
Video: Coosa . . . The Rediscovery of an Ancient Native American Capital

It was the inspiration for the best-selling book and blockbuster movie, Deliverance, by James Dickey!
The construction of Carters Dam on the Coosawattee River in Northwest Georgia was one of the most vitriolic political controversies in Georgia during the mid-20th century. It was first proposed as an emergency war measure during World War II, but found to be too costly. The project was then resurrected late in the Eisenhower Administration. Throughout the controversy, the John Kennedy and then the Lyndon Johnson presidential administrations withheld critical information from the general public, which would have torpedoed the project. No one was told that what was then the largest earthen dam in the world was to be built on a fault line. Geologists now know that the dam sits on the intersection of two fault lines. Archaeologists had been digging test ditches at mound and town sites in the proposed reservoir basin since at least 1886, but the public was only given vague information such as “Indians lived near the falls on the Coosawattee River from time to time.” Nationally respected archaeologist, Arthur Kelly, was retained by the US Army Corps of Engineers to carry out a survey of the Coosawattee River Basin. However, what he found and where he found it, was never told the general public. They certainly were not relayed his suspicion that the great town of Coosa, visited by Hernando de Soto in 1540, was located here.
The dam was found to be economically infeasible so Georgia politicos and economic development interests came up with the idea of a state developed, 120,000+ acre planned community, they named “Industrial City.” It was blatant socialism proposed by conservative politicians, who in almost the same breath were yelling rants of “Communism” to the pressure by courts to integrate Georgia’s public schools. Industrial City would envelope Carters Lake and the flood plain of the Coosawattee River with heavy industry, which would be dependent on cheap electricity. This allowed federal government bureaucrats to delete the cost of constructing long distance electric transmission lines from their cost-benefit formula. The costs of the dam were still found to be greater than the amortized long term benefits.
Engineers then proposed that a second lake be constructed beneath the main dam. Water would be pumped up to the primary reservoir at night then run through the generators in the day time. An exaggerated value for prime day time electricity was then tweaked into the cost benefit ratio in order to make the project feasible. However, Congress and the general public were not told that the Lower Reservoir would cover a dense concentration of Native American archaeological sites, which included the capital of Coosa. In 1540, Coosa contained over 3,000 houses!
This video provides the viewer an overview of the dramatic events that occurred before, during and after the construction of Carters Dam then focuses on the rediscovery of the site of Coosa and the probable appearance of the town. Many of the images are from the original slide show, contracted by the Muscogee-Creek Nation in 2006. They have never been shown to the general public.
Ya gotta laugh . . . otherwise you would have to pull your hair out!

Richard Thornton

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