Altamaha River
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The Altamaha River is a major river of the US state of Georgia, and its 37,600 km² (14,500 sq mi) watershed is the second largest in the eastern United States.
The Altamaha river proper begins at the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers, in the area south of Vidalia, and it runs southeast for about 140 miles (220 km), collecting the Ohoopee River and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Brunswick. It marked the western border of the Colony of Georgia until the American Revolution and therefore the western border of the English settlement in North America. It also marked the boundary between the Spanish missionary provinces of Guale and Mocama.
In 1770, Oliver Goldsmith referred to the river in The Deserted Village (ll. 343 - 358):
- "Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
- Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.
- Far different there from all that charm'd before,
- The various terrors of that horrid shore;
- Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,
- And fiercely shed intolerable day;
- Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
- But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;
- Those poisonous fields, with rank luxuriance crown'd,
- Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;
- Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
- The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;
- Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey,
- And savage men more murderous still than they:
- While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
- Mingling the ravag'd landscape with the skies."
Although used in the 19th century as a route for commerce between central Georgia and the coast, the river is nearly entirely still in its natural state, and was designated a bioreserve by The Nature Conservancy in 1991. Over 100 rare or endangered species may be found in the river basin, and the delta is a major stopover for many species of migratory birds.
