Super 8 Motel - Waycross

Okefenokee - Land of the Trembling Earth

by gardesque

Okefenokee is the Native word for "Land of the trembling Earth". And the land literally trembles. Gasses under the bottom of the swamp pushes small bits of dirt to the surface. These bits of dirt form larger, floating patches of dirt. Eventually, life begins to grow on these patches, keeping them even stronger together. And in the end, you literally get floating islands, strong enough to support the weight of animal life and large trees. Hence the name.

During the normal life cycle of Okefenokee, water from the swamp runs out in the ocean, the swamp eventually gets very dry and it only takes a strike of lightning to put the entire swamp ablaze. Everything that is burnt then just fall back down to the bottom, and the cycle begins anew.

However, thanks to environmentalists shouting "Oh no! We can't let the swamp dry up, we could loose it!" the swamp was dammed up in the 80s. Ironically, this seems to be killing the swamp rather than saving it; without the water draining out periodically, the swamp is in danger of getting too overgrown with patches of land. The cycle is broken.