangered species, and the interior of the refuge was designated as a National Wilderness Area in 1974 to further protect this unique ecosystem.

Indians lived in Okefenokee Swamp as early as 2500 B.C., and the last natives subsisting there were the Seminoles, who were driven out during the Second Seminole War between 1838-1842. A plan to drain the swamp to create farmland failed in the late 1800s. The area was later logged for cypress timber until 1927.

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