Flint River (Georgia)
|
|
The Flint River is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains 8,460 sq mi (22,464 km²) of western Georgia, flowing south from the upper Piedmont region south of Atlanta to the wetlands of the coastal plain in the southwestern corner of the state. Along with the Apalachicola and the Chattahoochee, it forms part of the ACF basin. In its upper course through the red hills of the Piedmont it is considered especially scenic, flowing unimpeded for over 200 mi (320 km).
| Contents |
Description
It rises in west central Georgia in southern Fulton County on the southern outskirts of the Atlanta metropolitan area near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It flows generally south through rural western Georgia, passing through Spreewell Bluff State Park, approximately 10 mi (16 km) west of Thomaston. Further south, it passes approximately 5 mi (8 km) east of Andersonville, site of the Andersonville prison during the American Civil War. It southwestern Georgia it flows through downtown Albany, the largest city on the river. At Bainbridge it joins Lake Seminole, formed at its confluence with Chattahoochee with by the Jim Woodruff Dam on the Florida state line. The Apalachiola flows south from the reservoir to the Gulf of Mexico.
It is joined by the Kinchafonee River just north of Albany, and by Ichawaynochaway Creek in southwestern Mitchell County, approximately 15 mi (24 km) northeast of Bainbridge.
In additional to Lake Seminole, it is impounded approximately 15 mi (24 km) upstream from Albany to form Lake Blackshear reservoir. The river was historically navigable to Bainbridge before the construction of the Jim Woodruff Dam. The unimpeded nature of the river above Lake Blackshear is rare among U.S. rivers. It is one of only 40 rivers in the nation to flow over 200 mi (320 km) unimpeded. In the 1970s, a plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a dam at Spreewell Bluff in the red hills was defeated by Governor Jimmy Carter, whose hometown of Plains is located between the Flint and Chattahoochee.
Natural History
The river is considered to have three distinct sections as it flows southward through western Georgia. In its upper reaches in the red hills of the Piedmont, it flows through a deeply incised channel etched into crystalline rocks. South of its fall line near Culloden, the channel transforms to a broad, forested swampy flood plain. South of Lake Blackshear, it transforms again, flowing through a channel in limestone rock above the Upper Floridian Aquifier below southwestern Georgia and northwestern Florida.
The river has been prone to floods throughout its history. In 1994, during flooding from Tropical Storm Alberto, the river crested at 43 feet or 13 meters in Albany, resulting the evacuation of over 23,000 residents, and creating one of the worst natural disasters in the state's history.
See also
External links
- Georgia Wildlife Federation: Flint River (http://www.gwf.org/flintindex.htm)
- Sherpa Guides: Flint River Basin (http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/flint_river/index.html)
- Jimmy Carter: Land Between the Rivers (http://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/flint_river/essay/index.html)