The Altamaha River Swim of 1997

Kenneth A Suttles | Altamaha River in Georgia

The mighty Altamaha, aka the little Amazon. The largest free flowing river east of the Mississippi and Georgia’s greatest natural resource. It’s delta is one of the largest on the east coast. Truly a very special place that pulls at me everyday.

I was a 8th grade science teacher trying to teach an environmental lesson and telling the kids to find their talents and use them to make a difference. I was challenged to use my talents and an idea was born. I was a swimmer in my youth and and this crazy plan to build a raft , have a couple of students as raft hands, and scout out the full Altamaha River was born.

To make a long story short. We did it! Thirteen days and over 140 miles we arrived at Fort King George in Darien with the cannons booming and a welcome party of local officials, friends and family.

I think we had some impact on helping people understand the glory of this wild place and shined a light on the few point source pollution sites that still disgrace this holy place.

We had a dozen or so newspaper interviews along our way and even a few local TV stations covered our mission.

It was a great trip!

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