History
The swamp has a rich human history including Native American settlement, explorations by Europeans, a massive drainage attempt, and intensive timber harvesting.
Native Americans inhabited Okefenokee Swamp as early as 2500 BC. Peoples of the Deptford Culture, the Swift Creek Culture and the Weeden Island Culture occupied sites within the Okefenokee. The last tribe to seek sanctuary in the swamp were the Seminoles. Troops led by General Charles R. Floyd during the Second Seminole War, 1838–1842, ended the age of the native Americans in the Okefenokee.
The Suwanee Canal Company purchased 238,120 acres (963 km²) of the Okefenokee Swamp from the State of Georgia in 1891 to drain the swamp for rice, sugar cane, and cotton plantations. When this failed, the company began industrial wetland logging as a source of income. Captain Henry Jackson and his crews spent three years digging the Suwannee Canal 11.5 miles (18.5 km) into the swamp.
Economic recessions led to the company’s bankruptcy and eventual sale to Charles Hebard in 1901. Logging operations, focusing on the cypress, began in 1909 after a railroad was constructed on the northwest area of the swamp. More than 431 million board feet (1,020,000 m³) of timber were removed from the Okefenokee by 1927, when logging operations ceased.
The Okefenokee Preservation Society, formed in 1918, promoted nationwide interest in the swamp. With the support of State and local interests and numerous conservation and scientific organizations, the Federal Government acquired most of the swamp for refuge purposes in 1936.
In 1937, with Executive Order 7593 (later amended by Executive Order 7994), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the refuge, designating it as "a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife." The establishment of Okefenokee Refuge in 1937 marked the culmination of a movement that had been initiated at least 25 years earlier by a group of scientists from Cornell University who recognized the educational, scientific, and recreational values of this unique area.
In 1974, to further ensure the protection of this unique ecosystem, the interior sections of the refuge were designated a National Wilderness Area.
In 1986, the Okefenokee Refuge was designated by the Wetlands Convention as a Wetland of International Importance.
Read more about this topic: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
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