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Understanding the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Watershed: Significant Historical Events. http://www.nps.gov/seac/SoutheastChronicles/KEMO/Image%2005%20dLisle%20Map%20of%201718%20from%20AL%20Map%20Archive.gif. Michael O’Brien LAA 6656 January 13, 2009. Overview.
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Understanding the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Watershed: Significant Historical Events http://www.nps.gov/seac/SoutheastChronicles/KEMO/Image%2005%20dLisle%20Map%20of%201718%20from%20AL%20Map%20Archive.gif Michael O’Brien LAA 6656 January 13, 2009
Overview • Pre-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) http://anthropik.com/wp-content/uploads/map2.gif 8,000 BCE—Arrival of first humans (hunter gatherers) in Chattahoochee Valley
Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE) http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/ http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8101846 1,000 BCE – 700 CE—”Woodland” civilizations --Some farming --Mound building --Kolomoki
Pre-Columbian Peoples (8,000 BCE - c. 1500 CE) http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/ 700 CE – c. 1500: Mississippian civilizations --Extensive farming --More mound building --Chiefdoms --Rood’s Landing and Cemochechobee
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.jpg Southeastern tribes, c. 1700
Creeks, Imperialists, and Settlers (c. 1500 -1830s) --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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Florida --1775-1783: American Revolution; Britain cedes all lands east of Mississippi River
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 --1814: Andrew Jackson defeats hostile Creeks (the Red Sticks) at Battle of Horseshoe Bend --1814: Treaty of Fort Jackson http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/national_parks/horseshoe_bend_cessions.jpg 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 Google Maps 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
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 http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/ Steamboats near Columbus, GA
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 http://www.mszh.hu/kiadv/ipsz/200212/08-technika.html http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gahchs/1856/Railroads/ John Gorrie ACF Area Railroads c. 1857
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 Turner Willoughby Columbus, 1860s
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 http://www.hnsa.org/ships/img/chatta2.jpg Turner CSS Chattahoochee
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) http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/ Google Maps
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) Willoughby Willoughby ACF Steamboat Naiad Columbus, c. 1885
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 side With 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 http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/chattahoochee/cultural_history/ http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/images/ACFmap-GAdams-web.jpg West Point, 1919
Steamboats and Dams (1865 - 1970s) 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andrewsdam.JPG Andrews Lock and Dam
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) --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 Atlanta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atlanta_Skyline_from_Buckhead.jpg
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 GA’s appeal http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/USACE_Buford_Dam_Georgia.jpg Buford Dam
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 http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/