Butts-Bibb County GaArchives News.....THE RAGING OCMULGEE March 1881
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 March 15, 2004, 11:03 am

Middle Ga. Argus – Week of March 24, 1881
THE RAGING OCMULGEE
THE GREATEST FLOOD EVER KNOWN IN THE RIVER – PARK AND FIELDS, HOUSES SWEPT AWAY 
AND LIVE STOCK LOST BY HUNDREDS.

Never in the history of Macon has the Ocmulgee raged and boiled with such fury 
on yesterday.  Its natural current was turned into a flood that swept by the 
city with the force of a deluge.  The water flowed in angry torrent that seemed 
determined to sweep away everything before it.  Houses, cows, horses and other 
animals dashed by on the stormy boson of the Ocmulgee like so many feathers.

On Thursday, the 17th, the Ocmulgee River at this point rose near to the high 
watermark of the Harrison freshet of March, 1841, and on the day following it 
was above that memorable mark and reached within an inch and a half of the 
great centennial freshet of April 1876.  On Thursday night the rise continued 
very heavily along the three tributary streams that from the river, which so 
increased the volume of water that it rose above the highest mark ever recorded 
by our most ancient and honorable human aquatics, the water having risen three 
inches above the centennial and eight inches above the Harrison mark.

Friday night the clouds poured a perfect deluge upon the city and the very 
heavens seemed as if they would be washed from their foundations.  This mighty 
flood of water, of course, swelled the Ocmulgee greater than ever, so with the 
coming of yesterday morning, the river presented a view never before seen in 
Macon.  The water rolled up into the park washing clear across the mile track.  
We took a drive through the park yesterday with Mr. Clay and found the water at 
the park gate nearly at the hub of the wheel, while just behind the grand stand 
the water came nearly into the buggy.  All the flowerbeds are perfectly 
submerged.  East Macon nearly to the factory is submerged, while boathouses, 
etc., have been swept away.

Thousands of people visited the river during the day and many took boat rides 
where only the day before were houses and gardens.  Such a sight has never 
before occurred in these parts in the recollection of the white men.

Yesterday afternoon the waters began to fall, and no doubt during the night 
will recede a considerable distance.  Much damage has been done in the fields 
along the river.

The river has been so full of water for so long a period as during the last 
four months, nor was there ever so many freshets in one season along its 
course.  The present freshet is the fourth once since last November, and each 
one is noted for its great volume of water.  The Ocmulgee takes its name from 
the Indian Oc or Och, which signifies water, and Mulgee, babbling or boiling; 
the name was applied from the many springs that were found along its course and 
whose pure waters flowed into its channel.  One of its tributaries heads in 
Fulton and the other two head in Gwinnett County.  The three streams unite 
about fifty miles above Macon, northwest of Monticello.  Small boats of fifty 
tons, more than fifty years ago navigated these tributaries.




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