Question: What song by former Okefenokee park namesake Stephen C. Foster made the Suwanee River famous?
Answer: Old Folks at Home, commonly known as the Way Down Upon the Swanee River, an 1851 hit (and also Florida’s state song) that misspells the river’s name. Foster, often called the father of American music, never saw the river in person and picked the name off an atlas. The park itself started as Camp Stephen Foster, a private concession inside the refuge established in 1948. Georgia took it over as Stephen C. Foster State Park in 1954