By Doug Purcell
Executive Director, Historic Chattahoochee Commission

Interestingly southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia share a water resource known, over time, by at least three names—Walter F. George Lake, Lake Eufaula and Lake Chattahoochee. This U. S. Army Corps of Engineers impoundment was formed following the construction of the Walter F. George Lock and Dam at Fort Gaines, Georgia in 1963. Today the lake covers 45,192 acres, is 85 miles long and has a 640 mile shoreline. In 2007 almost 3.8 million visitors took advantage of this asset for fishing, boating, sailing, skiing and a variety of other uses.

To further complicate the situation, the sprawling impoundment has obscured the western Georgia boundary where the Chattahoochee River intersects with a portion of Alabama’s eastern boundary. That boundary was established by the (more…)