Josh Howard has been coming to Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp for 50 years, starting with his grandfather taking him there, then taking his own children. He knows just about every inch of the place.

"We spent many-a-nights out in the swamp," Howard said. "Some of my best memories have been out here."

At nearly 700 unspoiled square miles, Okefenokee Swamp is bigger than entire cities like Nashville or Phoenix. It's home to more than 1,000 species of plants and wildlife — cottonmouth snakes, turtles and red-cockaded woodpeckers, which were once an endangered species.

"You hear the sandhill cranes bugling out on the marshes, and that's what wakes you up," Howard said.

And all the animals clear out when one of the 15,000 gators glides through.

But in 2019, naturalists said the swamp was u

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