Okefenokee Swamper Talk

Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message

American Alligator at the Maul Hammock Shelter; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. April 19, 2024.

​From the journals of naturalist Francis Harper, 1929: a conversation with Swamper Ezekiel Henderson…

“I was fishing one time in Billies with my old uncle. I was doing the rowing and he was doing the fishing. The ’gators made such a racket I didn’t know what it was. And he told me it was the gators amuddying Big Bonnet Lake by Billy‘s lake. He told me to paddle easy and not hit the boat with the paddle, so we’d slip up on ’em and not disturb ’em and see ’em fishing. We got around a little clump of bushes in plain of Big Bonnet Lake, and they must have been somewhere between one and two thousand of the gators. Bonnet Lake was about four or five acres big. And them gators would rise and jump their length and go down. The bottom of Bonnet Lake is a soft mud. And it was easy to muddy. And they all muddy at the same time, and then stop at the same time and go to fishing just a few breaths. There was jumping and sloshing. They’d go down to the bottom and dig up the mud and scatter it with their tails. And then they’d go to fishing again. I remember one tremendous big alligator that rose up in the water with a trout in his mouth, about 12 or 14 pounds. Had him crossways in his mouth. And he just moved up to the bank and jammed against the bank until he got him headfirst in his mouth, and then swallowed him. That was the first time I was ever there when there was so many gators. And I’ve seen the gators so thick, it look like if you’d been out of the boat and if the gators had held your weight, you could walk all over the lake on gator heads.”