Suwannee River | River, United States - Encyclopedia Britannica

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• Florida Center for Instructional Technology - The Suwannee River

Ask the Chatbot a Question Also known as: Guasaca Esqui, Swanee River Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors History Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask the Chatbot

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 miles (400 km). All but 35 miles (56 km) of the river’s course are in Florida.

The stream is the Swanee River of Stephen Foster’s famed song “Old Folks at Home.” The river was named Guasaca Esqui (“River of Reeds”) by early Native American inhabitants, and its present name is thought to be a corruption of San Juanee (“Little St. John”). In the 1780s the secluded bays and inlets of Suwannee Sound were rendezvous points for pirates.

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.

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