Tugaloo
Tugaloo is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 34.62°, -83.23°
About Tugaloo
The Tugaloo River (originally Tugalo River) is a 45.9-mile-long (73.9 km) river that forms part of the border between the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina. It was named for the historic Cherokee town of Tugaloo at the mouth of Toccoa Creek, south of present-day Toccoa, Georgia and Travelers Rest State Historic Site in Stephens County, Georgia.
It is fed by the Tallulah River and the Chattooga River, which each form an arm of Lake Tugalo, on the edge of Georgia's Tallulah Gorge State Park. The Tugaloo flows out of the lake via Tugaloo Dam, passing into Lake Yonah and through Yonah Dam. The river ends as an arm of Lake Hartwell, as does South Carolina's Seneca River which is formed by the confluence of the Keowee River and Twelvemile Creek. Below Lake Hartwell, it is called the Savannah River.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Tugaloo River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tugaloo in Depth
History
Competing state territorial claims to the river and its islands were settled with the Treaty of Beaufort in 1787, as interpreted in the two Georgia v. South Carolina cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1922 and 1989. The river is one of the boundaries of the Treaty of Hopewell and the Treaty of New York (1790).
The river's watershed is home to some of the most challenging whitewater in the Southeast, luring sport kayakers and canoeists from all over the country.
Cherokee, pioneer and antebellum history are being highlighted by developments of the Stephens County Foundation along the river. South of Yonah Dam was the former site of Estatoe, a historic Cherokee town. Tugaloo Bend Heritage Park is an 87-acre park established here to interpret this history.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Tugaloo River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tugaloo: Key Facts
| Length | 739 km |
|---|---|
| Mouth | Savannah River |
| Drainage system | Savannah River drainage basin |
| Tributaries | Chattooga River |
Facts from Wikidata Q2459279 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Tugaloo: Quick Answers
- Where is Tugaloo?
- Tugaloo is located in United States, at 34.6225° N, 83.2327° W.
- Are there dams on the Tugaloo?
- No dam on the Tugaloo is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.