SUWANNEE RIVER

river rising in the Okefenokee Swamp, southeastern Georgia, U.S., and meandering generally south-southwestward across northern Florida to enter the Gulf of Mexico at Suwannee Sound, after a course of 250 mi (400 km). All but 35 mi of the river's course are in Florida. The stream is the Swanee River of Stephen Collins Foster's famed song Old Folks at Home. Named Guasaca Esqui (River of Reeds) by early Indian inhabitants, the river's present name is thought to be a Negro corruption of San Juanee (Little St. John). The Suwannee receives the waters of numerous springs and the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Santa Fe rivers. From its conjunction with the Withlacoochee, its channel is dredged for 135 miles (217 km); the last 25 miles (40 km) are tidal. In the north it flows over shoals and boulders and between cedar-lined limestone banks. Farther south its banks teem with cypresses, oaks, and various species of gardenias, orchids, and ixias. Bass, perch, catfish, bream, and small game are plentiful in and along the Suwannee. In the 1780s the secluded bays and inlets of Suwannee Sound were rendezvous points for pirates.