COLLECTING SYSTEM
UNION POINT TRANSPORTING NORTHROBINSON FORK Beginning in Greene County in the Georgia Piedmont, SYSTEM
CRAWFORDVILLE the Ogeechee River flows 245 miles to empty into SILOAM Tributary Network SOUTH FORK DISPERSING One of the most surprising BARNETT Ossabaw Sound, 15 miles south of Savannah. OGEECHEE RIVER SYSTEM characteristics of a river system is the intricate tributary network that makes The Watershed up the collecting system. This detail A ridge of high ground borders every river system. A River System does not show the entire network, only This ridge encloses what is called a watershed. A river system is a network of a tiny portion of it. Even the smallest Beyond the ridge, all water flows into another river sys- connecting channels. Water from tributary has its own system of smaller tem. POWELTON rain, snow, groundwater and other and smaller tributaries until the total Just as water in a bowl flows downward to a common sources collects into the channels number becomes astronomical. destination, all rivers, creeks, streams, ponds, lakes, POWELL CR. and flows to the ocean. A river wetlands and other types of water bodies in a watershed LONG CR. Most of the earth’s surface is some system has three parts: a collecting type of drainage system. drain into the river system. A watershed creates a natural ROCKY COMFORT system, a transporting system and community where every living thing has something in Short-eared Owl a dispersing system. common – the source and final disposition of their water. MAYFIELD The Ogeechee River corridor is home to a Tennessee Cormorant wide variety of birds, Mountains mammals, reptiles Watersheds Within Rugged Appalachian and and fish. CULVERTON the Ogeechee Cumberland Mountains LITTLE OGEECHEE RIVER Coosa JEWELL’S MILL Savannah Watershed 1. Upper Ogeechee Piedmont HADDEN 2. Lower Ogeechee Rolling red clay hills SHOALS 3. Canoochee Tallapoosa Chattahoochee Oconee 4. Newport River The Fall Line GIBSON 50 million MITCHELL Ocmulgee STAPLETON 1 years ago the Ogeechee ocean came AVERA 2 to here Altamaha 3 Flint EDGEHILL BIG CR. 4 ZEBINA Satilla Coastal Plain CREEK DUHART CR. White-tailed Deer Fertile farm lands, Suwannee WARTHEN environmentally rich wetlands GRANGE GOUGH ROCKY CR. St. Marys and swamps WILLIAMSON SWAMP CR. Ochlockonee
Georgia’s 14 Georgia’s 52 Nature’s Organization Secondary Watersheds Mother Nature gave Georgia two natural organizing VIDETTE Primary Watersheds The state’s 14 primary watersheds are principles that determine the courses and Georgia has 14 primary watersheds: divided into 52 secondary watersheds, shown characteristics of its rivers. One is its watersheds. Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Coosa, Flint, LOUISVILLE here. Those 52 watersheds are further divided The other is the state’s 3 distinct regions: the Mountains, DAVISBORO Ochlockonee, Ocmulgee, Oconee, into 395 even smaller watersheds and those the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. Rivers that ROSIER Ogeechee, Satilla, Savannah, St. Marys, BUCKHEAD CR. into 1,960 watersheds. Theoretically, you can originate in the Mountains or Piedmont are “alluvial” Suwannee, Tallapoosa and Tennessee. continue dividing watersheds until each one MILL rivers that carry heavy loads of silt. Rivers that begin CR. MUNNERLYN is the size of the “Tributary Network” in the Coastal Plain are dark, clear streams, often illustrated above. MOXLEY referred to as “blackwater” rivers. Sometimes alluvial RIDDLEVILLE rivers merge with Coastal Plain rivers. With its PERKINS headwaters in the Georgia Piedmont, but 95 percent Monarch Butterfly BARTOW of its watershed in the Coastal Plain, the Ogeechee is WADLEY a unique hybrid of alluvial and blackwater river. The Ogeechee River System ROCKY CR. MIDVILLE COLEMANS LAKE HERNDON MILLEN The Ogeechee River, which begins in the Georgia Piedmont, flows southeast for 245 miles and empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Ossabaw Sound, 15 miles south of Savannah. Maximum elevation of about 650 EMMALANE feet above sea level occurs at the headwaters near DANIELS CR. SUMMERTOWN Ogeechee R. Union Point in Greene County in Georgia’s Piedmont OGEECHEE CR.SYLVANIA Canoochee R. Province. This occasionally steeply rolling area The Ogeechee is a WOODCLIFF popular location for BUTTS comprises only about 5 percent of the river basin. The BIG LONG CR. ALTMAN Upper Coastal Plain portion of the river basin extends fishing for catfish. SCARBORO some 90 miles to the southeast and includes about THRIFT SOUTH FK. CANOOCHEE HORSE CR. 57 percent of the basin area. The Lower Coastal Plain, comprising about 38 percent of the basin area, is nearly ROCKY FORD flat. At the extreme seaward end of the Lower Coastal MODOC SCULLS CR. HUNTERS GARFIELD Plain, riverwater and land form an irregular and intri- cate pattern in which estuaries, sloughs, lagoons, mud flats, brackish swamps and barrier islands all play a part. The Ogeechee’s principal tributary, the Canoochee River, originates in the Upper Coastal Plain southwest of the Ogeechee River and, for most of its 85 miles, flows parallel to the SWAINSBORO TWIN CITY Ogeechee. The Canoochee River joins the Ogeechee about 35 miles above DOVER NEWINGTON its mouth.
CANOOCHEE CR.
HALCYONDALE WADE PORTAL
OLIVER
FIFTEENMILE CR.
MILL CR.
EGYPT
STATESBORO LOTTS CR. STILLMORE GEORGIA SOUTHERN METTER PULASKI
BROOKLET WOLF CR.
LOWER BLACK CR. Sea kayakers REGISTER
UPPER BLACK CR. explore the river ARCOLA ALINE and coastal marshes. STILSON GUYTON EXELSIOR
CANOOCHEE RIVER OGEECHEE RIVER Cooper’s Hawk PINEORA COBBTOWN LITTLE LOTTS CR. DENMARK
MARLOW NEVILS The Civil War battle at Fort McAllister, fought CEDAR CR. before General William T. Sherman entered the city of Savannah in December of 1864, took ELDORA place within sight of the Ogeechee River. ASH BR. COLLINS BLITCHTON Georgia’s four state capitals LUKE BR. BLACK CR. before Atlanta were located on MILL CR. EDEN BELLVILLE CLAXTON rivers, the main transportation MANASSAS Dolphins swim in the estuaries where corridors of the time. These four HAGAN DAISY GROVELAND PEMBROKE coastal rivers merge with the ocean. were Savannah on the Savannah MELDRIM BULL CR. BLOOMINGDALE River (1777-78, 1782, 1784); LANIER Augusta on the Savannah ELLABELLE (1779-1783, 1784); Louisville POOLER on the Ogeechee (1796-1806) and Milledgeville on the LITTLE OGEECHEE RIVER Oconee (1807-1864). SAVAGE CR. SILK HOPE
CANOOCHEE RIVER MALDEN BR. THUNDERBOLT SAVANNA BEACH
TYBEE ISLAND
CANOOCHEE CR. SANDFLY BURROUGHS ISLE OF HOPE VERNONBURG COFFEE BLUFF MONTGOMERY WASSAW SOUND A combination of rivers and ocean, the salt marsh RICHMOND HILL along the Georgia coast is one of the most productive VERNON VIEW SKIDAWAY ISLAND ecosystems on earth. Living plants and animals, as well as dissolved minerals and decaying vegetation, fill the marsh with nutrients. TAYLORS CR.
WASSAW ISLAND GUM BRANCH
OSSABAW SOUND HINESVILLE Alligators live along the Ogeechee.
OSSABAW ISLAND
Recreational fishermen cast for shrimp in the tidal creeks at the Loggerhead mouth of the Ogeechee. turtles nest on beaches near the mouths of coastal rivers.
Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto explored the Ogeechee headwaters region in Native Americans navigated the spring of 1540 the Ogeechee long before on his march between A few miles south of the Ogeechee, on the Medway River at the discovery of America. the Oconee and Sunbury, Colonial volunteers defended Fort Morris against Savannah rivers. British attack. John McIntosh, commanding the fort in 1778, replied to a British demand to surrender, “Come and take it.”
American explorer and naturalist William Bartram visited the Ogeechee basin during his exploration of the American Southeast in 1775 and 1776.
African-Americans celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the coastal rivers and barrier islands through crafts, books, music and educational tours.
The 14 posters in the Georgia Rivers Poster Project were made possible by a public/private partnership between the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and . The rivers in the series are the Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Coosa, Flint, Ochlockonee, Ocmulgee, Oconee, Ogeechee, Satilla, Savannah, St. Marys, Suwannee, Tallapoosa and Tennessee. Ordering information for all posters may be found at www.cipublishing.com/posters or 404.525.2285.