In 1889, the Georgia General Assembly authorized the Governor to sell the land containing the Okefenokee Swamp to the highest bidder.
[1] The highest bidder was a group of capitalists and former Confederate officers who offered 26.5 cents per acre for the property.
[1] Captain Henry Jackson, the president of the company, and his crews spent three years digging the Suwannee Canal 11.5 miles (18.5 km) into the swamp.
[1] In 1894, the company built a large sawmill at Camp Cornelia and constructed a railroad from Folkston, Georgia to the mill.
[1] Logging operations, focusing on cypress, began in 1909 after a railroad was constructed into the west edge of the swamp.
[2] Over 431 million board feet (1,000,000 m³) of timber, much of it old-growth cypress, had been removed from the Okefenokee by 1927 when logging operations ceased.
[2] The Suwannee Canal survives as a principal waterway into the swamp, and is enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year.