ATLANTA EAST POINT COLLEGE PARK HAPEVILLE FOREST PARK Bald Eagle RED OAK MORROW RIVERDALE FIFE KENWOOD JONESBORO ORRS TYRONE SHOAL CR. PEACHTREE CITY COLLECTING SYSTEM Beginning in the heart of the 4-million-population Atlanta Metropolitan Area, FAYETTEVILLE LOVEJOY the Flint River flows 349 miles in a wide eastward arc to its junction with the Chattahoochee River at Lake Seminole in Southwest Georgia. At Lake EAST NEWNAN INMAN WOOLSEY RAYMOND WHITEWATER CR. STARRS MILL Seminole these two rivers become the Apalachicola River and flow SHARPSBURG SUNNY SIDE TURIN LOWRY MORELAND SENOIA 106 miles through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. BROOKS LINE CR. LINE WHITE OAK CR VAUGHN TRANSPORTING GRIFFIN SYSTEM HARALSON LUTHERSVILLE ROVER WILLIAMSON ROCKY MOUNT ALVATON HOLLONVILLE DISPERSING Tributary Network RED OAK CR. SYSTEM One of the most surprising BIRCHJOLLY CR. characteristics of a river system is ZEBULON the intricate tributary network OAKLAND CONCORD A River System The Watershed that makes up the collecting GAY A river system is a network of connecting A ridge of high ground borders every channels. Water from rain, snow, groundwater system. This detail does not show river system. This ridge encloses what is ELKINS CR. and other sources collects into the channels the entire network, only a tiny called a watershed. Beyond the ridge, MEANSVILLE and flows to the ocean. A river system has portion of it. Even the smallest LIFSEY ALDORA all water flows into another river system. GREENVILLE MOLENA SPRINGS three parts: a collecting system, a transporting tributary has its own system of IMLAC VEGA Just as water in a bowl flows downward PIEDMONT system and a dispersing system. smaller and smaller tributaries to a common destination, all rivers, WOODBURY THE ROCK until the total number becomes creeks, streams, ponds, lakes, wetlands HARRIS CITY CANE CR astronomical. Most of the earth’s and other types of water bodies in a surface is some type of drainage watershed drain into the river system. RALEIGH POTATO CR. system. A watershed creates a natural community PICKARD where every living thing has something WARM SPRINGS McKINNEY in common – the source and final CHALYBEATE YATESVILLE Tennessee disposition of their water. SPRINGS EAST THOMASTONTOBLER CR. PIGEON CR. LINCOLN PARK THOMASTON MANCHESTER Watersheds Within the Flint Watershed PLEASANT HILL Coosa 1. Upper Flint WOODLAND 2. Middle Flint Savannah AUCHUMPKEE CR. 3. Muckalee SWIFT CR. Tallapoosa 4. Ichawaynochaway LAZER CR. Oconee 5. Lower Flint Chattahoochee ULCOHATCHEE CR 1 CARSONVILLE ROBERTA Ocmulgee KNOXVILLE Ogeechee TALBOTTON WESLEY HORNS Altamaha 3 2 Fishermen pursue the feisty shoal Flint JUNCTION CITY bass in the clear, rocky Flint waters. GAILLARD 4 HOWARD PATSILIGA CR. Satilla 5 ZENITH Suwannee Rock climbers at White-tailed Deer Boy Scout Camp Thunder BUTLER FIVE POINTS REYNOLDS Ochlockonee St. Marys Home to a wide variety scale cliffs at Dripping Rock. WHITEWATER CR. of birds, mammals, fish, MAUK reptiles and plants, the POTTERVILLE Georgia’s 14 Georgia’s 52 Flint River corridor is a naturalist’s paradise. Primary Watersheds Secondary Watersheds CHARING Georgia has 14 primary watersheds: Altamaha, The state’s 14 primary watersheds are divided SHOAL CR. RUPERT MARSHALLVILLE Chattahoochee, Coosa, Flint, Ochlockonee, into 52 secondary watersheds, shown here. Monarch Butterfly CEDAR CR. Ocmulgee, Oconee, Ogeechee, Satilla, Those 52 watersheds are further divided into Savannah, St. Marys, Suwannee, Tallapoosa 395 even smaller watersheds and those into 1,960 watersheds. Theoretically, you can TAZEWELL and Tennessee. IDEAL continue dividing watersheds until each one is the size of the “Tributary Network” BUENA VISTA illustrated above. BUCK CR. DOYLE Mountains Rugged Appalachian Nature’s Organization and Cumberland OGLETHORPE MONTEZUMA Mother Nature gave Georgia two Mountains natural organizing principles that determine the courses and ELLAVILLE CAMP CR. SLAUGHTER CR. DOOLING Piedmont characteristics of its rivers. One DRANEVILLE MUCKALEE CR. Rolling red clay hills is its watersheds. The other is the ANDERSONVILLE HOGCRAWL CR. state’s 3 distinct regions: the BYROMVILLE FRIENDSHIP PINEHURST The Fall Line Mountains, the Piedmont and 50 million the Coastal Plain. Rivers that years ago the originate in the Mountains or LILLY FINDLAY ocean came Piedmont are “alluvial” rivers to here PRESTON that carry heavy loads of silt, or AMERICUS PENNAHACHEE CR. “alluvium.” Rivers that begin in TURKEY CR. the Coastal Plain are dark, clear VIENNA DUMAS PLAINS streams, often referred to as “blackwater” rivers. The Flint, LIME CR. RICHWOOD Coastal Plain WESTON ARCHERY with its origin in the Piedmont LIMESTONE CR. Fertile farm lands, BEAR CR. KINCHAFOONEE CR. environmentally rich south of Atlanta, is an alluvial LAKE BLACKSHEAR wetlands and river. Below the Fall Line, Coastal GUM CR. swamps Plain streams and clear springs LEVERETTS COBB SUMTER LESLIE CORDELE flowing from beneath the surface DeSOTO of the earth join the river. CHAMBLISS SMITHVILLE PARROTT CEDAR CR. MUCKALEE CR CHOKEE CR. MUCKALOOCHEE CR. WENONA MOSSY CR. RAINES BRONWOOD The Flint River System WOLF CR. WARWICK The Flint River is a part of the Apalachicola- CUTHBERT GRAVES DAWSON SHELLMAN ICHAWAYNOCHAWAY CR. Chattahoochee-Flint River system that drains an OAKFIELD area of 19,600 square miles in Georgia, Alabama JONES CR. • Atlanta and Florida. Of that total, 8,460 square miles are Alligator Chattahoochee R. FALLING CR. DOVEREL in the Flint corridor, 8,770 square miles are in SASSER LEESBURG the Chattahoochee corridor and 2,370 square CARTER CR. PACHITLA CR. CHICKASAWHATCHEE miles are in the Apalachicola corridor in Florida. HEROD ABRAMS CR.DOLES CARNEGIE The upper reaches of the Flint flow through the Georgia Piedmont, a plateau characterized by The Flint River Outdoor Center CHICKASAWHATCHEE CR. MILL CR. has been a favorite launching site for PALMYRA Albany • rolling, red hills. At the Fall Line, the river drops Flint. R Flint River canoeists since 1978. about 400 feet over a distance of 50 miles. (In the Bainbridge • Yellow Jacket Shoals area, a section of the Fall DICKEY ALBANY RED ROCK Line between GA 36 and Po Biddy Road Bridge, EDISON MORGAN ISABELLA the Flint has slopes of 50 feet per mile.) Below Apalachicola R. the Fall Line, the Flint flows through the soft, KIOKEE CR. PECAN CITY sandy sediments and limestone that make up the LEARY RADIUM SPRINGS Coastal Plain. For 200 miles the Flint is a wild and free-flowing river. It is one of only 42 U.S. rivers with 125 miles or more of unimpeded flow. The Crisp County Power Dam on Lake Blackshear, approximately 220 miles from the headwaters, is the first dam on the Flint PUTNEY DRY CR. and one of only three dams on the river – the others being the Georgia Power Dam at Lake Chehaw and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Jim Woodruff Dam at Lake Seminole. DEWITT At Lake Seminole, the Flint merges with the Chattahoochee, becomes the Apalachicola MILFORD COOLEEWAHEE CR. River at the Florida state line and flows 106 miles through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. BACONTON ICHAWAYNOCHAWAY CR. ICHAWAYNOCHAWAY ELMODEL NEWTON Native Americans built villages and ceremonial mounds along the Flint River and its tributaries. Wingate’s on Lake Seminole is known by bass fishermen and duck hunters CAMILLA all over the United States. Jim Woodruff Dam, completed in 1957, created Lake Seminole in the corner of Southwest Georgia. ELDORENDO BIG SLOUGH BAINBRIDGE Cormorant Franklin Roosevelt, CLIMAX the 32nd U.S. President, enjoyed outings on the Flint at Flat Shoals when he visited the Little White House at Warm Springs. CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER LAKE SEMINOLE SNEADS Short-eared Owl GRAND RIDGE INWOOD OCHEESEE Hernando De Soto and his band POND ROSEDALE of Spanish explorers discovered ALLIANCE FLAT CR. the Flint River Valley in 1540. ALTHA APALACHICOLAROCK RIVER BLUFF STAFFORD CR BLOUNTSTOWN McNEAL Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. President, who was born in Paddleboats carried cotton American explorer and naturalist William Bartram visited the Flint basin Plains, Georgia in the Flint and other farm products during his exploration of the American Southeast in 1775 and 1776. BIG GULLY from Albany and Bainbridge River watershed, canoed CR. and fished the Flint before ORANGE to Apalachicola on the Gulf he vetoed a dam-building of Mexico. proposal that would have inundated the river corridor between Sprewell Bluff BAY CR. and Flat Shoals. FLORIDA R. NEW RIVER WEWAHITCHKA Early settlers harnessed the power of the CAT BR. river to run gristmills and cotton mills. Andrew Jackson, who was HONEYVILLE SUMATRA Georgia’s earliest industries developed to become the 7th President along river corridors. of the United States, JUNIPER CR. stopped at Fort Scott on CYPRESS CR. the Flint River in 1818. WHITE CITY CROOKED R. LAKE WIMICO DEPOT CR. EASTPOINT APALACHICOLA APALACHIOLA BAYST. GEORGE ISLAND ST. VINCENT ISLAND 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..