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Dirtbag Geocaching Society
The Lumber River Basin is a rich ecological expanse of flat land, gently rolling hills and swamp waters. Part Sandhills but mostly Coastal Plain, the basin is a flatwater paddler’s dream and a naturalist’s wonderland. Even though it is named for the Lumber River, the Lumber River Basin is actually four distinct river systems that include the Lumber River. the Waccamaw River, the headwaters of the Little Pee Dee River and a system of small coastal rivers that empty into the Atlantic. The Lumber River is one of the state’s four Natural and Scenic Rivers, and an 81-mile portion of the river is designated a National Wild and Scenic River. In bestowing the federal designation, the National Park Service determined the Lumber River has “outstandingly remarkable” resources, which include recreation, fish, wildlife, scenery and botany. The wildness of the Lumber and Waccamaw rivers draws canoeists and other paddlers by the thousands. The Waccamaw River flows from Lake Waccamaw, the most biologically diverse lake in North Carolina and one of the most species-rich lakes in the Western hemi sphere. It has 52 fish species, 11 species of snails and 15 species of mussels and clams, many of them rare and endemic to the lake, meaning they have been found nowhere else on earth. The Waccamaw’s watershed also includes a large portion of the Green Swamp. In wet savannas of this swamp, scientists have recorded the highest density of small-scale plant diversity in North America — more than 40 species in a single square meter. Some of these intriguing plants include insect-eaters such as flytraps, pitcher plants and sundews, plus an array of orchids. The Lumber River is a 133-mile-long (214 km) in North Carolina in the flat Coastal Plain. European settlers first called the river Drowning Creek, which still is the name of its headwater. The waterway known as the Lumber River extends downstream from the Scotland County-Hoke County border to the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Soon after crossing into South Carolina, the Lumber River flows into the Little Pee Dee River, which flows into the Pee Dee River, or Great Pee Dee River. Finally, the combined waters flow into Winyah Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1989, the river was designated as a Natural and Scenic River by the North Carolina General Assembly. In addition, it is the only blackwater river in North Carolina to be designated as a National Wild and Scenic River by the Department of Interior. In 2010, the Lumber River was voted one of North Carolina’s Ten Natural Wonders, the result of an on-line contest held by Land for Tomorrow, a coalition dedicated to supporting the preservation of North Carolina’s land and water resources.
This basin covers approximately 3,336 square miles. It has over 2200 miles of streams and over 9800 acres of freshwater lakes and ponds. More than 80% of the basin is considered swamp land. The basin contains all or part of nine counties including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, and Scotland Counties in North Carolina. South Carolina counties in the basin include Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, and Marlboro.
In 2009, leaders of the state-recognized Lumbee tribe, based in Robeson County, North Carolina, passed an resolution asking the legislature to return the river to its ancestral name of Lumbee which was Siouan for "Dark Water". The river has always been known to local American Indians as the Lumbee. In 1952, the tribe officially adopted Lumbee as its tribal name.
Every surficial drainage system is unique and as different from the others as the variation between individual people. Similar to humans, the character and health of each drainage system is dependent upon its inheritance from the gene pool, its physical location relative to the geometry, lithology, and paleotopography of the underlying geologic units and the types, magnitudes, and patterns of energy flow through the ecosystem.
The focus of this earth cache is The Lumber River Basin in North and South Carolina. The headwaters of the Lumber River originate in North Carolina in upper Moore County and southern Montgomery County before crossing over into Marion County in South Carolina. The black waters of the Lumber River Basin incorporate the Lower Coastal Plains of the both states.
Extensive forest communities cover the Lumber River floodplain, including cypress-gum swamp and bottomland hardwood forests. The bottomland hardwood forests of the Lumber River are unique in the Carolinas in containing abundant Atlantic white cedar and live oaks, along with the more typical laurel and overcup oak and loblolly pine. These forest communities provide excellent habitat for wildlife such as bobcat, river otter, and neotropical migratory songbirds.The Lumber River drainage system (LRDS) is situated on the outer coastal plain and on top of a major structural feature called the Carolina Platform. This structural high is the crystalline basement rocks separates the adjacent Southeast Georgia Embayment to the south and Salisbury Embayment to the north. The Carolina Platform is interpreted to be an Early Mesozoic rift, a tectonic block left behind during the continental breakup of North America and Africa as rifting began about 225-200 million years ago. The Carolina Platform is responsible for creating the major seaward protrusion along the mid-Atlantic continental margin that forms a unique coastal system.
Extensive seismic studies on the modern continental shelf suggest the Carolina Platform is a fairly stable structural feature with only minor instability through most of the Tertiary Period of geologic time. Researchers believe that the Carolina Platform is a topographically high erosional feature that formed an oceanic headland and controlled coastal deposition and development of the Carolina continental margin for the last 100 million years. The Carolina Platform is an structural block with an eroded paleo-topographic surface, geologists renamed the topographically highest portion as the mid-Carolina Platform High. Many researchers believe that the emerged coastal plain has been tectonically active initially up warping during the Cretaceous and continuing to rise sporadically through to the Holocene. The Lumber River Basin formed in response to an episodic uplift of the river during the Pleistocene Era. Location of the river terraces along the northeast side of the river valley and the ongoing southwest movement of the river within its valley, suggests that uplift of the arch occurred throughout the Quaternary and continues into here at present.
Cretaceous Period stratigraphic units were deposited over the Carolina Platform and constitute an extensive sediment sequence that forms the geologic framework underlying the Lumber River Basin. Three Cretaceous stratigraphic units form the basement sequence of sediments that occur as seaward dipping units. .
Throughout the Tertiary, shallow marine and coastal sediments were deposited around the headland of Cretaceous rocks occurring on the mid-Carolina Platform High. Most Tertiary units occur as a seaward thickening sedimentary wedge deposited off the northeast flank of the Cretaceous units. These Tertiary units crop out on the continental shelf as they wrap around the seaward nose of the structure. The Lumber River Basin is situated high and along the axis of the mid-Carolina Platform High with no Tertiary units of Paleocene through Miocene age occurring within the region. Thus, there was up to 60 million years of time when the Cretaceous sediments were severely weathered and eroded. Coastal marine sediments were repeatedly deposited during sea-level highstands and severely eroded during subsequent sea-level lowstands. The result is a highly dissected series of Pliocene and Quaternary coastal sediments perched on top of a severely eroded surface with significant paleo-topography and a paleo-drainage system cut into the Cretaceous sediments.
Throughout the Tertiary, shallow marine and coastal sediments were deposited around the headland of Cretaceous rocks occurring on the mid-Carolina Platform High. Most Tertiary units occur as a seaward thickening sedimentary wedge deposited off the northeast flank of the Cretaceous units. These Tertiary units crop out on the continental shelf as they wrap around the seaward nose of the structure. The Lumber River Basin is situated high and along the axis of the mid-Carolina Platform High with no Tertiary units of Paleocene through Miocene age occurring within the region. Thus, there was up to 60 million years of time when the Cretaceous sediments were severely weathered and eroded. Coastal marine sediments were repeatedly deposited during sea-level highstands and severely eroded during subsequent sea-level lowstands. The result is a highly dissected series of Pliocene and Quaternary coastal sediments perched on top of a severely eroded surface with significant paleo-topography and a paleo-drainage system cut into the Cretaceous sediments.
Incised areas occurred in what appears to be the modern Lumber River with its very broad floodplain. However, this valley fill does not all represent modern floodplain and can be further subdivided into the Pleistocene and Holocene period units. Most of the valley fill represents an antecedent floodplain that has slightly higher elevations and is dominated by paleo-channels and associated point bar scrolls. Wherever the modern Lumber River is incised down the channel is wide, deep, and fairly straight with broad sweeping meanders. These channels are usually clay bound along one or more sides and are very high so that they are not over-topped during normal flooding conditions.
Since the entire LRDS is situated on the outer coastal plain, it is a black-water drainage system characterized by low hydraulic gradients and dominated by wetlands. All of these wetland habitats are characterized by high water tables and organic-rich soils overlying clay-based sediments. The LRDS is "a showcase of biological richness" due to the diverse and extensive wetland habitats characterized by a wide variety of plant communities. Land and aquatic life flourishes in the basin.
Two different types of river segments make up the Lumber River Drainage System. They are determined by the underlying geologic characteristics of the antecedent floodplain. Within the portions of the antecedent floodplain where the underlying Cretaceous Period Formation is topographically high, the channel is incised into the rock and forms the straight, wide, and deep rock-bound river segments. Within the portions of the antecedent floodplain where the Cretaceous Formation is topographically low, the modern channel is actively meandering and reworking the old floodplain sediments. This process has resulted in a narrow and shallow, highly sinuous channel that has developed an adjacent zone of low, modern floodplain which is incised into the higher antecedent floodplain. Wherever the modern river channel flows totally within its own active floodplain it constitutes Holocene Period or modern geologic period channel. About 50% of the river length is dominated by an actively meandering channel and associated active floodplain.
By the way, did you know that you live in a river basin? We all do! Everyone lives in a river basin. Even if we don't live near the water, we live on land that drains to a river or estuary or lake. Our actions on that land affect water quality and quantity far downstream. The topography of each basin determines the area that it drains, and whether that water - from creeks, rivers, springs, and aquifers - flows into the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico.
A River basin is the portion of land drained by a river and its tributaries. It encompasses all of the land surface dissected and drained by many streams and creeks that flow downhill into one another, and eventually into one river. The final destination is an estuary or an ocean. As a bathtub catches all the water that falls within its sides, a river basin sends all the water falling on the surrounding land into a central river and out to the sea. The basin valley contains the primary channel occupied by the flowing water on a day to day basis. During specific storm events or during seasonal increases in rainfall, there is too much water for the primary channel to carry. The water flow now spills into a secondary channel, or floodplain. The type of riverine channel and associated floodplain is dictated by the type and load of sediment, frequency and intensity of storm events, geology surrounding the stream valley, and the latitude and elevation of the basin.
The geometry of a drainage basin is like an open-ended, elongated bowl tipped on its edge forming a concave upward slope. The headwaters of the basin consist of many small streams with steep gradients.
The waters in the Lumber River have been under consideration for reclassification as Outstanding Resource Water(ORW). This supplemental classification would designate these water bodies as "unique and special waters having exceptional water quality and being of exceptional state or national ecological or recreational significance". The designation would provide additional protection for the water quality in this system which is home to a large number of rare and endangered aquatic species and includes important associated bottomland forest ecosystems, which possess ualities of state and national significance. Existing threats to the health of the river include pollution from point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants, pollution from non-point sources, such as storm water runoff containing oil, fertilizers, pesticides and animal wastes and runoff of sediment due to soil erosion resulting from development.
The Lumber River drainage system is situated in a growing area of North Carolina. Many large agricultural enterprises and industry concerns affect water usage and waste water discharge. Groundwater discharge (base flow) represents a major input of water into the drainage system. There will also be an ever-increasing impact upon the river system through time. Fluvial geologists are studying the Lumber River Basin Sedimentation to define the problem of sediment pollution by relating it to geologic framework and changing land-use patterns, and to evaluate the long-term impact upon the drainage system as it relates to the geologic framework of the area. Sediment pollution is intimately tied to processes associated with different land uses and patterns of changing land use, which in turn is directly dependent upon the geologic framework of the LRDS.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources(NCDENR) has implemented the Water Quality Index in order to more efficiently protect and improve the quality of North Carolina's surface water resources. This management strategy recognizes the interdependence of water quality and all the activities that occur in the associated drainage basin. One solution to these challenges is Low Impact Development. Low Impact Development (LID) is a comprehensive technology-based approach to managing urban storm water. It combines a hydrologically functional site design with pollution prevention measures to compensate for land development impacts on hydrology and water quality.
Water Quality tests on the Lumber River have shown adequate oxygen levels for the variety of fish, alligator and other wildlife that call the Lumber River Basin home. However, tests have shown levels of toxins that exceed levels for human consumption. This has prompted warning signs to be posted where fishermen launch so that no one consumes too much of chemical levels that have been registered in fish tested along it’s watersheds.
At the NC 71 access point you will visit, the USGS Robeson County and Scotland County routinely sample water to ensure the quality of the water for human consumption of fish and drinking water, recreation and general overall health quality for aquatic life.
To log this cache, email us the answers to the questions below.
1. Estimate the width of the Lumber River from either coordinates provided for the waypoints for River width.
A. 100 feet b. 120 feet c. 150 feet
2. Shoot an elevation from the USGS to see how far above sea level you are.
3.What is the predominant tree along the banks.?
4. What type of sediment is along the banks of the shoreline here?
5. What gives the water its signature brownish color?
Optional: Take a picture of your GPS with the Black Waters of the Lumber River and it’s USGS station in the background.