Suwannee Canal facts for kids

The Suwannee Canal was a big project in the late 1800s. It was an attempt to drain a large part of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. The goal was to make the swamp dry enough for logging and farming.

Why They Wanted to Drain the Swamp

In 1889, the state government of Georgia decided to sell the Okefenokee Swamp. A group of business people bought the land. They formed a company called the Suwannee Canal Company in 1890. They paid a lot of money for the swamp. Their main idea was to drain the swamp. This would allow them to cut down trees and grow crops there.

Digging the Canal: A Tough Job

Work on the Suwannee Canal started in September 1891. Captain Henry Jackson, who led the company, and his teams worked for three years. They dug the canal about 11.5 miles (18.5 km) into the swamp.

The work was very slow and difficult. The sides of the ditch kept falling in. This was because of bad design and poor weather. They used large steam shovels and even workers who were prisoners. Later, they tried using water hoses, like those used by gold miners. But they still could not dig the canal deep enough. A tough area called Trail Ridge made it almost impossible to drain the swamp.

Logging for Money

In 1894, the company built a large sawmill at a place called Camp Cornelia. They also built a railroad to the mill from Folkston, Georgia. The company was one of the first to use big machines for logging cypress trees. A steamboat helped move rafts of cypress logs along the canal to the sawmill. They produced a lot of lumber and dug almost 20 miles (32 km) of canals.

The company hoped to sell the lumber to get more money. This money would help them keep draining the swamp. But there was too much lumber on the market. They could not sell their lumber for a good price. The cost of moving the lumber was also very high. The company started to lose money quickly. They borrowed more money, but eventually ran out of funds. The effort to drain the swamp stopped in October 1894.

The Company's End

Captain Jackson, the company president, died in 1895. His father, General Henry R. Jackson, took over. He loaned the company more money to keep it going. But by 1897, he stopped lending money.

The company then went into a process called "receivership." This is when a court takes over a company that is having money problems. Joel Hurt tried to run the company, but it was still not making a profit.

Because of money problems in the country, the company went bankrupt. This means it could not pay its debts. In 1899, the Suwannee Canal Company's land was sold. It was bought by members of the Jackson family. In 1901, the land was sold again to Charles Hebard, a lumberman from Philadelphia.

Legacy of the Suwannee Canal

Logging operations, focusing on cypress trees, started again in 1909. A railroad was built into the western part of the swamp. By 1927, a huge amount of timber had been removed from the Okefenokee. Much of this was very old cypress trees. After this, logging stopped.

Today, the Suwannee Canal is still an important waterway in the swamp. Thousands of visitors enjoy exploring it every year.