Tallulah Gorge State Park

The gorge

A gorge 1,000 feet deep, with six waterfalls in a mile

The park surrounds Tallulah Gorge, a gorge about 1,000 feet deep, formed by the Tallulah River. The major attractions are the six waterfalls known as Tallulah Falls, which make the river drop 500 feet over one mile.

1882

A railroad brought thousands of visitors a week in 1882

Tourism grew in 1882, when a railroad later called the Tallulah Falls Railroad was completed to the falls. It brought thousands of people a week. Tallulah Falls was a popular tourist destination, and at one time seventeen hotels and boarding houses catered to the trade. The last train ran in 1961.

1970

A high wire walker crossed the gorge in 1970

On July 18, 1970, the 65-year-old Karl Wallenda walked a high wire across Tallulah Gorge. An estimated 30,000 people watched. He did two headstands as he crossed the quarter-mile-wide gap.

30,000people estimated to have watched the walk

1993

A park was talked about from 1905 and came in 1993

People discussed a park at the gorge as early as 1905. Helen Dortch Longstreet, the widow of the Confederate general James Longstreet, led a campaign in 1911 to have the gorge protected by the state, and it did not succeed. The state park was established in 1993, under Governor Zell Miller, in cooperation with Georgia Power.

The water

A dam holds the river back, and on set weekends it is let go

Upstream, a hydroelectric dam operated by Georgia Power bounds the gorge. Normally the river now flows much lower than it once did. Large releases are scheduled for kayaking and whitewater rafting in spring and fall, and extra releases on some weekends let visitors see what the natural flow would look like.