Georgia Natural Wonder #178 - Chattahoochee River - Forsyth County (Part 1). 1,008

[Top Row Dawg]

Georgia Natural Wonder #178 - Chattahoochee River - Forsyth County (Part 1)

We finished Douglas County, we are coming up on the last 20 of our top 200. I was going to do a post on the Rambling Raft Race on the Chattahoochee River because I have all these images from the " I Rafted the Hooch" Facebook page. But it got complex as I cyber floated the river below Buford Dam. We haven't done history tangents on Gwinnett County or Forsyth County yet, so I am going to break it down into sections. I start below the Dam, with a history tangent on the west bank county.



The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers and emptying from Florida into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. The Chattahoochee River is about 430 miles long.



Atlanta is built upon the crest of a large ridge, rather than in the floodplain of the river. This has contributed the preservation of much of the natural scenic beauty of the section that runs through metropolitan Atlanta. North of the metropolis, the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area protects other portions of the riverbanks in a region that is spread across several disconnected areas.



The river traverses much of Atlanta's hilly topography of the northern suburbs. Wealthy suburban communities in northern metro Atlanta that abut the river include: Vinings, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, East Cobb, Roswell, Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners, Johns Creek, and Berkeley Lake.



Now we came to the "Hooch" down in Columbus with GNW #59 (Part 1). We visited again with our visit to Helen in GNW #99 (Part 2)and in our post GNW #77 (Part 1) about the Upper Chattahoochee in White County.  Out of the hills of Habersham, down through the valley's of Hall. The valley's of Hall are now covered by Lake Lanier (officially Lake Sidney Lanier). It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee River. The lake encompasses 59 square miles of water, and 692 miles of shoreline.



A stretch of Georgia Highway 53 had to be abandoned that ran too close to the planned shoreline. Gainesville's Looper Speedway was also condemned and abandoned.



Gainsville Speedway opened in 1949 as a 1/2 mile dirt oval speedway running Stock and Modified Stock Cars.



The track was owned and built by Max Looper, so it was often referred to as Looper Speedway.



Despite the popularity of the track it was closed in 1956 and the Military moved in and flooded the entire area, Over the years during periods of drought the top steps of the grandstand will appear out of the murky depths.



Lake Lanier has over 90 Corps, State, County and City parks, 23 of which provide swim beaches. Over 10 million people visit the lake annually, including its marinas and the Lake Lanier Islands water park. The rowing and sprint canoeing events during the 1996 Summer Olympics were held on the north end of the lake. It has since hosted many international events such as the 2003 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, 2016 Pan American Sprint Canoe/Kayak Championships and the 2018 ICF Dragon boat World Championships.



We will probably return to lake Lanier as a separate Wonder down the road but today we want to focus on the "Hooch" below Buford Dam.



Since the construction of Buford Dam, there have been only three major flooding events on the downstream section.



Head to Buford Dam Park, Lower Overlook Park or West Bank Park for a great view of the front of the dam. Powerhouse Park offers views of the back of the dam. Its also possible to walk around the dam using the Buford Dam Trail or Laurel Ridge Trail.



Laurel Ridge Trail goes through Buford Dam Park and continues through Powerhouse Park and Lower Overlook.  Along the 3.8-mile trail you can glimpse beautiful views of the lake, woodland and river scenery, as well as rare wildflowers and a variety of wildlife.  The trail winds through several park areas, along the lake’s shoreline and the banks of the Chattahoochee River.


Pets are prohibited.

One reviewer said it was the most enjoyable and beautiful trail we have ever taken. it has everything: river, lakes, streams, and bridges. Just fabulous!


Groundbreaking Buford Dam.

Whether it is a hot Atlanta summer day or the middle of December, Buford Dam is a consistent great fishery.  Both dry fly and nymph fishing techniques are productive.


Installing the turbines.

Most fisherman access the river from the West side of the dam and head downhill.  Expect to pay for parking.  There are two parking areas.  The first one on the right is used by fly fishers that want to hike down to the lower shoals and Bowman Island.  Most fisherman continue on and park in the main lot where there is a restroom.


Before the lake was filled.

This 48-mile stretch of trout water begins at the base of Buford Dam, near Lake Lanier. The river is home to brown and rainbow trout; yellow perch; large-mouth, striped and shoal bass, chain pickerel, bream, catfish and crappie.


Core Sample display.


Billy Goats keep the grass trimmed.


Roadway atop Buford Dam.

From Buford Dam to Georgia 400, there are 19 public access points that offer bank access, wading and boating.



Just below Bowman's Island and Bowman Island Shoals is the Buford Trout Hatchery. Then Highway 20 crosses and you come to Fish Weir Shoals, a bar located just 3.7 miles from Sugar Hill, in Forsyth County.


Fish Weir Shoals.

James Creek and Rich Creek join from opposite shores.


Fish Weir Shoals.

Settles Bridge teens can skate board, dogs can enjoy the wonderful dog park, and families can explore the miles of paved paths in a beautiful natural setting.



This is a very long-span example of a pin-connected Pratt through truss. Typically spans of this length would be something more complicated that a regular Pratt, such as a Whipple or Parker truss. This bridge crosses at a fairly high height over the water, and at the eastern end of the bridge a series of steel stringer approach spans brought the bridge roadway back to ground level.



This bridge was reportedly abandoned in the 1950s. Nothing has been done with the bridge since then.



The deck is long-gone, although deck stringers remain for the approach spans. Some of the approach spans are in imminent danger of collapse, and indeed have already partially collapsed with visible sagging. The reason for this is obvious. The steel bent closest to the main span that supports the approach spans has had the concrete foundations they rest on washed away. One of the columns was during the site visible observed to be completely washed out and essentially hanging off the bridge, and others were partially washed out with the foundation tipping over.



For a bridge with obvious historic significance due to its pin-connected design and span length, the neglect is unacceptable. The bridge is actually located in a National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service.



The National Park Service needs to step up and restore this bridge for pedestrian use which would make it an attraction for the area.



Level Creek flows in from the Gwinnett County Side and Chattahoochee Pointe Park runs along the Forsyth County side.



Long time residents may remember that the park originally came from land parceled off from a horse farm.The trail is a soft surface loop that follows along the Chattahoochee River. There are also footpaths that run off the main trail.



There is a Frisbee Golf Course.



McGinnis Ferry Road crosses right where the Forsyth County line ends on the west bank, and Fulton County begins on the west bank.


McGinnis Ferry Bridge.

It continues with Gwinnett County on the east bank.


McGinnis Ferry Boat Launch.

Now Fulton County runs down the west bank of the hooch from here down past Roswell. So this is a good spot to end this post on the Natural Wonder of the Hooch and Forsyth County. Let's start our tangent on Forsyth County.

Forsyth County

Forsyth County is a county in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. Suburban and exurban in character, Forsyth County lies within the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. The county's only incorporated city and county seat is Cumming. As of 2019 estimates, the population was 244,252. Forsyth was the fastest-growing county in Georgia and the 15th fastest-growing county in the United States between 2010 and 2019.



Forsyth County's rapid population growth can be attributed to its proximity to high-income employment opportunities in nearby Alpharetta and northern Fulton County, its equidistant location between the big-city amenities of bustling Atlanta and the recreation offerings of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, its plentiful supply of large, relatively affordable new-construction homes, and its highly ranked public school system. The influx of high-income professionals and their families has increased the county's median annual household income dramatically in recent years; at $104,687, Forsyth County was the wealthiest in Georgia and the 19th-wealthiest in the United States as of 2018 estimates.



Located forty miles north of the state capital, Forsyth County has become one of the most vibrant sections of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Forsyth County was named after John Forsyth, who had a long and distinguished political career of 30 years.



He was a Congressman, a Senator, and the 33rd Governor of Georgia from 1827 to 1829.  He was Secretary of State under Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.



As Secretary of State, he led the government's response to the Amistad case. He was a loyal follower of Andrew Jackson and opposed John C. Calhoun in the issue of nullification. Forsyth was appointed as Secretary of State in reward for his efforts. He led the pro-removal reply to Theodore Frelinghuysen about the Indian Removal Act of 1830. He supported slavery and was a slaveholder himself. He died the day before his 61st birthday.


In the 1997 Steven Spielberg movie, Amistad, John Forsyth's character was played by American character actor David Paymer.

From 2007 to 2009, the county received national attention because of a severe drought. Water supplies for the Atlanta area and downstream areas of Alabama and Florida were threatened. This followed a more severe drought in 2007 and 2008, and flooding in 2009. Flooding occurred in 2013, and severe drought again in 2016.



Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been in a tri-state water dispute since 1990 over apportionment of water flow from Lake Lanier, which forms the eastern border of the county and is regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers as a federal project.

History

For thousands of years, varying indigenous cultures lived in this area along the Etowah River. Starting near the end of the first millennium, Mound Builders of the Mississippian culture settled in this area; they built earthwork mound structures at nearby Etowah in present-day Bartow County, and large communities along the Etowah River in neighboring Cherokee County. They disappeared about 1500CE.


A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint mace and severed head. Artist Herb Roe, based on a repoussé copper plate. Before European contact

Members of the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee Nation migrated into the area from the North, possibly from the Great Lakes area. They settled in the territory that would become Forsyth County and throughout upper Georgia and Alabama, also having settlements or towns in present-day Tennessee and western North Carolina.


View of northern Forsyth County from Sawnee Mountain's Indian Seats

19th century

After the discovery of gold by European Americans in the surrounding area in 1829, numerous settlers moved into the area. They increased the pressure on the state and federal government to have the Cherokee and other Native Americans removed to west of the Mississippi River, in order to extinguish their land claims and make land available for purchase. Although the region was populated by Cherokee Indians for hundreds of years, white settlers began moving in after gold was discovered in 1829. In 1832 Georgia leaders divided the former Cherokee lands into ten counties, including Forsyth. The Cherokees were removed forcibly from their Georgia lands in 1838 and relocated to Oklahoma. One of the forts at which the Cherokees were assembled before removal, Fort Campbell, was located in Forsyth County.



A Trail of Tears Fort first established in 1838 near Hightower, Forsyth County, Georgia. Probably named for Duncan G. Campbell, who negotiated the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs. Abandoned in 1838.


William McIntosh sold the remaining Creek land in Georgia for $200,000.

History of Fort Campbell

Established April to June 1838 to temporarily house Cherokee Removals. The remnants of the Cherokee Nation were rounded up in 1838 by Federal forces and Georgia Militia and pressed into military stockades for eventual removal to reservations in the western Indian Territory. U.S. General Winfield Scott oversaw the operation but lacked control over the militia units. Some 7,000 U.S. Soldiers and Georgia Militia forced some 15,000 Cherokee Indians into stockades and held them for removal. The condition were terrible in the stockades and on the trail to the Indian Territory and many of the Cherokees died before reaching the new reservations. As many as 4,000 Cherokees may have died in the stockades and on the 800 mile journey west. The removal process and the conditions of removal came to be known as the "Trail of Tears". This post was abandoned in June 1838.

Current Status

No remains in Forsyth County, Georgia. The actual site has not been positively identified.



Forsyth County prospered during the 1830s and 1840s because of gold mining and the Federal Road, which ran through the county and led settlers to open numerous roadside inns and taverns.



Cumming, the county seat, was incorporated in 1834, and by 1840 Forsyth County possessed several schools, including the Cumming Academy. By the early 1840s the heyday of the Georgia gold rush had ended, and the building of new roads and railroads in north Georgia diverted a large amount of traffic from the Federal Road, forcing many local businesses to close by the end of the decade.



For many years, much of this hill country was farmed by yeomen farmers, who owned few or no slaves.



The Civil War (1861-65) bypassed Forsyth County, but Reconstruction hit the region hard, and for the remainder of the nineteenth century the county remained rural and poor, with an economy based largely on cotton. During this period, Forsyth native Hiram Parks Bell was a member of the Georgia secession convention, voting against secession as imprudent, but then signing the Ordinance of Secession. He served as a Georgia commissioner to work with the state of Tennessee in the formation of a southern confederacy.



He was a captain who was later promoted to lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 43rd Georgia Infantry Regiment.



After the War, he served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1873 to 1874 and from 1877 to 1878. He later served in both houses of the state legislature.



20th century

The county population of about 10,000 was 90 percent "white" in the early 20th century, and residents were still depended on agriculture.



During the 1950s, with the introduction of the poultry industry, the county had steady economic growth but remained largely rural and all white in population. Georgia State Route 400 opened in 1971 and was eventually extended through the county and northward; it stimulated population growth as residential housing was developed in the county and it became a bedroom community for people working in Atlanta, which had expanding work opportunities. The opening of Georgia State Route 400 also spurred industrial growth in the South West portion of the county along the McFarland Parkway corridor starting in the early 1970s.


Subdivisions everywhere Forsyth County.

By 1980, the county population was 27,500, growing to 40,000 in 1987. While some blacks worked in the county in new industries, none lived there. The county gained more than 30 new industries from 1980 and unemployment was low. Such growth resulted in the median income, formerly low, "rising faster than in any other county in Georgia."

Racial History

The Elephant in the room for Forsyth County has been it's spotty history of Race relations. The changing dynamics between white and black citizens after the Civil War resulted in tensions across the southern United States as whites tried to maintain dominance. They used violence to intimidate black voters and regain control of state legislatures, ending Reconstruction. Racial tensions increased as rural workers started to move to industrializing cities. Whites rioted against blacks in the Atlanta in 1906, resulting in more than 20 dead.



Racial violence broke out in Forsyth County in September 1912, following allegations of sexual attacks by black men of white women. Forsyth County had a county population with a minority of ethnic African residents. The 1910 census recorded 10,847 white, 658 black, and 440 mulatto (mixed-race) residents, making the number of black citizens slightly more than 10%. They tended to work as sharecroppers, with some women working as domestic servants, and struggled with poverty.


Troops in Atlanta 1906.

In early September 1912 a white woman said she was the victim of an attempted rape by two black men, but they left before she was hurt. On September 7, 1912, police arrested five black men in connection with the assault, including Tony Howell and Isaiah Pirkle. That same afternoon members of numerous area black churches gathered for a barbecue just outside the county seat of Cumming. Preacher Grant Smith was heard to question the alleged victim's account, saying that perhaps she had been caught and had lied about what was actually a consensual relationship with a black man. The mixed-race population in the county showed that whites and blacks had relationships; most were between white men and black or mixed-race women, which the whites tried to treat as a secret. Whites horse-whipped Smith outside the courthouse, where he was rescued by police and taken into custody for his safety.



They locked him in the courthouse for safety. Rumors spread on both sides; whites said that the blacks threatened to dynamite the town. White residents gathered a lynch mob of 500 men (when Cumming had only 300 residents in total), with men coming to join from surrounding areas. They talked of lynching the black citizens held at the jail. By 1:30 p.m., the Sheriff deputized 25 men and called the Governor for help, who ordered in 23 National Guardsmen from nearby Gainesville, Georgia. The suspects in the first case were never tried, for lack of evidence.



The next day, September 8, Mae Crow, a 19-year-old white woman, was allegedly attacked in a nearby community while walking to her aunt's house. She was allegedly pulled into the woods and assaulted. According to later testimony, she was allegedly raped by Ernest Knox, a 16-year-old black who worked as a hired hand at a neighbor's farm. Knox was said to have told friends about the incident: Oscar Daniel, his sister Trussie (Jane) Daniel, and her live-in boyfriend Rob Edwards, who also went to the scene. They left the girl, thinking she had died and being afraid to get involved. Crow was found the next day by a search party; whites said later that she had regained consciousness briefly and named Knox as her attacker, but no newspaper reported this. A small hand mirror found at the scene was recognized as belonging to Knox; police used it to connect him to the crime and arrested him that morning. Police said he confessed fully. Because of the trouble two days before in Cumming, they took Knox to the jail in Gainesville. Hearing threats of a lynch mob there, officials moved him to a jail in Atlanta.


Mae Crow, c. 1912

The following day, Knox's friends were arrested in connection with the Mae Crow assault. Oscar Daniel and Rob Edwards were suspects in rape, and Trussie Daniel was held for not reporting the crime and as an accomplice. Ed Collins, a black neighbor, was picked up and held as a witness. They were detained in the small Cumming jail. The Atlanta Journal reported that Sheriff Reid drove through a mob of 2,000 people to get the suspects to the jail.


The Rob Edwards lynching made front-page news in all the Atlanta papers. Many newspapers first reported that Ed Collins was lynched because the body was so damaged that it could not be identified.

Within a few hours on September 9, the white mob increased to 4,000 people, who stormed the jail. Sheriff Reid was not there, having strategically left deputy Mitchell Lummus alone to protect the prisoners. Deputy Lummus hid most of them, but Rob Edwards was shot and killed by the mob while still in his cell. They dragged him out, mutilated him, and dragged his body behind a wagon, before hanging him from a telephone pole at the northwest corner of the Square. The coroner's inquest, held on September 18, 1912 found the cause of death to be a gunshot by an unknown assailant.


Sheriff Bill Reid (l) and Deputy Mitchell Gay Lummus ®, c. 1912

Crow died in the hospital two weeks later on September 23, 1912. The cause of death was listed as pneumonia. Knox and Daniel were indicted for rape and murder on September 30. Trussie Daniel and Ed Collins were both charged as accomplices.


Photo taken October 2, 1912. Although not identified by the newspaper they are believed to be: (Left to Right) Trussie (Jane) Daniel, Oscar Daniel, Tony Howell (defendant in Ellen Grice rape), Ed Collins (witness), Isaiah Pirkle (witness for Howell), and Ernest Knox

All five trials, (including Tony Howell for the Ellen Grice case) were set for October 3 in Cumming, the county seat. The prisoners were escorted by four companies of the state militia by train to the Buford, Georgia station, and walked the remaining 14 miles. The trial of Tony Howell was postponed due to the lack of evidence. Howell had an alibi, with Isaiah Pirkle as a witness. The case would never go to trial, and was eventually dismissed. As part of a plea bargain, Trussie Daniel changed her story and agreed to turn state's witness. Charges against her and Collins were dropped, in exchange for her testimony against Knox, her brother Oscar, and Edwards. The all-white jury deliberated 16 minutes and returned a verdict of guilty in Knox's case. Although no confession or other evidence linked Oscar Daniel to the crime, his sister's testimony was fatal. The all-white jury pronounced him guilty that night.



On the following day, October 4, both teenagers were sentenced to death by hanging, scheduled for October 25. State law prohibited public hangings. The scheduled execution was to be viewed only by the victim's family, a minister, and law officers. Gallows were built off the square in Cumming. A fence erected around the gallows was burned down the night before the execution. A crowd estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 gathered to watch the hanging of the two youths, at a time when the total county population was around 12,000.


Cumming, Georgia, October 25th, 1912

The most surprising thing about the picture is that, in the bottom right-hand corner, you can just make out a group of young black men, standing at the edge of the crowd.



In the following months, a small group of men called "Night Riders" terrorized black citizens, threatening them to leave in 24 hours or be killed. Marauding residents wielded guns, sticks of dynamite, bottles of kerosene. Then they stole everything, from farmland to tombstones. Those who resisted were subjected to further harassment, including shots fired into their homes, or livestock killed. Some white residents tried to stop the Night Riders, but were unsuccessful. An estimated 98% of black residents of Forsyth County left. Some property owners were able to sell, likely at a loss. The renters and sharecroppers left to seek safer places. Those who abandoned property, and failed to continue paying property tax, eventually lost it, and whites took it over. Many black properties ended up in white hands without a sale and without a legal transfer of title. The anti-black campaign spread across Northern Georgia, with similar results of whites expelling blacks in many surrounding counties.



In the 1910 Census, more than 1,000 black and mixed-race people were recorded in Forsyth County, with slightly more than 10,000 whites. By the 1920 Census only 30 ethnic African Americans remained in the county.



Almost every single one of Forsyth's 1,098 African Americans — prosperous and poor, literate and unlettered — was driven out of the county. It took only a few weeks.  Forsyth County remained white right through the 20th century. A black man or woman couldn't so much as drive through without being run out.... During the 1950s and '60s, there were no "colored" water fountains in the courthouse or "whites only" diners in the county seat, Cumming; there was no black population to segregate. By 1987, the county was "all white".



Marches and demonstrations of the 1980s

More ethnically diverse citizens had begun in recent years to migrate to the county, particularly in the affluent southern portion. However, racial tension continued to be a part of the county's image into the early 1990s. On January 17, 1987, civil rights activists led by Hosea Williams marched in Cumming, and a counter-demonstration was made by a branch of the Ku Klux Klan, most of whom were not residents of the county, as well as others who objected to the march. According to a story published in The New York Times on January 18, four marchers were slightly injured by stones and bottles thrown at them. Eight people from the counter-demonstration, all white, were arrested. The charges included trespassing and carrying concealed weapons.



White Forsyth resident Charles A. Blackburn wanted to have a brotherhood march to celebrate the first annual celebration of national holiday Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He wanted to dispel the racist image of Forsyth County, where he owned and operated a private school, the Blackburn Learning Center. Blackburn cancelled his plans after he received threatening phone calls. Other whites in nearby counties, as well as State Representative Billy McKinney of Atlanta and Hosea Williams, who was on the Atlanta City Council, took up the march plans instead.



The following week, January 24, approximately 20,000 participants marched in Cumming. This occurrence produced no violence, despite the presence of more than 5,000 counter-demonstrators, summoned by the Forsyth County Defense League. The county and state had mustered about 2,000 peace officers and national guardsmen. Forsyth County paid $670,000 for police overtime during the political demonstration. Many residents were outraged to have to pay for the march, as most participants were from outside the county. (V. S. Naipaul's interview with Forsyth County Sheriff Wesley Walraven, before the second march, is referred to in his book A Turn in the South.)



The demonstration is thought to have been the largest civil rights demonstration in the U.S. since about 1970. The unexpected turnout of some 5,000 counter-demonstrators, 66 of whom were arrested for "parading without a permit," turned out to be the largest resistance opposed to civil rights since the 1960s. The counter-demonstration was called by the Forsyth County Defense League and the Nationalist Movement, newly organized in Cumming by local plumber Mark Watts.



Marchers came for the second march from all over the country, forming a caravan from Atlanta; National Guard troops were assigned for protection on freeway overpasses along the route. When marchers, including John Lewis, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Coretta Scott King, Joseph Lowery, Sam Nunn, Benjamin Hooks, Gary Hart and Wyche Fowler arrived, they discovered that most of the Cumming residents had left town for the day. Some had boarded up their windows because they feared violence. Marchers wound slowly through streets lined by hundreds of armed National Guardsmen, many of them black. Forsyth County subsequently charged large fees for parade permits until the practice was overturned in Forsyth County, Georgia v. The Nationalist Movement in the Supreme Court of the United States on June 19, 1992.



The event was one of the largest civil rights demonstrations since the 1960s and generated so much national attention that talk-show host Oprah Winfrey taped a show the following month in Cumming about the events.



TRD got to meet Hosea Williams at the Olympic Park the night before the bombing.



OK this looks like a good spot to end today's post as we have another Natural Wonder in Cumming that will take us away from the Chattahoochee River for one post, but it will allow us a second tangent on Forsyth County. It may be a while before we return to this county.

Reaching on today's GNW Gals but we feature Girls with Fore Sight. I have been featuring Girls with glasses but y'all never vote for them. You have to pick one today.