Okefenokee Bonnet Lakes

In 1875, The Atlanta Constitution published the dramatic headline: “We now announce to our readers, and the people of Georgia, that we are fitting up an expedition for a complete and thorough exploration of Okefinokee. The full details of the plan and expedition will be published soon – if they come out alive.” Over the next months, the Constitution and other papers published many exciting stories from the Okefenokee…

“A few hundred yard further brought us to a series of bonnet flats or lakes, as Uncle Ben called them, which were anything but enticing. They were open places, which were twenty to fifty feet across, with any quantity of flat bonnets [water lilies] – a growth common to the deep ponds of South Georgia. I do not know the botanical name for them. Notwithstanding our many resolutions, we could not help shrugging our shoulders as we plunged to our arm-pits in the first one, for we knew well that under these bonnets were the favorite lurking places for the monsters of the Okefenoke.”
–  Savannah Morning News. Savannah, Georgia. May 25, 1875