Exploring Swamps of Cypress Gardens South Carolina In A Tiny Boat / Hidden Secrets & Film Locations
Cypress Gardens South Carolina in Small Boat
Transcript
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welcome everyone adam the woo here as
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the recording of this wednesday january
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19th
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2022
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do not be deceived
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this is not what you think it might be
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this gas station fuel stop convenience
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store i thought they had strawberries
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inside for sale but it is not a
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strawberry stand the name of this
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community
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is strawberry and if just in case
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you're curious down in there
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there's the coffee i'm inviting you i'm
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in south carolina to join me
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i'm starting it
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in the community of strawberry
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hold on
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pop this off
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can i pop it off
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there it is look in there
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see
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coffee
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warm
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join me
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it's a long intro shall you this road
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through this canopy of trees is pretty
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incredible
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look at this all right i ended up at
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cypress gardens
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a low country treasure
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preferred
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by group and family destination since
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1932
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and as you can see i feel like
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the griswolds
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first ones here
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first ones here this is a lot different
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than the cypress gardens that used to
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exist in central florida that i am
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familiar with that i went to many times
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that has now been converted into another
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theme park this is more of a nature
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preserve
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and i've never really done a full
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property tour so that's what i'm going
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to do today
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i'm going to cover this these
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are not real cypress trees
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now when i went in the employee the lady
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that i gave the 10 admission to
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said that there were a number of films
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here
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a lot of movies have utilized cypress
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gardens here in south carolina one of
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them being a mel gibson movie called the
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patriot
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and there's a bridge here she said
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there's also a couple of fake trees
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and i'm just going to assume these are
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the fake trees that they used
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for set dressing
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because this is not a real tree
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general layout of the land
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shows all the property here can also
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rent a boat for an additional well i
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think no she said the
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boat was included with the ten dollar
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admission they'll have to paddle it
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around
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and then they'd give a tour that's five
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dollars but they only do it once or
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twice a day okay here's a couple of the
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boats
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got some bigger ones here
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and then there's another one over there
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which has the name
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petunia
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i'm not making this up
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are those
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or is that
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petunias
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they get spelled a little differently
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now i have been here before but it has
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been a decade so maybe this will be a
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once every 10-year tradition
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just show up at cypress gardens in south
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carolina
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not a theme park there are
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no attractions well there's attractions
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there's a butterfly garden
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and the bridge here
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that was put in
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a little hollywood movie magic
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for that mel gibson movie which i always
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i get braveheart vibes from it see the
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patriot once or twice seen braveheart
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probably 50 times 100 times
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it's very similar in style obviously a
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different time frame
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different area
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but it just it kind of you know you can
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definitely tell it's the
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same type of movie
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as far as the other way it's filmed
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because it's mel gibson
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but this was put in
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by hollywood
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this bridge used in the movie this will
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not be a filming location video
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this is going to be a cypress gardens
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video but i will
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show a little bit of some of the stuff
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that was
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took place out here the backstory on
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this place was the home of dean hall all
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this property
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and then later benjamin rufus ketridge
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took over the place started planting
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trees
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no created a gardens in a lake of
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cypress trees which had been a reservoir
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to the flowing rice fields
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in 1963 the gardens were donated to the
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city
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and now cypress cards i'm going to go
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inside the butterfly house i'll have
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about an hour
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before noon which is when the tour
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will begin and because the weather is
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kind of cool and crisp and it's the slow
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season i might have a boat to myself
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just me and the vibe be it me and the
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guide
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there will be quite a vibe a much
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different experience than epcot's flower
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and garden festival
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where you are basically elbow to elbow
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with other guests
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it's just me
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and the worker the employee in here
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right down here
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oh that is so cool
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hello there flat hello there on the
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flower a butterfly
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little butterfly
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getting a little bit of nectar from the
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flower
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that is so freaking cool
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okay didn't even notice these couple
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gators here
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one there
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and
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one over there arrested
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big gators
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they do have the crushed pennies in here
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too the souvenir pennies
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couple little turtles
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the red bellied paku
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sometimes referred to as the piranhas
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cowardly cousin
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because they are shy vegetarians found
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in the amazon river
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these are huge look at the size of these
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that's so cute
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why is a turtle swimming so fascinating
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looking at your shadow
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or looking at your reflection
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a few birds i might say is a turkey
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vulture a pelated woodpecker
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also the red bellied
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and then possibly not a bird but a river
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otter
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that'd be neat to see a river otter
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noticing here on the back of the
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property as i continue my way down the
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walking path is a bottle tree
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right over there in the clearing
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you got the blue bottles going up the
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side of that very tall bottle tree
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the thing about an alligator or
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crocodile
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is they disguise themselves in the water
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so see the murky greenness there
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a gator could just be right there like a
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quarter of an inch below the surface and
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you would not even notice i'm now
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returning up for my time slot for the
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boat tour looks like there's a couple
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other people
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who've arrived now pictured here just
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got a few more minutes before i get on
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the boat but this is
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the item that was destroyed in the
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hurricane and here's a list of things
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that were filmed here
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so they do mention it right there i like
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that
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all right
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you guys enjoy your ride thank you
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if you do sandy gators now you decide to
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pet them use the hand you don't want
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okay
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i'll say good afternoon it's almost
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afternoon these are part of the extended
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root system
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for the bald cypress tree
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the bald cypress tree is what grows out
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here in the swamp and it needs a very
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extensive root system to help hold it
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upright in the soft swamp soil
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so the root will go down in the ground
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very far it will reach out about as far
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as the tree is tall and then some of the
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roots will return to the surface grow up
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and all this is for
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is to help hold on to the soil to help
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hold these trees upright out here most
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of them only protrude out the ground two
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to three inches some of them grow a
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little taller than that
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yeah i always thought that they were
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their own separate thing but they're
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attached to the roots of the tree
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they're actually part of the root yes
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part of the root system
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yeah they don't grow into little
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saplings or trees or not bend in the
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tree you'll see a slot
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above that slot there is a hole about
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three feet up you see all them bees
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flying around up there that is a natural
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honeybee nest
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we did not put that there they just
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moved in themselves about a year and a
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half ago
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we do not collect the honey from them or
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anything like that
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but uh they started in the hole i think
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the honey's all the way down into the
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slot now
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there's a lot of them up there oh yeah
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because the appearance of the water
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the water is not actually black i'm
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going to tell you about that
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beings how this is fresh water any kind
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of fish life out here that you would
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find you would find in a freshwater
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river we have everything from catfish
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bass brim crappie bluegill sunfish
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turtles eels
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any such thing like that if you would
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find it in a freshwater river you will
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find it in this fall off every year as
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you can see most of the trees are bare
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right now
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these needles fall off trees sink to the
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bottom of the swamp they got a chemical
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in them called tannin
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cannon is an oil base
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because they do have an oil base to them
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they take a very long time to
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deteriorate
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laying on the bottom of the swamp you're
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actually seeing a reflection off the
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bottom
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as well as a reflection off the top
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now if y'all look to your right here i
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can show you with my paddle the water is
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actually a very light tan color
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there you can see in the paddle there
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yep
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so you're actually seeing a reflection
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and the swamp itself is two to six feet
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deep
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throughout the whole swamp right here
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we're in
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probably five foot of water
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now the tupelo cypress tree has two main
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differences one is it has leaves not
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needles
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the other is it has a smoother base to
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it
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you see the bald cypress tree sort of
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has the knees grown into the base of the
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tree how it's all
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knead up around the edges yeah the
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tupelo cypress is smoother how long have
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you been not working out here
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uh this is my fourth year as an employee
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uh before that i was out here for
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about six years before i retired as a
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volunteer
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so i got about 10 years in out here but
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i've only been an employee for about
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four years
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okay i used to work iron in downtown
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charleston
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i'm an iron worker okay
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did all kinds of steel work stairs
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handrails
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uh crawl under the buildings and replace
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beams and stuff
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so
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do you talk about any of the movie
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history out here yes
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excellent
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now if we do bump into a tree do not
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worry about it we'll be just fine it
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looks like the wind got hold of me there
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a little bit
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i asked that you do keep your hands in
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the boat
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do not push us off any trees
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i don't reach out and touch the trees
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and i got two pretty good reasons why i
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asked you this
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um spiders and snakes
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it's an interesting place i love coming
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out here paddling around i bet
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it's a different adventure just about
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every time you come out
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see something new out here
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florida to your boats was that's the air
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boats in florida that's true
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this tree right beside us here is tupelo
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cypress
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now the alligators if they want to leave
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here on the left side all they got to do
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is cross that walking trail
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go through a small swamp section over
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there they can be in the cooper river
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from the cooper river they can go up
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into the francis marion national forest
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or they can go downtown charleston
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occasionally they do go downtown
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and uh if alligator does go out there to
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the folly beach dollar palm sullivan's
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island something like that
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um it will make the local news
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because the alligator made it out to
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salt water
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are we going under this bridge yes
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would you like to go under this bridge
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this is what we call our duck bridge
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this bridge has nothing to do with them
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here we go
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oh my god under our face oh wow bridge
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oh my gosh
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okay you are clear
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and me
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there we go
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nobody looked up seen all them spiders
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oh i didn't even notice
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off to our left is the
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wedding doc
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if a bride chooses to get married out
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uh we'll bring her out here in a single
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boat
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boat fits into the v of that dock the
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bride will get out walk across the dock
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continue walking to the right across
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usually perform
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now all this is for
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is to make a grand entrance for a
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beautiful bride
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and that it does that metal ring that is
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around the post helps keep predators out
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of the duck box
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when they have eggs in there
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a predator that might try and get up in
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there and steal and eat them duck eggs
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would be like a raccoon
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a river otter even a snake would try and
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get up there what keeps cypress gardens
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from drying up is we do have pumps in
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the freshwater river to pump water
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into the swamp to maintain a certain
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water level out here so we can come out
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here and enjoy the swamp
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so you just pushing that right off the
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ground yes the ground is just only a few
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feet down yep it's probably easier than
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paddling isn't it sometimes yes it is
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yep just touch the bottom
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these docks that you'll see down through
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here uh they're just for
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for us mainly for halloween we do
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halloween in the swamp and we'll set up
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different uh nice props up on them uh
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occasionally we'll do something with
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christmas also put a christmas tree or
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christmas scene up
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something like this
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let's talk a little bit of history as we
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go down through here this swamp was not
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always as swamp as you see it today
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back in the early 1700s
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this was a low-lying swampy area
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in other words when it would rain out
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the water would run into this area and
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it'd be a little flooded area swampy
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area uh the trees are native to this
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area and he actually had it hand dug
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into a water reservoir for his rice
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fields
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so this is actually a man-made swamp
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this is actually hand dug out in the
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early 1700s
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he also had to hand dig a trench over to
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the freshwater river to get water into
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the water reservoir in the early 1900s
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benjamin catrich bought this property
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now benjamin cattridge
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unlike the previous two owners
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he didn't want to
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want this property for the rice fields
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he was a very wealthy businessman
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and he wanted this property for him and
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his wife to duck hunt he closed off the
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incoming water he closed off the
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outgoing water he made this a stagnant
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swamp by 1932 just a few short years
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later
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benjamin cattridge opened cypress
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gardens to the public
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so cypress gardens has been open since
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1932 standing that it does stay open to
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the public according to his father's
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wishes
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city of charleston took over this
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property and they ran it for quite a few
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years
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now this property is not in
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charleston city it's not in charleston
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county it's actually located in berkeley
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county
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it's uh it was hard to get to at the
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time in the early 1900s we didn't have
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the highway system and bridges and so
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forth that we have today they weren't
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making a very good profit off of it
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in 1996
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they got together with berkeley county
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because this property is in berkeley
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county and they said do you want to buy
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and of course berkeley county said yes
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so berkeley county boat property of
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1996. piece of bladder work to show
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y'all
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this is the viney looking plant i was
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telling you about the flutes out there
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um it's got little sacks on it all in
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little sides where it gets its name
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bladderwork because them little bladders
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and then little bladders lay flat in the
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water and when an insect lands on it
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they will wrap itself around it and
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consume it
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so it's called bladderwork
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it's all over out here
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of course that was filmed out here they
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had to bring in all them ducks and swans
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that you see in the movie
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um
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they are not native to this area so they
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had to bring them in they made the movie
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and then they had to get them back out
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of the swamp again so they wouldn't
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become gator dinner
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so they did have to catch all them birds
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and remove them
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another one is uh the patriot with mel
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gibson
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uh
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he was on that first island that we
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called park
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that we come by in the very beginning i
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was talking about the knees
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yeah um that island is where mel gibson
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was with the spanish mission
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spanish mission is no more it was just a
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movie prop
20:19
it was merely stucco plywood let's see
20:22
they had the yearling
20:24
the swamp thing
20:26
north and south
20:44
beautiful they walk along the edge like
20:44
that looking for food
20:46
frogs fish anything like that
20:50
and a nest can go up to 100 alligators
20:52
now not all of them survive but
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i think we're gonna have a good crop
20:57
this year out here spring times when
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they start moving around that's when
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they get out of hibernation they're
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hungry
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um they're also looking for a mate
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partner
21:11
over there you can see the bridge that's
21:12
from the patriot
21:13
that's where mel gibson stopped who was
21:16
general cornwallis's wagon
21:19
confiscated dogs in the furniture if
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you've seen that movie
21:28
now i told you this swamp is two to six
21:28
feet deep and it is
21:31
but in the movie the patriot
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they were actually walking across the
21:35
swamp yeah and riding their horses
21:38
across the swamp
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here's some movie magic for you
21:43
they actually put in a stone road
21:46
uh from this uh where the folks are
21:48
standing over there on the eye on the
21:50
peninsula yeah right over there by the
21:52
swing set uh if you look straight ahead
21:55
of us here i'll turn the boat just a
21:57
little there's two white columns there
21:59
on the island
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they knew at the time they put in the
22:02
stone road that it does not harm the
22:04
swamp in any way shape or form they
22:06
actually left the road there
22:09
we can control the water level in here
22:12
somewhat
22:14
and we can let a little bit of water out
22:17
and walk across there again today
22:21
right now the water level that we have
22:23
it's probably about a foot deep across
22:26
there if you can actually look over the
22:28
boat once we get down there if you look
22:30
over the edge of the boat and try to
22:32
look through the blackness you'll be
22:34
able to see the stones on the bottom
22:37
right here
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that's the stones
22:46
the stone road the whole way across
22:48
there today it's mainly used for a fish
22:50
hatchery
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and the ospreys know it they'll come up
22:53
here and sit in one of these three trees
22:55
and they'll watch that stone road when a
22:58
fish goes across it they dive out that
23:00
tree catch them a fish and fly off
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now did y'all get to go to the aquarium
23:11
back there swamp area yeah yeah there is
23:13
a swamp area and we do have the uh
23:15
butterfly house are open year-round
23:19
thank you very much yeah thank you
23:21
enjoyed the ride even though we didn't
23:23
see any alligators today
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another person who was instrumental in
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preserving the unique and natural beauty
23:41
of the gardens
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was c norwood hasty jr
23:47
63-83 only 20 years old
23:53
mr hasey was considered a leading
23:53
horticulturist in the low county he was
23:56
also saying you could rent out the
23:57
facilities like these gazebos here they
24:00
provide tables and chairs
24:03
just have to get a hold of cypress
24:04
gardens themselves and
24:06
inquire
24:07
if you want to have an event of any sort
24:26
notice there's also a wooden dock out
24:51
wow
24:51
no railings
25:06
do not take a long walk off this short
25:06
pier
25:09
even if someone tells you to
25:21
a tribute to the admiration
25:21
the kittridge family had for the rich
25:23
and bountiful low country landscape
25:34
which is why this place exists
25:37
and here on the very property
25:41
is this
25:47
this is something else
26:22
the ground was consecrated may 16th of
26:22
1935
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1900 to 1981
26:47
and his wife
26:48
corolla
27:09
there was a forest he created the beauty
27:09
of the surrounding cypress gardens
27:16
the wife
27:16
of benjamin rufus elizabeth maynard
27:18
marshall
27:22
i learned from the boat guide
27:25
that happy
27:27
was the name of the family dog
27:30
happy is here as well
27:39
this is a little bit of walk from the
27:39
front but worth checking out
27:42
for sure
28:00
may good fortune and every blessing
28:00
attend all those in the future
28:02
take reverent care of this
28:04
consecrated ground
28:07
benjamin's quote there
28:15
this one acre of ground in the property
28:15
of strawberry chapel see strawberry
28:27
notice the two double trees here
28:27
they kind of fork up
28:29
with the boat going by
28:31
but it's right here was right on the
28:32
side of that island next to those two
28:34
double trees right here pretty close to
28:36
where the boats load and there's those
28:38
two trees right over there to the right
28:40
side kind of forking up
28:42
so it was right here it only lasted
28:43
three years after there's some photos
28:45
online obviously the one i found
28:48
but it was right here which makes sense
28:50
because
28:51
the road that they were talking about
28:52
that goes underneath the
28:54
the water over there is on the same
28:56
island so it would have been right here
28:58
there's really nothing left
29:12
yep completely gone all right i'm gonna
29:12
start wrapping it up but first gonna
29:13
head into the gift shop i'm not gonna
29:15
exit through the gift shop
29:17
but i'm gonna go in the gift shop
29:18
because you can't exit without going in
29:19
the gift shop but i'm gonna go in there
29:21
get a souvenir
29:23
got myself a
29:24
magnet also there is no affiliation with
29:28
the former
29:29
cypress gardens in florida
29:31
that became a theme park and then now
29:34
changed it to another establishment
29:35
there is no affiliation i was talking to
29:37
the employee in the gift shop
29:39
also i believe the birds are out now i
29:40
can hear them over there it's warmed up
29:42
a little bit so i think they got their
29:43
birds out
29:44
so i'll end with the birds
29:46
hello
29:52
gonna say
29:52
hi hello
30:10
what's that
30:10
what do you say you saying
30:13
i'll see you in the next video that's
30:14
going to do it for today
30:16
the vlog
30:18
is