Ottine Itch

This is high ground, yet once upon a time it was a marsh. There used to be springs and mud pots and hot water coming out of the ground here. It was called Ottine Swamp.

Today most of the springs are gone, the mud pots don't bubble, and the hot water doesn't come to the surface anymore. The water table has long since been pumped too low. But 70 years ago, they sunk some artesian wells and hydraulic ram pumps, and the land was bought by the state, so a piece of that swamp survives.

Here you can see Palmettos in the woods, thriving in the muddy, mucky places where the water still collects. And in the early spring the Red Buckeyes thrust up their blossoms beneath the forest canopy. Here the air is thick. And here and there, some springs still seep out of the ground.

Down by the riverside, there's a trickle of water coming out from the face of the sandy bank. It emerges from the dense undergrowth and runs down the hill making a little beach where it joins the river. This is a place for a boy to spend the afternoon coating himself in mud, wallowing in the mire, hidden from view by the lush green on the forest floor.

This is also a place of poison ivy. It is everywhere, creeping and climbing and reaching out from the bushes at the side of the path, grabbing for unprotected legs and arms. And between here and that sandy spot down by the river where a boy might spend the afternoon, the woods is full of it.

Pity that boy when his wallowing has ended.

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Palmetto State Park, Gonzalez TX

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