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    Lower Chattahoochee River
    Lower Chattahoochee River
    Lower Chattahoochee River
    Ebook179 pages2 hours

    Lower Chattahoochee River

    By The Columbus Museum and Historic Chattahoochee Commission

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    About this ebook

    The Chattahoochee River has dramatically shaped the heritage of the lower Chattahoochee Valley of east and southeast Alabama and west and southwest Georgia. As the region's dominant geographic feature, the Chattahoochee has served residents of the area as an engine for commerce and as an important transportation route for centuries. It has also been a natural and recreational resource, as well as an inspiration for creativity. From the stream's role as one of the South's busiest trade routes to the dynamic array of water-powered industry it made possible, the river has been at the very center of the forces that have shaped the unique character of the area. A vital part of the community's past, present, and future, it binds the Chattahoochee Valley together as a distinctive region. Through a variety of images, including historic photographs, postcards, and artwork, this book illustrates the importance of the Chattahoochee River to the region it has helped sustain.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439633694
    Lower Chattahoochee River
    Author

    The Columbus Museum

    Drawing from a wide range of private and public collections, Mike Bunn, associate curator of history at the Columbus Museum, and Doug Purcell, executive director of the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, have selected over 180 of the best images that document the river�s place in the lower Chattahoochee Valley�s history.

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      Book preview

      Lower Chattahoochee River - The Columbus Museum

      south.

      INTRODUCTION

      More than any other single factor, the Chattahoochee River has played a major role in the heritage of the lower Chattahoochee Valley of east and southeast Alabama and west and southwest Georgia. From the stream’s role as one of the South’s busiest trade routes to the dynamic array of water-powered industry it made possible, the river has been at the very center of the forces that have shaped the unique character of the area. A vital part of the community’s past, present, and future, the river binds the Chattahoochee Valley together as a distinctive region.

      This volume begins by chronicling the path of the river, which originates in the mountains of north Georgia and empties into the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachicola, Florida, as it flows through the lower Chattahoochee Valley region. In addition to historic and modern photographs, this chapter includes images of some of the numerous types of artwork inspired by the river. As the Chattahoochee was for centuries the main transportation artery for the region, the second chapter of the book focuses on the history of navigation of the river. The steamboat era on the Chattahoochee was launched in the 1820s, and by the 1850s, the river was one of the South’s busiest in terms of cotton trade. At one point, there were over 150 steamboat landings along the section of the stream covered in the book. The book’s third chapter contains over two dozen images of the bridges that have facilitated travel across the river over the past century and a half.

      The river’s role as a recreational resource is investigated in the fourth chapter. Just as did the region’s earliest inhabitants, those living along the river today enjoy a variety of types of recreational activities on the Chattahoochee. The creation of lakes along the river in the 20th century, especially nationally known fishing attractions such as Lake Eufaula/Walter F. George, West Point Lake, and Lake Seminole have only enhanced its well-established recreational opportunities. Today recreation is one of the major economic benefits the region derives from the Chattahoochee River.

      The region’s dominant geographic feature, the Chattahoochee has for centuries served residents of the area as an engine for commerce. The role of the river in the industrialization of the Chattahoochee River Valley, especially in the Columbus, LaGrange, and West Point, Georgia, and Lanett and Valley, Alabama, regions, is investigated in chapter five. By capitalizing on the tremendous power yielded by the river as it flowed over the fall line, this corridor became one of earliest in the Deep South to industrialize. By the time of the Civil War, the city of Columbus ranked as one of the South’s leading industrial centers. Though devastated by the war, this concentration of water-powered industry only accelerated after the conflict, both in that city and other towns in the region. The river’s importance as a source of hydroelectric power will also be chronicled in this chapter. First developed in the Chattahoochee Valley in the 1880s, hydroelectricity quickly became so prolific in the region that by the 1920s, the area was as recognized for its role in power generation as its other long-standing manufacturing capabilities.

      A few of the significant floods and disasters that have had a profound impact on the development of the region are discussed in the sixth chapter. Chapter seven details some of the important military outposts that have been built along the stream, as well as many of the most crucial conflicts that have taken place near the river. The final chapter features images associated with the history of human inhabitation of the lower Chattahoochee, dating from prehistoric settlements to some of the more interesting stories from the modern communities on the river’s banks. In addition, images of a few of the most notable individuals to visit and write about the river are included.

      Capturing the essence of what the Chattahoochee means to the region it flows through in a limited selection of images is a difficult task, and telling all of the stories associated with the river in one volume is impossible. The authors acknowledge that others could have easily chosen to tell the lower Chattahoochee’s story differently. The authors hope, though, that this book will help residents of the Chattahoochee Valley see more clearly the wide variety of ways the stream has influenced its past and informs its future. Further, they hope it will serve others not familiar with the river as an introduction to the natural and cultural treasure that is the Chattahoochee River.

      One

      RIVER SCENES

      Francis de la Porte, Comte de Castelnau, made this painting, which depicts the rapids of the Chattahoochee River near Columbus, during his visit to the area in the late 1830s. Born in London, the artist led several scientific expeditions to North and South America in the 1830s and 1840s. (Courtesy of the Columbus Museum.)

      When Alabama was admitted into the Union in 1819, much of the lower portion of the river was specified as the boundary between that state and Georgia. The boundary between the states is not in the middle of the stream as many have assumed, however. A hotly contested issue throughout the region’s history, the boundary was not officially settled until 1859, when the United States Supreme Court affirmed that the western boundary of the lower portion of the state of Georgia was the normal high water mark of the river’s western bank. In other words, the Chattahoochee is entirely contained in the state

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