Return to Corkscrew Swamp

Tuesday, January 7, 2014
MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net A great white heron and two white ibises search for food on the floor of the Corkscrew wildlife preserve in Naples, Florida.

A vacation trip to southern Florida will offer the curious visitor a glimpse into an ancient wilderness which was preserved, just in time to save it from the loggers' axes. In this swampland, a 700-year-old bald cypress tree towers 130 feet above the 3-mile boardwalk, and alligators lurk in the murky waters.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida was established by volunteers, working with the National Audubon Society in 1954.

Today, it is the site of the largest nesting Federally Endangered wood stork population in the world.

MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net A visitor pauses on the 3-mile boardwalk at the Corkscrew Sanctuary in Naples, Florida on Jan. 2, 2013. Though the preserve was purchased around the turn of the century, it was not opened to the public until 1960, when the boardwalk was completed.

In addition, the sanctuary can be credited with saving endangered species, such as the beautiful roseate spoonbill, which was slaughtered almost to extinction in 1915 by greedy plume hunters, looking to sell the feathers for ladies' hats.

The early history of the 14,000-acre preserve is fascinating, as there were no roads in the area, and early supporters had to hike in, often wading chest deep in the swamp to explore the "lettuce lake" and other inaccessible regions. The building of the boardwalk was quite an accomplishment. It opened the inaccessible sanctuary to the public in 1960.

The Corkscrew website offers a first-hand description of this process:

MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net An anhinga, or "snakebird," dries its wings, after swimming under the water for food. The bird's mate is sitting on a nest nearby.

"The most difficult job building the boardwalk involved making holes for the posts. Where the water was shallow, conventional posthole diggers sufficed. With those one could easily get down into the sand which provided firm footing for the posts. Out in the deep water where there was more peat and muck, the poles had to be driven through those soft deposits down into the sand below them. It required three men to hold and drive the poles down through the soft material as far as possible and into the sand. Then, with a handmade water jet arrangement -- a little gasoline pump in a canoe pumping water into a garden hose -- would wash away the sand under the sharpened pointed end of the pole. Only by such means could the poles be lowered firmly into the sand. All through October, November, and December, and into January the next year, the work continued. In the lettuce lake area, the post-setting crew worked in the water all the time, up to their waists and often to their chests."

Visitors walk through several distinct habitats on the maze of boardwalks--marshes, bald cypress forests, pond cypress forests, pine flatwoods, and wet prairies.

The preserve harbors over 200 species of birds and other wildlife. Some of the birds are the roseate spoonbill, the great egret, the wood stork, the American bittern, the white ibis, the pileated woodpecker, the limpkin, the swallow-tailed kite, and the friendly little blue herons.

MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net This young alligator is one of only three left of the 27 original babies raised in the sanctuary by a mama alligator who protected them for two years.

The Anhinga, or "snakebird," can be seen diving in the water to catch fish and resting on branches to dry its black and silver wings.

This year, wildlife rangers have set up a viewing station up on the boardwalk for visitors to watch a pair of anhingas who are nesting above the slough where a mama alligator raised her babies in the previous three years.

The distinctive log overlooking the slough is vacant this year, as the protective mama alligator has finally left the preserve, where all the animals are free to come and go as they choose.

According to a conservation agent on duty on the boardwalk, there were only eight of the 27 baby alligators left in 2013, and this year the number is down to three. The mother watched over them for two years, chasing off male alligators, who were known to eat the young ones.

The Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and Blair Audubon Center is open 365 days a week and is very well attended and supported by volunteers and guests.

For the small price of $12.00, visitors can spend two days exploring a living outdoor museum that captures the Western Everglades as they once were in the days of the early explorers such as Ponce de Leon and DeSoto.

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