Tobesofkee Creek

Last updated
Tobesofkee Creek
Location
Country United States
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • location Georgia

Tobesofkee Creek is a 58.9-mile-long (94.8 km) [1] river in Georgia. It originates near Barnesville and flows roughly southeast across Lamar, Monroe, and Bibb counties to join the Ocmulgee River south of the city of Macon. A dam on this stream forms Lake Tobesofkee.

Contents

History

After 1670 the Lower Creek Trading Path, which linked Creek towns on the Chattahoochee River to the English colonial town of Charlestown, crossed Tobesofkee Creek. The river has been called by several names in the Muskogee language, spoken by Creek Indians. The earliest recorded name is Togosohatchee. In 1776 William Bartram recorded the river's name as Tobosochte. [2]

The meaning of the name Tobesofkee is unclear, although it appears to contain the word sofkee, a hominy dish that is considered the forerunner of grits. The name was first recorded in the 1790s by Benjamin Hawkins, the United States agent to the Creek Indians, who spelled it variously as Tobosaufkee, Tobe saufe ke, and Tobesauke. [2]

In his 1905 study of U.S. place names, Henry Gannett derived the stream's name (which he spelled "Tobesofka") from the supposed fact that "an Indian lost a dish of meal while crossing it." [3] William A. Read later translated the name as meaning "sofkee stirrer," from atapa (tool for stirring) and safki (corn gruel). [4] Historian John Goff criticized Gannett's interpretation as "open to doubt" and concluded that, with the available historical sources, "it would be mere speculation to attempt to translate Tobesofkee." [2]

Between 1963 and 1967 the U.S. Soil Conservation Service and the Bibb County Commission built a series of dams on Tobesofkee Creek to form flood control reservoirs, including Lake Tobesofkee and "Little Lake Tobosofkee." The Lake Tobesofkee Recreation Area opened in 1969, and private developers built and sold lakefront houses over the following decades. By the turn of the 21st century Lake Tobesofkee was considered one of the most heavily fished lakes in Georgia. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Jones County, Georgia County in Georgia, United States

Jones County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,669. The county seat is Gray. The county was created on December 10, 1807 and named after U.S. Representative James Jones.

Bibb County, Georgia County in Georgia, United States

Bibb County is located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 155,547. Bibb County is geographically located in the Central Georgia region, and is the largest county in the Macon metropolitan area.

Savannah River River in the southeastern United States

The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the northernmost part of the border. The Savannah River drainage basin extends into the southeastern side of the Appalachian Mountains just inside North Carolina, bounded by the Eastern Continental Divide. The river is around 301 miles (484 km) long. The Savannah was formed by the confluence of the Tugaloo River and the Seneca River. Today this confluence is submerged beneath Lake Hartwell. The Tallulah Gorge is located on the Tallulah River, a tributary of the Tugaloo River that forms the northwest branch of the Savannah River.

Suwannee River 396km (246mi) river in Florida and Georgia, USA

The Suwannee River is a river that runs through south Georgia southward into Florida in the southern United States. It is a wild blackwater river, about 246 miles (396 km) long. The Suwannee River is the site of the prehistoric Suwanee Straits which separated peninsular Florida from the panhandle.

Salt River (Arizona)

The Salt River is a river in Gila and Maricopa counties in Arizona, United States, that is the largest tributary of the Gila River. The river is about 200 miles (320 km) long. Its drainage basin is about 13,700 square miles (35,000 km2) large. The longest of the Salt River's many tributaries is the 195-mile (314 km) Verde River. The Salt's headwaters tributaries, the Black River and East Fork, increase the river's total length to about 300 miles (480 km). The name Salt River comes from the fact that the river flows over large salt deposits shortly after the merging of the White and Black Rivers.

Bull Sluice Lake

Bull Sluice Lake is a small reservoir located along the Chattahoochee River in northern Georgia, in the northern suburbs of metro Atlanta. It is 673 acres (272 ha), and is impounded by the Morgan Falls Dam. Besides the hydroelectric power produced by the dam, the lake's primary use is recreation, including fishing and rowing.

Holston River River in Tennessee, United States

The Holston River is a 136-mile (219 km) river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks, it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and northwestern North Carolina. The Holston's confluence with the French Broad River at Knoxville marks the beginning of the Tennessee River.

Pit River River in California, United States

The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S. that cross the Cascade Range.

Feather River

The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about 73 miles (117 km) long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over 210 miles (340 km). The main stem Feather River begins in Lake Oroville, where its four long tributary forks join together—the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and West Branch Feather Rivers. These and other tributaries drain part of the northern Sierra Nevada, and the extreme southern Cascades, as well as a small portion of the Sacramento Valley. The total drainage basin is about 6,200 square miles (16,000 km2), with approximately 3,604 square miles (9,330 km2) above Lake Oroville.

Ocmulgee River

The Ocmulgee River is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha.

Black River (New York)

The Black River is a 125-mile-long (201 km) blackwater river that empties into the eastern end of Lake Ontario on the shore of Jefferson County, New York in the United States. The origin of the name is not clear, but it may stem from the natural tannic acid that darkens the water in places. The river flows in a generally northwest direction, with its valley dividing the Adirondack Mountains on the east from the Tug Hill region to the west.

West Canada Creek

The West Canada Creek is a 76-mile-long (122 km) river in upstate New York, United States. West Canada Creek is an important water way in Hamilton, Oneida, and Herkimer counties, draining the south part of the Adirondack Mountains before emptying into the Mohawk River near the Village of Herkimer. The name "Canada" is derived from an Iroquoian word for "village" (Kanata).

Jackson Lake (Georgia)

Jackson Lake is one of the oldest reservoirs in Georgia, United States, 44 miles (71 km) southeast of Atlanta in a rural area situated within parts of three counties. The Lloyd Shoals Dam was built in 1910 by Central Georgia Power Company, and electricity was originally generated for the city of Macon. Relative to others in the state, it is a smaller lake, which still generates electricity and provides a location for water sports, boating, wakeboarding and fishing.

Kinzua Creek

Kinzua Creek is a 26.5-mile (42.6 km) tributary of the Allegheny River in McKean County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

Coosawattee River River in Georgia, United States

The Coosawattee River is a 49.3-mile-long (79.3 km) river located in the northwestern Georgia, United States.

Sofkee is an unincorporated community in Bibb County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Macon Metropolitan Statistical Area. The main road through Sofkee is US 129/SR 247.

Temecula Creek, formerly known as the Temecula River, runs 32.6 miles (52.5 km) through southern Riverside County, California, United States, past the rural communities of Radec and Aguanga, and ending 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southeast of the original city center of Temecula. The creek is filled with boulders and is typically dry and sandy. It is a relatively undeveloped coastal-draining watershed. Until the 1920s, water flowed in Temecula Creek year-round.

Lake Lawtonka

Lake Lawtonka is a lake in Comanche County in the state of Oklahoma in the United States.

Smith Creek (Chattahoochee River tributary) Stream in Georgia

Smith Creek is a stream in White County of the American state of Georgia, and is a tributary of the Chattahoochee River. The creek is approximately 6.65 miles (10.70 km) long.

Big Indian Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is a tributary to the Ocmulgee River.

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed April 21, 2011
  2. 1 2 3 John H. Goff, Placenames of Georgia: Essays of John H. Goff, ed. Francis Lee Utley and Marion R. Hemperley (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 37-38. ISBN   978-0-8203-3129-4
  3. ↑ Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States , United States Geological Survey Bulletin No. 258, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905), 301.
  4. ↑ William A. Read, "Indian Stream-Names in Georgia," International Journal of American Linguistics 15 (2) (1949): 128-132.
  5. ↑ S. Heather Duncan, "Report urges expanding size of 16 Georgia reservoirs," Macon Telegraph, 18 November 2008; Kevin Dallmier, Fishing Georgia: An Angler's Guide to More Than 100 Fresh- and Saltwater Fishing Spots, 2nd ed. (Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2007), 220.

Coordinates: 32°43′11″N83°36′08″W / 32.71986°N 83.60213°W / 32.71986; -83.60213

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.