Okefenokee Swamp

The Okefenokee is a shallow, 438,000-acre swamp along the Georgia–Florida line that offers a unique fishing experience in the largest blackwater swamp in the United States. The mystical black water of the swamp harbors excellent populations of chain pickerel, bowfin, flier, warmouth and bullhead catfish. Much of the Okefenokee, 402,000 acres, is managed as the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The Okefenokee Swamp was named after the Choctaw phrase, "Land of the Trembling Earth." The Okefenokee was created by the natural accumulation of peat moss in a shallow basin. The St. Marys River and the Suwannee River both originate in the swamp, with the Suwannee River amounting to the flow of about 90% of the swamp's watershed southwest toward the Gulf of Mexico. The waters of the swamp's southeast corner flow out of the St. Marys River to the Atlantic Ocean.