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Understanding the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Watershed: Significant Historical Events

Michael OBrienLAA 6656January 13, 2009http://www.nps.gov/seac/SoutheastChronicles/KEMO/Image%2005%20dLisle%20Map%20of%201718%20from%20AL%20Map%20Archive.gifOverviewPre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)Creeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s) Civilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)Water War (1950s - Present)

Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)8,000 BCEArrival of first humans (hunter gatherers) in Chattahoochee Valley

http://anthropik.com/wp-content/uploads/map2.gifPre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)1,000 BCE 700 CEWoodland civilizations--Some farming--Mound building--Kolomoki

http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8101846Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)700 CE c. 1500: Mississippian civilizations--Extensive farming--More mound building --Chiefdoms--Roods Landing and Cemochechobee

http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/Creeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s)

--Spanish exploration, including DeSoto expedition 1539-1542--Epidemic, upheaval, migration among the Mississippians--1600s: Remaining Mississippians plus some refugees in coalesce into the Creek or Muskogee Confederation

http://www.janelouisecurry.com/images/janelcurry-340-Sky-boat-map.jpgSoutheastern tribes, c. 1700Creeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas--1685: English traders reach Coweta Falls--Late 1600s: Spanish forts built, then abandoned on Chattahoochee--1717: French establish Ft. Toulouse on nearby Alabama River--1718: Spanish build Ft. San Marcos on Apalachee Bay

Colonization, c. 1750Creeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s)

--1733: Colony of Georgia established--1739: Gen. Oglethorpe visits Coweta; boundary agreed upon (but)--1763: Britain acquires Florida and divides the colony along the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee River

--1775-1783: American Revolution; Britain cedes all lands east of Mississippi River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_FloridaCreeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s)

--1802: Mississippi Territory created--1811: Federal Road (trail) completed between DC and New Orleans; crosses Chattahoochee--1812-1815: War of 1812 (U.S. v. Britain)--1813-1814: Creek Civil War

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/national_parks/horseshoe_bend_cessions.jpg--1814: Andrew Jackson defeats hostile Creeks (the Red Sticks) at Battle of Horseshoe Bend--1814: Treaty of Fort Jackson

Weatherfords SurrenderCreeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s)

--1814: British invade Florida via Apalachicola River, build Ft. Prospect--1815: British abandon Ft. Prospect to a band of runaway slaves and Seminoles--1816: Battle of Negro Fort

Google MapsFt. Gadsden / Negro Fort / Fort ProspectCreeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s)

--1819: Alabama becomes a state--1821: Spain cedes Florida to the U.S.--1836: Creek War (Creeks last hurrah)--Mid 1830s: More than 20,000 Creeks forcibly removed to Oklahoma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_TearsCivilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)

--1823: Apalachicola, FL founded--1827: First steam boat navigates the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee--1828: Columbus, GA founded near Coweta--1820s 1850s: ACF the principal means of shipping area cotton to port (Apalachicola) --1845: Florida becomes a state--1850: Apalachicola the 3rd busiest port on the Gulf Coast

Steamboats near Columbus, GAhttp://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/Civilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)

--1851: Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola patents the worlds first ice maker--1853: Columbus-Savannah railroad completed (significance for Apalachicola)--1857: Railroad reaches Albany, GA on the Flint River

http://www.mszh.hu/kiadv/ipsz/200212/08-technika.htmlJohn Gorrie

ACF Area Railroads c. 1857http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gahchs/1856/Railroads/Civilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)

--1861 1865: Civil War--1861 1865: Columbus booms as a textiles and munitions manufacturing center (The fall line)--1864: CSS Jackson ironclad launched at Columbus

Columbus, 1860sWilloughby

TurnerCivilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)

--1861: Apalachicola blockaded by Union Navy--1862: Confederates abandon Apalachicola but block the Apalachicola River at The Narrows--1863: CSS Chattahoochee sinks on Apalachicola near Blountstown

http://www.hnsa.org/ships/img/chatta2.jpg

CSS ChattahoocheeTurnerCivilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)

--1864: Sherman crosses Chattahoochee, Battle and fall of Atlanta

--1865: Union cavalry sacks West Point and Columbus (war already over)

Google Maps

http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/

Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)

--Late 1860s c. 1920: Golden Years of steamboating on the ACF

--1874: USACE begins project to create 6 x 100 channel (Columbus to Apalachicola)

ACF Steamboat NaiadColumbus, c. 1885WilloughbyWilloughby

Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)

--1877: Song of the Chattahoochee by Sidney Lanier

OUT of the hills of Habersham,Down the valleys of Hall,I hurry amain to reach the plain,Run the rapid and leap the fall,Split at the rock and together again,Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,And flee from folly on every sideWith a lover's pain to attain the plainFar from the hills of Habersham,Far from the valleys of Hall.

(First Stanza)--1866: Two mill dams built near West Point--1899: North Highlands hydroelectric dam built near Columbus--1919: Major flood on Chattahoochee

--1953: Federal ACF Project (navigation, power generation, and stream flow regulation)--1956: Buford Dam completed; created lake Sidney Lanier

http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/images/ACFmap-GAdams-web.jpg

West Point, 1919http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/ACF Project Dams--1957: Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam completed; creates Lake Seminole--1963: Walter F. George Lock and Dam completed; creates Lake Eufala (Walter F. George Lake)--c. 1963: George W. Andrews Lock and Dam completed

http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/images/ACFmap-GAdams-web.jpg

Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)

Andrews Lock and Damhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andrewsdam.JPG

Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)

--1930s: New Deal programs pump money into ACF region--Apalachicola, FL, in particular, benefits--John Gorrie Bridge opens c. 1938

Google Maps

Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)

--1960s: Atlanta, GA a hub of Civil Rights activity(King, SCLC, SNCC)--1961-1962: Albany, GA movement (dry run for Birmingham)

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/buildings/mtzion2.jpg

Segregation protests, Albany, c. 1961

Water War (1950s - Present)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atlanta_Skyline_from_Buckhead.jpgAtlanta--1950s: Metro Atlanta population surpasses 1,000,000--1956: Buford Dam completed; creates Lake Lanier--1966: U.S. Department of the Interior reports Chattahoochee grossly polluted up to 100 miles below Atlanta

Water War (1950s - Present)

--1988: Severe drought; Apalachicola bay declared federal disaster area (oyster harvest)

--1993: up to 65 miles downstream of Atlanta, Chattahoochee still too polluted for cities to include it in their drinking water supply

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/1051/90051746.JPG

Water War (1950s - Present)

--2003: AL, GA, and FL fail to authorize the ACF Compact; GA makes secret water-allocation pact with USACE--2007: Consumption, drought lead to record-low water levels on Lake Lanier and the ACF; conflicting petitions to Corps from GA, FL--2008: U.S. Court of Appeals invalidates recently unveiled 2003 GA-USACE pact; GA appeals to U.S. Supreme Court--2009: U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear GAs appeal

Buford Damhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/USACE_Buford_Dam_Georgia.jpg

Summary: Major Historic Themes along the ACF

--Native Americans--European Empire / Colonization--Civil War--Steamboat Era--The taming of the river (dams)--Water quality and quantity issuesReferencesLynn Willoughby, Flowing Through Time: A History of the Lower Chattahoochee River (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1999)Michael Gannon, ed., The New History of Florida (Tallahassee: University Press of Florida, 1996)Harold Martin, Georgia: A Bicentennial History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1977)Cynthia Barnett, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007)Maxine Turner, Navy Gray: A Story of the Confederate Navy on the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1988)U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District (http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/)Florida Department of Environmental Protection (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/mainpage/acf/timeline.htm) Wikipedia.org

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/