News | June 18, 2026

Okefenokee trailblazers: Archiving the legacy of Company 1433

Written by

SELC Staff

A Civilian Conservation Corps member on the bugle. (United States National Archives)

A brown and white owl looks down from a branch in the canopy.

At the edge of a swamp, with Spanish moss hanging down, a trail sign comes up out of the water reading Tater Rake Run.

A barred owl overlooks the swamp. (Gregory Miller) Tater Rake Run, right, is named for the rudimentary tool used by Civilian Conservation Corps members to build it. (Julie Dermansky)

Paddling across the Okefenokee Swamp, a several-day journey through our continent’s largest blackwater swamp, is possible thanks to a vast network of canoe trails. The watery paths were built in the 1930s and 1940s by Company 1433, an all-Black unit of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

But up until recently, few people knew anything about Company 1433 and their contributions to the Okefenokee. As a result of their efforts, decades of visitors have witnessed the wonders of this National Wildlife Refuge up close. A new archival project is looking to give these men their rightful place in the swamp’s history.

Archivist Jessica (Jes) Neal and Project Manager Jennifer (Jennie) Berglund make up the Company 1433 Project and have spent the last two and a half years collecting and preserving as much as they can find about this Civilian Conservation Corps group. Ultimately, they are building a digital archive, exhibition, and middle school curriculum to support broader understanding of the group who built the foundation for the Okefenokee’s protection.

Two women stand behind a table with materials celebrating Company 1433

A group of Black young men in uniforms lean over to learn more about an engine.

Jes Neale, left, and Jennie Berglund of the Company 1433 Project hosted a community archiving event at the swamp. (George McKenzie Jr) The first labeled photo of Company 1433 found by archivist Jes Neal, shown right, illustrates the Civilian Conservation Corps’ focus on skill-building. (United States National Archives)

Both with Southern roots, Jes and Jennie were compelled by the chance to use their expertise to report and share this little-known conservation history from a region they love — each bringing extensive backgrounds in their respective fields: Jes in archiving and Black studies, including work at other national wildlife refuges, and Jennie in science storytelling, film production, and exhibitions.

There are so many stories that need to be told about this work. In the end, this is American history. It’s Georgia’s history. It’s Okefenokee history. And it’s important history.
Jennie Berglund, project manager, Company 1433 Project

Their research quickly grew to include other all-Black units and their work to build out national parks and tackle other environmental conservation projects.

Three sand hill cranes stand on a grassy island

An alligators snout sits on top of the water, surrounded by lily pads

Sandhill cranes, shown left, are one of larger birds found in the swamp. The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge was established in large part to protect the many birds who call it home, which were being decimated by hunters in the early 1900s looking to supply the fashion industry with feathers. The refuge is also home to at least 10,000 alligators like the one shown right. (George McKenzie Jr).

The Company 1433 Project has identified 13 other Black units from the Civilian Conservation Corps that were stationed in Georgia and more than 100 across the South, but hardly any scholarship on them or their contributions.

In the Okefenokee, the 200 men of Company 1433 were charged with bringing the infrastructure to support tourists exploring what was then a newly designated refuge, established in 1937. A big part of the swamp’s appeal then and now is how many birds, and thus birders, are drawn to the vast, intact habitat during migration and breeding seasons.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the CCC during the Great Depression to provide jobs and training to young, unemployed, unmarried men through environmental conservation projects. As with the rest of American society at the time, many of the units were segregated by race. (United States National Archives)

A black and white photo of a Black man in a clearing of a longleaf pine forest with an axe working to clear more area. — Black CCC units were often assigned unforgiving work, like carving clearings through thick vegetation in a hot, buggy swamp with basic tools. (United States National Archives)

Today, the Okefenokee is recognized for its unique freshwater ecosystem, making it a must-see destination for families, anglers, wildlife enthusiasts, and adventurers. It’s such a singular site that swamp stewards recently submitted it for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage site with news expected from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in July. Groups like SELC, the Okefenokee Protection Alliance, and others are committed to protecting all that makes the swamp unique, including successfully stopping a massive, proposed mining operation in 2025.

But it’s the legacy of the labor of Company 1433 that still gives us a front row seat to all the Okefenokee’s wonders.