Swamp Wise "in the beginning" Traditional Cache
LZ33: Since this geocache has been unavailable for months, I'm archiving the listing to keep it from showing up in search lists and preventing proximity issues for new geocache placements so geocachers can once again enjoy this location.
Swamp Wise "in the beginning"
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
A quick PAG near an entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp.
You are seeking a lock and lock full of neat swag! This is the first one on a "swamp wise" series i am planning for this area. stay tuned!! There is a good place to park near the cache. Thanks for stopping by!
The largest swamp in North America, the Okefenokee Swamp covers roughly 700 square miles and is located in the southeastern corner of Georgia,
Okefenokee Swamp
encompassing most of Charlton and Ware counties and parts of Brantley and Clinch counties. The swamp has a distinctive and fascinating natural history. Cypress swamps, winding waterways, and floating peat mats are a major part of the Okefenokee's habitat mosaic. Wet and dry prairies, swamps dominated by shrubs, and forests of blackgum and bay trees intersperse the array of other habitats. A high ridge of sand known as Trail Ridge forms the eastern edge of the swamp. Wildlife abound; more than 400 species of vertebrates, including more than 200 varieties of birds and more than 60 kinds of reptiles, are known to inhabit the swamp.
A mix of geological events, environmental variables, and human impact has shaped the character of the Okefenokee Swamp. More than sixty-five million years ago, during the Cretaceous geological period, the region was beneath the sea. Marine sediments produced a deep layer of sandy, nutrient-poor soils. In more recent geologic times the depression forming the basin of the present-day Okefenokee Swamp was presumably created by wave action associated with an offshore sandbar. Today the depression is filled with fresh water and peat to create what Seminoles called the "land of trembling earth."
In logging operations beginning in 1910 and lasting for a quarter of a century, thousands of cypress, pine, and red bay trees were removed from the swamp. Some were among the largest and oldest individuals of their kind left in the country. In 1937 U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt provided official protection from logging and development by establishing the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, which constitutes about 80 percent of the swamp. The absence of roads helps to maintain the integrity of the swamp ecosystem; canoe trails are the primary travel routes through the swamp.
In the subtropical climate, rainfall is approximately fifty inches a year and is the source of most of the water entering the swamp from the more than 1,400 square miles of upland watershed. The clear, tannin-stained, highly acidic waters of the Okefenokee generally are shallow, normally ranging up to depths of less than ten feet and averaging only two feet.
Most (about 85 percent) of the water leaving the Okefenokee is carried by the Suwannee River to the Gulf Coast of Florida. The St. Marys River, which flows into the Atlantic, drains the remainder of the swamp.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ybbx sbe nybg bs oehfu nebhaq n qrnq gerr.