Intracoastal Waterway, Skidaway Narrows
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The Intracoastal Waterway is a 3,000-mile waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Some lengths consist of natural inlets (narrow body of water between islands or leading inland from a larger body of water, often leading to an enclosed body of water), salt-water rivers (a natural watercourse, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river) , bays (large body of water connected to an ocean or sea formed by an inlet of land due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds ), and sounds (a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land,) while others are artificial, man-made canals. It provides a navigable route along its length without many of the hazards of travel on the open sea.
Georgia's coast is more than 100 miles in length. Its most impressive natural feature is the chain of barrier islands that fringe the shoreline. Separating the islands from the mainland is a belt of tidal marshes, four to six miles wide. Amid the marshes, and running the length of the coast, are the waterways that, from the earliest years of the region's European occupation, have been known as the Inland Passage.
The natural ‘water roadway” of this Inland Passage provided a protected route for intracoastal maritime traffic, enabling smaller craft to avoid the more dangerous and unpredictable outside passage along the coast, a route often impassable due to frequent Atlantic Ocean northeasters and tropical storms. Spanish traders, French clergy and English colonists utilized the route.
During the antebellum period, when large cotton and rice plantations were established on the Sea Islands and in the freshwater river estuaries, the Inland Waterway was increased in usage. Small coasting vessels transported plantation commodities to markets for sale. The rural nature of the islands and mainland coast made the waterway a crucial link with the outside world for shipping and receiving goods, supplies and mail. Despite Georgia's relatively short coastline, the Union navy had a difficult task in containing Confederate smugglers and blockade runners during the Civil War due to the network of creeks and rivers. The Inland waterway therefore facilitated communication between plantations despite the Union blockade offshore and in the larger sounds.
After the Civil War, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began the regular dredging of Georgia's inland waterway. Certain sections of the waterway, primarily those behind the barrier islands where the tides meet and cause shoaling (or dividings), require periodic dredging. Such examples are the Florida Passage–Bear River segment between Ossabaw Island and the Bryan County mainland, North Newport River west of St. Catherines Island, Buttermilk Sound northwest of St. Simons Island, and Jekyll Creek and the Cumberland Dividings.
The River and Harbor Act of 1890 authorized the Corps of Engineers to maintain a steamboat channel between Savannah, Georgia and Fernandina, Florida, at a mean low-water depth of seven feet. During this period steamboat lines utilized the entire route, making semiweekly trips between the Savannah and St. Johns rivers, with stops at Darien, Brunswick, St. Marys, and Fernandina. Freight vessels utilized both the waterway and the connecting freshwater rivers (Altamaha, Ogeechee, Satilla, and Savannah) to transport cargoes of cotton, guano, naval stores, rice, and seafood. Other steam vessels were engaged in working the productive oyster beds along the coast. Georgia's oyster industry in the 1890s and early 1900s was the most active on the East Coast. The greatest use of the inland waterway during this period, however, was in connection with the lumber industry. An 1890 Corps of Engineers report noted that 25 million feet of lumber were towed annually from the mouth of the Altamaha River to loading grounds in Sapelo Sound or at St. Simons Sound.
The River and Harbor Act of 1938 created the federally maintained Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW) and authorized the deepening of the mean low-water channel from seven to twelve feet throughout its length. The channel deepening was largely to accommodate the increasing size of vessels, including tugboats, barges, pleasure craft, and commercial fishing vessels, that utilized the AICW. Another factor was the increased use of the AICW for industrial concerns in Savannah, Brunswick, and Jacksonville, Florida. In 1936 more than 18,000 tons of crossties, lumber, and poles were shipped along the inland route from Brunswick and Savannah to points north and south.
The opening of pulp mills in the mid-1930s required larger barges to facilitate the shipment of long-haul commerce over the AICW. The Corps of Engineers began regular maintenance of the waterway, including the dredging that is a necessary activity. The corps, in the 1930s and 1940s, obtained from the state of Georgia the marshland rights-of-way along the passage for the disposal of spoil from dredging work.
The section of the Intracoastal Waterway in front of you at the above coordinates follows the Wilmington River. The Wilmington River is a 17.3-mile-long tidal that flows through Chatham County along the east side of the cities of Savannah and Thunderbolt, Georgia. At its north end, it connects with the Savannah River, then travels southwest past Savannah, then turns southeast and ends in Wassaw Sound, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. South of Savannah, it passes between several islands, including Whitemarsh Island, Wilmington Island and Cabbage Island to the east, and Dutch Island, Skidaway Island, and Wassaw Island to the west and south.
In order to claim your find, you will need to visit the earthcache site and answer the following questions.
1. Take a look at the section of the Intracoastal Waterway before you. Do you feel this part of the Intracoastal Waterway is sufficient for commercial travel under the guidelines of The River and Harbor Act of 1938?
Yes or No
On what do you base your answer?
2. Take a look at the waterway here. Do you feel this section is better defined as a sound, bay, inlet or river?
3. This question is simply site specific and give further proof that you visited the site. At the posted coordinates you will find a sign stating that a protected species can be found in these waters during most months of the year. What is this species?
online sources:
The New Georgia Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
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