Swampy is a well known native of Christmas, FL... been 'round these parts since the 1980s. Swampy really enjoys eating... errrrrrrrrr, I mean meeting folks!
Swampy History: Hermon Brooks, a lifelong resident of Florida, opened a fruit stamping business in 1956. He built stamping machines that produced a permanent vendor stamp on individual pieces of citrus. In the late 1960s, he designed, manufactured, and refurbished hand guards for sugar cane cutters. His hand guard invention prevented many injuries. Hermon was one of the first three people in Florida to initiate and organize the Florida Alligators Association, which later led to the guidelines for today's current alligator farmers. In 1969 Hermon built a local tourist attraction in Christmas, Florida - Gator Jungle, which included the commercial farming of alligators and many other types of wildlife for people to encounter. This attraction closed in later years. Swampy, a roadside wonder, began habitation sometime in the 1980s... built as the home of Hermon Brooks. Hermon passed in 2010.
In order to claim a smiley for this virtual geocache: post a photo of yourself with Swampy, while making a gator hand gesture with one or both hands. If you're having a bad hair day, or if your socks don't match, or if you're simply photo phobic.... you may substitute a photo with your geocaching name clearly visible (written on paper or displayed on a phone, T-shirt etc.), with Swampy in the background. Remember... failure to follow these instructions may result in the deletion of your log!
Congrats to winini on the FTF! Happy to see you survived your encounter with Swampy!
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.