Ocmulgee Mounds

Recreated image featuring portion of the city. Source: Georgia Public Broadcasting via Google Arts and Culture

The Ocmulgee Mounds is a very large Native American settlement, located on the East bank of the Ocmulgee river, near Macon, Georgia. The settlement is one of the oldest continually inhabited areas in North America. Artifacts have been discovered dating as far back as 15,000 BCE, where it was inhabited by Paleoindian ice age hunters, up through modern times, with the most recent indigenous inhabitants being the Muscogee Creek tribe.

The central civilization, having done the vast majority of construction and landscape alteration, were the South Appalachian Mississippian culture, a regional variation of the expansive Mississippian culture. They built many major earthworks, including the Great Temple, burial mounds, ceremonial mounds, and defensive trenches. One of the most visited of these earthworks is the Earth Lodge, consisting of a large mound with a council chamber inside. The original clay floor is still in place and has been carbon dated to its original construction in the year 1015.

Earth Lodge at the Ocmulgee Mounds. Source: ocmulgeepark.org

The Ocmulgee Mounds is also the site of the largest archeological effort in American history. Between the years 1933 and 1936, over 800 people, led by Smithsonian archeologist Arthur Kelly, excavated over 2 million artifacts from the mounds and surrounding area, which helped piece together the rich history of flourishing society, trade and recreation. They discovered many important cues as to what life was like in the Mississippian city, including a large marketplace with artifacts from across the country and vast, systematic farmland where corn and other crops were grown in the floodplains south of the city.

Sources and further reading:

National Parks Service: https://www.nps.gov/ocmu/index.htm

National Park Foundation: https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/ocmulgee-national-monument-attraction-prehistoric-proportions-macon-georgia

Ogeechee River Estuary

Ogeechee River watershed. Source: New Georgia Encyclopedia

The Ogeechee river estuary is a large tidal estuary on the Georgia coast, just south of Savannah. It is primarily fed by the freshwater Ogeechee river, which marks the western edge of the Savannah river basin. The Ogeechee river is located entirely within the state, with its headwaters in the piedmont region of northeast Georgia. It is also one of Georgia’s few free-flowing rivers, meaning it has not been damned and the water can flow freely from the source to the sink.

The estuary is a fairly standard tidal system, consisting of a large central basin, complex barrier island systems, tidal creeks and extensive salt marshes. The strong freshwater outflow leads to extensive vertical mixing and a powerful current, helping to shape the surrounding barrier island, including Wassaw, Ossabaw, St. Catherines, Blackbeard and Sapelo Islands.

Map of the Ogeechee estuary and location in Georgia. Source: ResearchGate

The Ogeechee river is considered a blackwater river. A blackwater river refers to a slow moving channel through forested swamps or wetlands. The decaying vegetation releases tannins into the water, giving the river the appearance of having black water. The water is perfectly safe to wildlife and can also be a sign of high biodiversity and plant life.

Sources and further reading:

Georgia River Network: https://garivers.org/ogeechee-river/

UMASS: http://fvcom.smast.umassd.edu/research_ogeechee_river/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogeechee_River

Suwannee Canal

Aerial view of Suwannee Canal. Source: Sherpa Guides|The Okefenokee Swamp

In 1889 the governor of Georgia sold the entirety of the Okefenokee swamp to a group of wealthy investors and former Confederate officers. They named this investment group The Suwannee Canal Company with the goal to drain the swamp to facilitate logging and produce farmland.

They began construction in 1891 mand dug the canal 11.5 miles into the swamp over the course of 3 years. Bad weather, poor engineering and an inconsistent workforce caused the construction to come to a halt in 1984, when the company ran out of money due to being significantly over budget. The company switched gears and began logging the portion of the swamp they had gained access to. This enterprise also quickly became a liability due to the challenges of transporting logging equipment in a swamp. Many attempts to log the Okefenokee continued for over 30 years until 1927 when logging was banned in the swamp. Fortunately none of these attempts were successful in clearing more than the outskirts of the swamp.

Suwannee Canal Company $10 credit. Source: “Jackson’s Folley” (Trowell, 1984)

Nowadays the canal is mainly used by kayakers and other recreational boaters exploring the swamp. It is home to many species of fish and water birds as well as a significant alligator population.

Sources and further reading:

NPS History: http://npshistory.com/brochures/nwr/okefenokee-canal-diggers-trail-1978.pdf

Jackson’s Folley. (Trowell, 1984): https://www.jstor.org/stable/4004808

Lake Oconee

Aerial view of Lake Oconee. Source: Wikipedia

            Lake Oconee is located in the Altamaha River watershed in Eastern Central Georgia along the Oconee river. It is the ninth largest lake in Georgia at just under 19,000 acres and has roughly 374 miles of coastline. The lake was formed in 1979 when Georgia Power constructed the Wallace Dam across the Oconee river just outside of Greensboro, Georgia. Like all large reservoirs in Georgia, Lake Oconee was formed by flooding the river valley, and thus the lake follows the dendritic pattern of the surrounding foothills, giving it a “finger lake” appearance

Lake Oconee shoreline. Source: reynoldslakeoconee.com

Owned and maintained by Georgia Power, the lake is used for many purposes including: flood control, hydropower generation, water supply, recreation, and fishing and wildlife management. In it’s current state the lake is relatively healthy and supports a variety of wildlife, such as largemouth bass, sunfish, catfish, hybrid bass, multiple species of turtle, and many species of local water birds. There have also been efforts to introduce a population of striped bass. Typically a saltwater species, striped bass have been introduced into many lakes in Georgia primarily for recreational fishing, but also as an attempt to expand the population due to decreasing number in their home waters of the northeast United States.

            Lake Oconee gets it’s name from the nearby Creek Nation town of the same name. In pre-colonial North America the river served as the boundary between the Creek and Cherokee nations, as well as providing food, water and transportation. Many artifacts have been found along the lakebed and the surrounding area, suggesting that there were settlements where the lake now stands before the indigenous peoples were driven out. Today the lakeshore has a different feel, housing many luxury vacation homes and multiple golf courses. It sits in Georgia’s famous “Lake Country” and is a popular getaway spot for people all over the state.

Sources and further reading:

Southeast Discovery: http://www.southeastdiscovery.com/blog/2014/03/georgias-lake-country-the-evolvement-of-lake-oconee/

Georgia EPD: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi5n5f16s30AhUClWoFHXNZDiYQFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fepd.georgia.gov%2Fdocument%2Fpublication%2Flakes-oconee-and-sinclair-technical-approach-revised-8-10-18pdf%2Fdownload&usg=AOvVaw0jtyoSr2LvCYw640yzEMlQ

Lake Website: https://www.reynoldslakeoconee.com