Drifting Into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River / Janisse Ray

The Altamaha River drains the southern part of Georgia ending in the salt marshes around the Golden Isles near Brunswick on the Atlantic. It is sometimes known as the Little Amazon. Undammed, it still retains a wildness and a relatively unblemished ecology that most “tamed” rivers have lost. There are no major population centers on its banks. There are very few bridges that span it. Of course, there are industrial intrusions, and it is a constant battle to keep development at bay and preserve its unspoiled beauty for future generations. Janisse Ray, the author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, describes it so lovingly that it almost seems like paradise on Earth. To her it is, but she succeeds in imparting its uniqueness to the reader—its nature, its mystery, its allure.

A few factoids I found on Wikipedia that quantify the Altamaha’s extraordinary status: At least 120

Franklin tree

species of rare plants and animals live in its watershed, including eleven species of mussels, seven of which are found only in the Altamaha. The river basin also supports the only known example of old-growth longleaf pine and black oak forest in the US. Other notable species include the shortnose sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon, West Indian manatee, Eastern indigo snake, greenfly orchid, and Georgia plume (a plant in the Heath family). The unusual Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha), now extinct in the wild, was found by John Bartram along the Altamaha River basin in 1765.

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