Stephen Foster and the Suwannee River

Saturday, April 25, 2009
White Springs, FL

Born in 1826 in Pittsburg, Stephen Foster left a legacy that won't soon be forgotten. His talent was writing songs... hundreds of them over his short 37 year lifespan. Although you probably won't recognize him as the author, his works include: "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Black Joe", Beautiful Dreamer", and "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair", and many many others.

Although a lot of his songs have a Southern theme, Foster never lived in the South, and actually only visited once, on a riverboat trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans for his honeymoon.

But to honor him and his contribution to music and Southern Folk Culture, the states of Florida and Georgia have both named State Parks in his memory.

Today, we visited the Florida Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, just a couple miles up the road from our campsite at Lee's Country Campground. These grounds are along the Suwannee River, the subject of, arguably his most enduring song, "Old Folks at Home".

During the 1930's, renewed interest in Foster led to civic efforts to develop this property which opened in 1950. There's a museum, a 97 bell carillon -- one of the largest in the world, and dozens of acres of park setting for recreation, picnics, camping, weddings (there were two here during our visit today), and walking trails along the Suwannee River.

The river was high today, the result of heavy spring rains in Southern Georgia and the area of the Okefenokee Swamp, which is it's source and headwaters. The water is stained reddish-black, the result of tannins from the decomposition of plant material further upstream. And we're not talking a slight tint when I say reddish-black. It's deep black with a slight tinge of red around the edges. Not dirty, not silty, not really murky... just black. Very impressive.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we're making a short 60 mile drive to another state park, this one in Georgia, named after the one and only Stephen Foster. The Georgia State Park is on a small island in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp, the home of big gators, bigger snakes, and a lot of other reasons NOT to go there.

But we're explorers... intrepid explorers... and duty calls.

Due to the remoteness of the Georgia State Park, there's no cellular communication of any kind... no internet, no phone, no nothing. Isn't it something that we have to go to these lengths -- risking our lives by living among large wild animals -- to get a few days of peace from the "web"?

I'm actually looking forward to it.

T