OCHOPEE, Fla. — The Florida Everglades are an ecosystem bustling with life. Of course, much of that life can be missed or spooked off with some of your more traditional eco-tours and airboat rides, that is unless you take the road less traveled. 

Just around the bend emerges a traditional Everglades pole boat. Many can adventure through the glades with Jack Shealy, a man who knows a thing or two about these waters. 

“About 15 years. I've been guiding on the river, but my family has been using this river for generations,” Shealy said, adding that his family has been hunting, fishing and trapping on these pole boats for close to 40 years along the Ochopee prairie.

It has given him and his family a bond with the river and a certain set of credentials. He is a Florida glades-man. 

“The history of the Glades-man … our families go back generations living in the everglades real similar to the Cajun culture. And lot of us are of Irish and Celtic descent, so lots of that culture carried over so the fiddle music and moonshining, the cattle culture," Shealy said. 

The first glades-man in the area used these pole boats built out of the rough cut cypress to navigate these twisting and turning swamp waters, creating a new way to barter and trade goods. 

“When folks moved further south of Ochopee, they had to change their way of life and how they got around in the swamp so these pole boats are an iconic part of glades-man culture," Shealy said. 

A culture that still has deep roots in this area today. Shealy and his pole boat gives you a glimpse into the men and woman who first settled here in the swamps. 

“You get first-hand experience and knowledge from the local people that live here; about the environment and history here and it's a special way to see it all," Shealy said. 

Everglades Pole Boat Safari Tours is open seven days a week but call ahead to schedule your tour as they book up in advance.