Okefenokee Swamp | Blackwater, National Geographic Magazine: Suwannee River Landscape

Large tree trunk beside still river at dusk.

Evening light falls on a bald Cypress tree growing on the bank of the Suwannee River in northern Florida.

The Suwannee headwaters are located in the Okefenokee Swamp. The river has 25 clear springs that feed into the black water as it winds through northwest Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. The river is well known because of Stephen Foster’s song “Old Folks at Home” where he immortalized the “Swannee River.” Native American tribes lived on the banks of the river prior to European settlement.