The Savannah River Watershed
Monday, August 24th, 2009
After its origins in the mountains of South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia in the form of whitewater streams, such as the Tallulah and Chattooga rivers, the Savannah River begins near Hartwell, Georgia, where the Seneca and Tugaloo rivers merge. From that point, it flows 300 miles in a southeasterly direction past the port of Savannah (pictured above) and into the Atlanta Ocean.
Over the past several months, Roger Thomas, one of Georgia’s most experienced canoeist, and Michael Moody, the long-time owner of the Broad River Outpost and other outdoor recreational enterprises on the Georgia coast, and I have talked about creating an interactive map for the Savannah River watershed that would include canoeing trails, environmental and historical sites, vantage points in the watershed from which to view its rivers and streams, and just about anything else that comes to mind as long as it is directly connected to the streams, rivers and lakes in the Savannah River watershed. This edition of the website represents the first step of that process. VIEW INTERACTIVE MAP.
To get us started, Roger has supplied photos and GPS coordinates for a half-dozen locations along the Broad River in the Savannah watershed, and I have created an interactive Google map that displays the photos he sent and a small amount of text. Some of the descriptive text comes from paddling guides by Reece Turrentine, who wrote for Brown’s Guide Magazine in the 70s and 80s and who is still regarded by many (Roger and I among them) as the top writer ever to convey the pleasures and satisfactions of canoeing Georgia’s rivers.
Roger is no slouch himself when it comes to canoeing Georgia streams, the Broad in particular. He estimates he has paddled the Broad River between 250 and 300 times (!), the Chattahoochee and Nantahala about 75 times each, and the Chattooga Section III 10 times, along with trips on numerous other Georgia rivers and streams. He is professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Georgia where he retired in September 2002 after 35 years of full-time teaching, research and administration and where he continues to teach one graduate class in the History of Psychology each spring semester.
Michael Moody is probably the person most familiar with the Broad River and its tributaries, which he has been paddling for at least 30 years, and he has owned and operated the Broad River Outpost for about 25 years. He has paddled most of the major rivers of the Southeast, including some BIG WATER. He lives in a restored 1820 house near Witcher Shoals on the South Fork Broad River. View Michael’s photos and descriptions of locations on the South Fork Broad River in the Georgia Gallery.
You can find a great deal of other information about the Savannah River watershed here on the Brown’s Guides site, including:
- A guide to canoeing the Broad River by Suzanne Welander, including an interactive map
- A guide to canoeing the South Fork Broad River by Suzanne Welander, including an interactive map
- A guide to canoeing Brier Creek by Suzanne Welander, including an interactive map
- A guide to canoeing the Hudson River by Suzanne Welander, including an interactive map
- A guide to canoeing the Chattooga River by Suzanne Welander, including an interactive map
- A guide to canoeing the Chattooga River by Claude Terry, including an interactive map
- A guide to canoeing the Chattooga River West Fork by Suzanne Welander, including an interactive map
- A story by Doug Woodward about the making of the movie “Deliverance” on the Chattooga River, including an interactive map.
- A profile of the Savannah River, including places to view and experience the streams, rivers and lakes in the watershed from Black Rock Mountain State Park (Georgia’s highest state park) in the mountainous northeast corner of the state to Tybee Island on the Atlantic Coast.
- A poster of the Savannah River watershed showing all of its tributaries, along with environmental and historical information, that may be printed in small format on a desktop printer or downloaded to a commercial printer like Kinko’s and reproduced in full 24″ x 36″ format.
MIchael, Roger and I invite you to view this initial effort to combine all of this and more on one all-encompassing Savannah watershed map and give us your comments and ideas. In addition, we hope you will join in the enterprise by sending along your photos, experiences (and GPS coordinates) of experiences in the Savannah River watershed.
Fred Brown, Editor