TATE’S HELL
“Oh, listen! Good people, a story I’ll tell
Of a great swamp in Florida, a place called ‘Tate’s Hell’…
One hundred and forty square watery miles
With millions of ‘skeeters and big yellow flies,
And where all about the moccasins lie
With glittering death in their beady eye,
Where bull-gators beller and panthers squall.
Now this is a place to be shunned by all.
No man can dispute
This legend of yore…
How Tate lived a full week
And then five days more,
And somehow crawled out
Close to Carrabelle,
From the deep-ghostly swamp
That we know as Tate’s Hell.”
……By Will McLean
Reprinted with permission from the National Estaurine Research Reserve
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/apalachicola/
THIS IS A PLACE FOR YOUR BUCKET LIST. VERY EDUCATIONAL AND CHILDREN-FRIENDLY.
Directions: From US Hwy. 98 in Eastpoint, Florida turn south on SR 300 (Island Dr.) towards St. George Island. After 1/4 mile, turn left into gravel driveway by Reserve sign (before the bridge).
My husband, sister-in-law and I never made it to Tate’s Hell. We were vying for St. George Island, and it did not disappoint us. The sunset in the sound is amazing.
JUDE GARRISON 