Okefenokee Swamp | Blackwater, National Geographic Magazine: Suwannee River Landscape
Early morning fog rises off the Suwannee River as it flows 246 miles from the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia through northern Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. There are 250 documented fresh water springs rising out of the ground that flow into the Suwannee watershed according to the Suwannee Water Management District. Among the more well known are the Ichetucknee Springs, Manatee Springs, and Fanning Springs. The river was immortalized by Stephen Foster with his song “Old Folks at Home,” in which he calls it the “Swanee River.”
Several different Native American Indian tribes lived along the river until Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s and settlers moving west pushed them out.