Toccoa Falls
The Toccoa Falls waterfall, with a vertical drop of 186 feet (57 m), is located on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in Stephens County, Georgia. The word 'Toccoa' was the Cherokee word for "beautiful" and Toccoa Falls is one of the most beautiful waterfalls of north Georgia.
Status
Some claim that Toccoa Falls is the tallest free-falling waterfall in the Eastern United States, however, the waterfall does not hold that title. Crabtree Falls in Virginia (cascading 1,000 feet (300 m), including one 400-foot (120 m) drop), Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee (256 foot sheer drop) and Taughannock Falls in New York (215 foot sheer drop) are all taller. In addition, one other Georgia waterfall includes a drop that is taller: Cascade Falls includes a 262-foot (80 m) drop.
Legend
A sad tradition is connected with the Falls of Toccoa. A white woman, a prisoner of the Indians, it is said, was compelled by them to betray a party of the whites, who were encamped in the neighborhood. Under pretence of leading them, by a secret path, to a safer position, she led her unsuspecting victims, blindfold, one by one, to the brow of the precipice, and suffered them to walk off the brink.
Another tradition relates, how a fair, innocent boy, a child of the white race, was dashed down the precipice by an Indian, a sacrifice to the demon of revenge in his savage bosom. Probably there is little truth in either tale. It is natural for men to love the embellishment of beautiful scenes with imaginative legends. [1]
Dam break
During the early morning hours of November 6, 1977, after five days of almost continual rain, the dam that impounded the waters of Kelly Barnes Lake (located above the Toccoa Falls College campus) burst, and 176 million gallons of water surged through the campus below in the space of a few minutes. Most of the college personnel who lived in the path of the flood were asleep at the time, and 39 of them were swept to their deaths in the raging waters of Toccoa Creek. The dam was not rebuilt.[2]
References
- ↑ Ellet, E. F. (1840). Rambles About the Country. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ↑ Historic U.S. Dam Failures - DamSafety.org
External links
- View of Toccoa Falls from 1929. From Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Archives, University System of Georgia. Web. 19 May 2016.
- View of Toccoa Falls from 1885. From Atlanta History Photograph Collection, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Web. 4 June 2016.
- Toccoa Fall[s, Height 186 feet, Toccoa, Ga.]. Historic Postcard Collection, RG 48-2-5, Georgia Archives, Digital Library of Georgia. Web. 4 June 2016.
- Richards, Thomas Addison (1842). Georgia illustrated in a series of views : embracing natural scenery and public edifices. Penfield, Ga.: W. & W. C. Richards. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- View of Toccoa Falls from 1875. From Stephen A. Schwarzman Building / Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, New York Public Library. Original source: Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.
Coordinates: 34°35′46″N 83°21′36″W / 34.59611°N 83.36000°W