Understanding the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Watershed: Significant Historical Events Michael O’Brien LAA 6656 January 13, 2009 2005%20dLisle%20Map%20of%201718.

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

Michael O’BrienLAA 6656

January 13, 2009

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OverviewI. Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500

CE)II. Creeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -

1830s) III. Civilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)IV. Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)V. Water War (1950s - Present)

Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)

8,000 BCE—Arrival of first humans (hunter gatherers) in Chattahoochee Valley

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Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)

1,000 BCE – 700 CE—”Woodland” civilizations--Some farming

--Mound building--Kolomoki

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Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE)

700 CE – c. 1500: Mississippian civilizations--Extensive farming

--More mound building --Chiefdoms

--Rood’s Landing and Cemochechobee

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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”

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Southeastern tribes, c. 1700

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

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--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. 1750

Creeks, 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

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Creeks, 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

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--1814: Andrew Jackson defeats hostile Creeks (the Red Sticks) at Battle of Horseshoe Bend

--1814: Treaty of Fort Jackson

Weatherford’s Surrender

Creeks, 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

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Ft. Gadsden / Negro Fort / Fort Prospect

Creeks, 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

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Civilization 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, GA

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Civilization and Civil War (c. 1800 - 1865)--1851: Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola patents the world’s

first ice maker--1853: Columbus-Savannah railroad completed (significance

for Apalachicola…)--1857: Railroad reaches Albany, GA on the Flint River

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John Gorrie ACF Area Railroads c. 1857

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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, 1860s

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Civilization 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

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CSS Chattahoochee

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Civilization 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)

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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 Naiad Columbus, c. 1885

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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 plain

Far 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

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West Point, 1919

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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

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Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s)

Andrews Lock and Dam

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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)

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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

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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 GA’s appeal

Buford Dam http:

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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 issues

References• Lynn 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

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