Bald Eagle

DUKES CR. NEELS GAP SOQUE R. The Watershed With its headwaters in the Blue Ridge ROBERTSTOWN Confederate and Union HELEN A ridge of high ground borders every river system. TOWN CR. TOWN soldiers faced each other Mountains, 200 feet from the Appalachian NACOOCHEE This ridge encloses what is called a watershed. YAHOOLACR. Beyond the ridge, all water flows into another river across the Chattahoochee HOLLYWOOD River before the Battle of system. Just as water in a bowl flows downward to CANE CR. Atlanta in July of 1864. Trail, the Chattahoochee flows 430 miles CLARKESVILLE a common destination, all rivers, creeks, streams,

CHESTATEE R. CLEVELAND ponds, lakes, wetlands and other types of water MOSSY CR. through Georgia. The lower portion of the TESNATEE CR. DEMOREST bodies in a watershed drain into the river system. DAHLONEGA A watershed creates a natural community where river is the boundary between Georgia CORNELIA every living thing has something in common – MOUNT AIRY CLERMONT BALDWIN the source and final disposition of their water. and Alabama and between Georgia and a LONG BR. ALTO BROOKTON small portion of Florida. It joins the Flint River MURRAYVILLE LULA at Lake Seminole and forms the Apalachicola COLLECTING GAINESVILLE River, which flows 106 miles through Florida SYSTEM CHICOPEE LAKE SIDNEY LANIER to the Gulf of Mexico. OSCARVILLE OAKWOOD CUMMING BLACKSHEAR PLACE

FLOWERY BRANCH

REST HAVEN BIG CR. BUFORD CRABAPPLE SUGAR HILL ALPHARETTA OCEE Anglers flock to the SUWANEE TRANSPORTING Chattahoochee below ROSWELL WARSAW SYSTEM Buford Dam to catch ELIZABETH DULUTH fish all year ‘round. MARIETTA DUNWOODY PITTMAN LOST MOUNTAIN SANDY Tributary Network FAIR OAKS NORCROSS SPRINGS MECHANICSVILLE One of the most surprising MACLAND DORAVILLE DISPERSING HIRAM SMYRNA CHAMBLEE SYSTEM characteristics of a river system is MILL CR. POWDER SPRINGS NORTH ATLANTA VINNINGS NANCY CR. the intricate tributary network that FLOYD CLARKDALE MABLETON DECATUR makes up the collecting system. LICK LOG CR. PEACHTREE CR. AUSTELL LELAND CLARKSTON This detail does not show the entire LITHIA SPRINGS A River System network, only a tiny portion of it. SWEETWATERGOTHARDS CR. CR. A river system is a network of connecting Even the smallest tributary has its DOUGLASVILLE ATLANTA own system of smaller and smaller WINSTON channels. Water from rain, snow, tributaries until the total number DOG CR. groundwater and other sources EAST POINT collects into the channels and flows becomes astronomical. Most of BILL ARP COLLEGE PARK to the ocean. A river system has three the earth’s surface is some type SAND HILL TELL FAIRPLAY PEA CR. RED OAK parts: a collecting system, a transporting of drainage system. HULETT BEAR CR. STONEWALL system and a dispersing system. SNAKE CR. RICO UNION CITY FAIRBURN

CLEM GOODES BANNING PALMETTO WHITESBURG ROSCOE Kingfisher Watersheds Within CEDAR CR. LOWELL YATES the Chattahoochee ROOPVILLE SARGENT MADRAS VEAL Watershed GLENLOCH DODSON Mountains The Chattahoochee flows through the middle of the ARNCO MILLS Tennessee EPHESUS 1. Upper Chattahoochee Rugged Appalachian WELCOME 4-million-population Atlanta Metropolitan Area – ROOSTERVILLE 2. Upper Middle Chattahoochee and Cumberland CENTRALHATCHEE half of Georgia’s total population. NEWNAN 3. Lower Middle Chattahoochee Mountains HILLABAHATCHEE CR. Coosa 1 4. Lower Chattahoochee 5. Spring Creek Piedmont Savannah Rolling red clay hills

POTASH FRANKLIN St CHARLES Tallapoosa MOUNTAINNEW CR. R. Oconee The Fall Line GRANTVILLE CORINTH Chattahoochee 2 50 million WARESVILLE years ago the TRIMBLE ocean came HARRISONVILLE Ocmulgee Ogeechee WHITEWATER CR. HOGANSVILLE LONE OAK to here ROCK MILLS GLENN 3 FLAT CR. SAINT MARKS Altamaha WARES YELLOWJACKETCROSSROADS CR. HICKORY FLAT BEAR CR. Flint EVANSVILLE LOUISE BEECH CR. STANDING ROCK 4 STROUD VEASEYABBOTTSFORD CR. Satilla Coastal Plain PYNE MOUNTVILLE 5 LAGRANGE Fertile farm lands, ODESSADALE FREDONIA WEST POINT LAKE Suwannee environmentally rich Kayakers practice CANNONVILLE STOVALL wetlands and BUFFALO swamps their skills on a GABBETTVILLE SULPHUR CR. DURAND Ochlockonee St. Marys slalom course in LAFAYETTE FLAT SHOAL CR. WHITE SULPHUR the Chattahoochee WEST POINT SPRINGS Georgia’s 14 Georgia’s 52 Nature’s Organization National Recreation LANETT PINE MOUNTAIN Primary Watersheds Secondary Watersheds Mother Nature gave Georgia two natural organizing Area in Atlanta. SHAWMUT WHITESVILLE principles that determine the courses and LANGDALE SHILOH Georgia has 14 primary watersheds: The state’s 14 primary watersheds are divided into FAIRFAX characteristics of its rivers. One is its watersheds. HOUSE CR. PINE MOUNTAIN OSANIPPA CR. RIVERVIEW Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Coosa, 52 secondary watersheds, shown here. Those 52 CUSSETA MOUNTAIN CR. VALLEY The other is the state’s 3 distinct regions: the LAKE HARDING OAK CLEOLA Flint, Ochlockonee, Ocmulgee, watersheds are further divided into 395 even HALAWAKEE CR. HAMILTON Mountains, the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. BLANTON MOUNTAIN OAK CR. Oconee, Ogeechee, Satilla, smaller watersheds and those into 1,960 Rivers that originate in the Mountains or Piedmont BEULAH MOUNTAIN HILL McCULLOH Savannah, St. Marys, Suwannee, watersheds. Theoretically, you can continue are “alluvial” rivers that carry heavy loads of silt. WAVERLY HALL Tallapoosa and Tennessee. dividing watersheds until each one is the size Rivers that begin in the Coastal Plain are dark, clear MULBERRY GROVE OSSAHATCHIE CR. OPELIKA REHOBETH CATAULA of the “Tributary Network” illustrated above. streams, often referred to as “blackwater” rivers. JUNCTION CITY The Chattahoochee, with its origin in the Northeast WACOOCHEE CR. ELLERSLIE SALEM FORTSON Georgia mountains, is an alluvial river. GENEVA BLEECKER NANKIPOOH MIDLAND FLAT ROCK GREEN ISLAND UPATOI BOX SPRINGS The Chattahoochee River System SMITHS HILLS ORDWAY JUNIPER CRYSTAL The Chattahoochee River is a part of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system that drains GENTIAN VALLEY an area of 19,600 square miles in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Beginning in Union County, in the BRUSH CR. LADONIA CRAWFORD LITTLE UCHEE CR. COLUMBUS PINE KNOTT CR. • Atlanta Blue Ridge Mountains of Northeast Georgia, 200 feet from the Appalachian Trail, the Chattahoochee MARVYN ISLAND CR. PHENIX CITY RANDALL CR. Chattahoochee R. flows 430 miles through Georgia. It is joined by the Flint River at Lake Seminole in Southwest Georgia. The Chattahoochee and Flint form the Apalachicola River, which flows 106 miles through BRICKYARD OCHILLEE CR. UPATOI CR. Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. The largest Georgia cities in the Chattahoochee watershed are Atlanta UCHEE CR. • Columbus (about half of Georgia’s 8 million people live in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area) and Columbus. FORT MITCHELL The Chattahoochee is the primary source of water for over half of Georgia’s population. OSWICHEE CR. HATCHECHUBBEE CR.SEALE CUSSETA Flint R. HATCHECHUBBEE VILLULA IHAGEE CR. HANNON HURTSBORO RENFROE GUERRYTON HOLY TRINITY HICHITEE CR. MIDDLE FORK GOWIKEENORTH CR. FORK GOWIKEE CR.

PITTSVIEW Apalachicola R. LOUVALE BROOKLYN ENON COTTONTON OMAHAHANNAHATCHEE CR. MARTIN CR. GLENVILLE CHARLES FLORENCE RICHLAND MIDWAY SPRING HILL Red-tailed Hawk TURNER CR. COMER LUMPKIN WESTVILLE BATESVILLE MOUNT ANDREW SANFORD CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER HODCHODKEE CR. TROUTMAN

EUFAULA GEORGETOWN PATAULA CR. BARBOUR CR.

SPRINGVALE HATCHER MORRIS

WALTER F. GEORGE Completed in 1957, the U.S. Corps RESERVOIR

of Engineers’ Buford Dam created ABBIE CR. 38,000-acre surface area, 540-mile COLEMAN shoreline Lake Lanier, a popular HOG CR. North Georgia recreation area and GEMOCHECHOBEE CR. the storage reservoir for most of FORT GAINES Native Americans built villages and ceremonial GRABALL Atlanta’s water supply. ABBEVILLE mounds along the Chattahoochee and its tributaries. SHORTERVILLE N. PRONG FLAT CR. BLUFFTON KOLOMOKI CR. CAPPS

PETERMAN CR.

ARLINGTON SANDY CR. NEWVILLE HALEBURG BANCROFT DRY CR. BLAKELY The northernmost Spanish mission in the interior of the HEADLAND OMUSEE CR. LUKE United States was built on the Chattahoochee between

LONG BRANCH KINSEY HILTON DAMASCUS COLUMBIA SPRING CR. present-day Columbus, Georgia and Eufaula, Alabama. WEBB LUCILE COWARTS CEDAR CR. CEDAR SPRINGS AYCOCKS CR. AVON ASHFORD TAYLOR PANSEY COLQUITT COWARTS CR. GORDON

BIG CR. BOYKIN HODGESVILLE JAKIN DRY CR. American explorer and naturalist COTTONWOOD William Bartram visited the CROSBY MADRID SEALY SPRINGS DONALSONVILLE Chattahoochee basin during his IRON CITY GRANGEBURG FISHPOND DRAIN exploration of the American BRINSON SPRING CR. SPRING Southeast in 1775 and 1776. CAMPBELLTON SILLS MALONE The Riverwalk in Columbus is one of the most attractive urban scenes in Georgia. BASCOM LAKE

JACOB CHIPOLA R. DECATUR GREENWOOD REYNOLDSVILLE COTTONDALE RIVER DELLWOOD

HIGH HILL FLINT ­ MARIANNA LAKE SEMINOLE CYPRESS KYNESVILLE OAKDALE SNEADS OAK HILL ALFORD GRAND INWOOD DRY CR. RIDGE OCHEESEE CHATTAHOOCHEE ROUND LAKE POND ROSEDALE SINK CREEK FLATMOUNT CR. PLEASANT ALLIANCE HARDAWAY ALTHA CHASON TENMILE CR. ROCK BLUFF STAFFORD CR. FOURMILE CR. The river and its tributaries powered In the 1830s, prospectors mined gold along the JUNIPER CR. early gristmills and textile mills. upper tributaries of the river near Dahlonega. BLOUNTSTOWN The Chattahoochee and other rivers BRISTOL were the birthplace of Georgia industry. CLARKSVILLE McNEAL CYPRESS CR.

FRINK Steam-powered paddleboats transported cotton BROAD BRANCH and other farm products to Apalachicola on the

KINARD Gulf Coast. BIG GULLY CR. ORANGE DEAD LAKE APALACHICOLA R.

FLORIDA R. In Georgia it’s Lake Walter F. George; in Alabama it’s Lake Eufala; whatever WEWAHITCHKA the name, it’s a popular location HONEYVILLE for bass fishing. SUMATRA Cormorant Monarch Butterfly DALKEITH Jim Woodruff Dam was built in 1957. The Chattahoochee River corridor BROTHERS R. is home to a wide variety of birds, WHITE CITY mammals, fish, reptiles and plants.

LAKE White-tailed Deer WIMICO Alligator

DEPOT CR.

APALACHICOLA McNEILS ELEVEN MILE APALACHICOLA BAY

ST VINCENT ISLAND ST GEORGE 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.