High Falls State Park, near Jackson in Butts County, is a popular destination along the Towaliga River for camping and boating. The town of High Falls, established in the early 1800s, became a ghost town during the 1880s, when the railroads gained prominence over waterways for commercial transportation. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLHOq56imZWjsLqvy6innpyZlnuwvsZoq6iomZjAcLvUrZuop6Jiv6av0Z6YraGfo3qiwNOrmJysmaS7tHs%3D

John B. Gordon, a renowned Confederate officer and political leader, was a member of the Farmers' Alliance in Georgia until the organization's split with the Democratic Party in 1892. A member of the Bourbon Triumvirate, Gordon served multiple terms in the U.S. Senate and, from 1886 to 1890, as governor of the state. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLHOq56imZWjsLqvy6innpyZlnuwvsZoq6iomZjAcLzOpaCtoZOWuW68wKurop2jYravwMSrnKysXZy%2FsMHPrGSmp6aauqa606xm

Portal Series #18—Luminous Being by Leland Staven is part of Georgia's State Art Collection. Acrylic, 30 1/2 x 34 3/4 inches The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print. Requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource should be submitted to the Georgia Council for the Arts. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLHOq56imZWjsLqvy6innpyZlnuwvsZomqiknJqwtbXOp6pon5Wkv6i1wKxkrKyRqbJurdGtZJynnKGypMDIqKVoqJ%2BnwaK4jKycq6GVqHpyhIylrKahnqTCtHnBnqCnn4%2BowaLCxKeWaWhhZA%3D%3D

Reservoirs are water impoundments—or human-built lakes—that do not occur naturally in the landscape. The land that makes up present-day Georgia had few natural lakes before European settlement, and most impoundments, formed by beavers and debris dams from high flows, were relatively small. The lack of glacial retreat, land slope, and local geology provided conditions for large and small rivers and streams but not for lakes. The natural water bodies that occur in Georgia are primarily located in the southern part of the state in the Coastal Plain, where sinkhole lakes and isolated wetlands in natural shallow depressions largely fed by rain and shallow groundwater, called Carolina bays, form.

Richmond County, in east central Georgia bordering the Savannah River and the South Carolina state line, was created in 1777 as one of Georgia’s original counties. It replaced the former parish of St. Paul, established in 1758 under the colonial government. Early History The county was named for Charles Lenox, duke of Richmond, who was sympathetic to the cause of the American Revolution (1775-83). First settled in the 1730s, Richmond County originally encompassed all of present-day Richmond, Columbia, and McDuffie counties, as well as parts of Warren, Glascock, and Jefferson counties.