IOGMpWjV j I UipoWjjii Natural by NOBLE SPRAYBERRY Photos bv Bobby I Liven Janice Parks lives on the edge ot a lieautiful mystery I Icr hometown cozies up to the border of the Swamp, wlmh seeps deep into tlie luntage of tier neighlxirs ami lures tliotLsands of visitors annually ' We all live here ami are a little bit ailed by it, but tin re is an alisolutc beauty of tlie wild flowers and tlie water, Parks says "Tlie of a swamp refleetions off the is mt your Steplien King vision swamp Its a nnsterious garden sjxit 'Hie eommunity of Wavcniss, Cia , (pop 15,511) grew up around the railruad industry Tour lines t rosst d about 70 milt s from the (morgia toast, an teat long 10 feitat its dec miles long It encompasses 600 square I lorida, with Waycmss as ns northernmost, and busiest, entrance 10 mile's in Georgia and north Pogo, Wild-flowe- d rs txcasionally pointed political satire Tlie strip ran long after Kelly's death and lieljed tlie Okefenokee earn a place in the public conscious. Parks, who served on tlie city commission for 20 years, now helis keep the memory alive by organizing the is a Irish water Idled dr pression alamt 25 miles wide and water birds and tiny songbirds compete with water lilies in a sIkiw of color And long silenc es are interrupted by the mar of alligators, or tlie sound of a bullfrog grown impossibly large. It s a place tliat's captured tlie imagination of many, but few more famously than Walt Kelly, creator of tlie comic strip Pgo Kelly, who died in 1973, treated a long-legge- world tif swamp cteanires living in tlie Okefenokee, and their antics mixed a down-hom- e sweetness with intersection providing the town its name The rails, along with timber, remain crucial to the town s economy And then there is the swamp Hie Okefenokee Visitors from throughout the world travel to the Okefenokee Swamp Park for boat tours and nature lessons The more adventuresome rent canoes and paddle into the wild. In the spring and fall, the swamp is filled with the comic strip character, greets park visitors. J annual Pogoftst, which draws loyal fans of the strip each spring. They travel ftom as far away to as Washington state and Minnesota While Pogo and a stnng of movies with names Way-cros- s such as Suttmp Water sluiped tlie publics perception of the Okefenokee, the truth of the swamp rests in the A group returns to Okefenokee She learned tlie traditions while working for a decade as director of Obedioh's Okefenok, a restored home- stead built in the 1800s, complete with a log cabin touted as the areas oldest remaining swamp liome. People living on the edge of the swamp often are still called Swampers, though they now choose homes And they may travel contemporary-styl- e to town for jobs, but they still hold to tradition, even claiming a dialect that eliminates letters in certain words. history and memories of its residents ' was a tomboy growing up, and everybody fishes in tlie swamp, so my grandfather would take us out in it, Parks says 1 For example, they would say Okefenok" instead of "Okefenokee." "You'd almost need a glossary to know what all of the words mean," On the trips she would hear stories of hidden sxxk caves and lights They are swamp gas, and when the train comrs through, it apiears it's chasing these lights, says Parks, who admits to enjoying the tall tales "My girlfriends and scared quite a few boys one time, and they didn't want to have anything more " to do with the swamp Some in the community don't always appreciate tlie naturnl wonder at tlieir dcxirsreis, but others hold old ways dear, says Tina Rowell, coordinator of 1 programming fir Tlie Okefenokee Heritage Center. Swamp Park after a'Vttd tour Rowell says. With scattered families holding to old ways, tales of flu kering swamp lights, and a stoned comic strip, Waycross, indeed, has a distinct flavor one which locals like Rowell cherish. "We have just a wonderful, natural, mysterious " piece of God s earth Noble Sa)lerr) Profile. is a regular contrilmtnr to American