Don’t mind the gators:
January 7, 2014
Wade into ‘Okefenokee Swamp Wild & Natural’ salt in St. Andrew Sound. News of the photographic masterpiece swept through the region, and Wayne’s phone lit up in 2011. One of the first calls was ne of the most popular items that I put into gift bags last from his former boss, Don Berryhill, who had reconnected with month took 30 years to germinate and sprout onto coffee Wayne during cleanup campaigns along the Satilla. Soon, the two tables. Happenstance, shared passion and hard work made nature enthusiasts were brainstorming about an Okefenokee book. “Okefenokee Swamp Wild & Natural” bloom into 150-plus pages of Another of the calls was from me. I wanted to meet the full-color, just in time for Christmas. man behind the camera and “Satilla Solitude.” And after a jaunt So, how did it get started? with Wayne to Zirkle, his favorite sanctuary on the Little Satilla, we Experts say the swamp has been around for 6,500 years, lamented about littering on the river. Seeing trash strewn on the growing out of the Atlantic coastal plain in Southeast Georgia. The sugar-white sandbars spawned a children’s book: “Kase for the Environment.” Wayne’s photos depicted the contrast between nature’s headwaters of the Suwanee and St. Marys Rivers are in the swamp, beauty and piles of trash. In 2012, I wrote the narrative, speaking in and most of the watershed flows toward the Gulf of Mexico. But the child-like voice of Wayne’s I’m getting ahead of myself. grandson, Kase. The swamp has an But even before his second ancient history. But the book was off the press, Wayne latest book about Georgia’s and Don were wading into natural wonder that slips their swamp book. Balancover into Florida is a relative ing his nighttime duties as a newcomer, stemming from mechanic in CSX’s Waycross a chance meeting of Don rail yard, Wayne spent much Berryhill and Wayne Morgan. As a summer worker 35 of 2013’s daylight in trips to years ago, Wayne fell under the Okefenokee, many with the supervision and spell of 80-year-old Don. They were Don, who is a resident expert determined their book would on the 438,000 acres making be unique and accurate. Their up “The Land of Trembling perfectionist drives make Earth.” them an ideal match. Both men knew— Four days before Christmas 2013, a big truck with right away—that they had boxes of “Okefenokee Wild a mutual love for the Okefenokee. What they didn’t & Natural” backed up to know was that Wayne, Wayne’s door. Santa demands almost by accident, would sold half the inventory beIn his youth, Wayne Morgan worked part-time in the Okefenokee Swamp fore year-end. Without your become a world-class nature photographer who could team for Regional Educational Services Agency’s (RESA) Don Berryhill. Thirty- having to brave winter’s bite or the jaws of hungry gators, eye-popping illustrations with five years later, Wayne, the photographer, and Don, the encyclopedic Wayne’s photographs plop you Don’s encyclopedic knowledge writer, devoted much of 2013 to produce a 150-plus page coffee table book on the swamp. Copies are now on sale at The Press-Sentinel for in the middle of about 650 of the swamp. $39.99 each. square miles of jaw-dropping This book wouldn’t nature. It’s almost as if crithave happened unless Wayne ters whisper, “Here’s Wayne. Let’s look our best.” And then there’re hadn’t “died” twice in 1999. His doctor explained that in both of easy-to-understand details that Don writes so well. Beyond the Wayne’s falls following heart attacks, hitting the ground hard restarted his heart. With a pacemaker installed, the 35-year-old had black water, cypress trees, alligators, bears and birds, I am fascinated an epiphany and a new hobby. Picking up a Nikon camera, he put by the swamp’s history, its old-time “swampers” and their lore. down his hunting and fishing gear. If you’d like to learn more, visit: www.waynemorganartistry. Tens of thousands of shutter clicks and a dozen years later, com. I commend this coffee-table trophy to you. And get ready. Wayne published his first book, “Satilla Solitude,” about his favorite The seed for Wayne’s fourth book is already planted. I’ll tell you river, the Satilla, near his Brantley County home. The black-water about it—later. river snakes 260 miles through Southeast Georgia on its way to lick dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
By Dink NeSmith
O
After 30 years of procrastination, Don Berryhill, an expert on the Okefenokee, teamed with photographer Wayne Morgan to publish a book on the 438,000-acre swamp that spills out of Southeast Georgia into Florida.
Brantley County’s Wayne Morgan took thousands of photographs to provide selections for his third book, “Okefenokee Swamp Wild & Natural.” His longtime friend, Don Berryhill of Waycross, is the author.