SOPCHOPPY FLORIDA
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The words Sopchoppy Florida just seem to roll off your tongue. Along with Two Egg, the name has become the quintessential example of rural Florida.
Sopchoppy is up in Florida Big Bend country south of Tallahassee, in Wakulla County, where the Florida coast starts its bend west from the main peninsula toward the panhandle.
The town is on the Sopchoppy River at the edge of the huge Apalachicola National Forest, and has a population of about 500.
The name comes from an old Indian word for river, and the town was born in 1894 when the railroad came through this area.
You may be a true Floridian if you know that Sopchoppy is the location of the annual Worm Gruntin' Festival, which began back in the year 2000. It always takes place on the second Saturday of April.
The photo below is of Gary Revell, a professional worm grunter and a previous King of the Festival.
Sopchoppy Florida claims to be the "Worm Gruntin' Capital of the World", and I for one am not going to challenge their claim.
I remember seeing it featured many years ago on CBS's Sunday Morning back when Charles Kuralt visited and interviewed some worm grunters.
It was also featured on Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs".
Worm grunting involves sticking a wooden stake, or stob, into the ground and rubbing it with a flat piece of iron like a car leaf spring to make the stake send vibrations into the ground.
The sound it makes when done right sounds like the grunting of a bullfrog.
Worms think the sound is coming from moles, however, who love to eat worms. So the worms wiggle up to the surface thinking they are escaping from the burrowing moles only to end up in a worm grunter's bait bucket.
Some folks are far better than others at worm gruntin. It seems to be an art more than a science.
Interesting links:
Sopchoppy History and Current Businesses
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