Morgan Falls Overlook Park Site Visit

As part of the Driving Tour, the team met with the Sandy Springs Conservancy at the Morgan Falls Overlook Park in Sandy Springs. The new 30-acre riverside park includes picnic pavilions, playground with wheelchair friendly equipment, dock, hiking trail, boat rentals and a large public fire pit with expansive views of the Chattahoochee River as it enters Morgan Falls Reservoir. The Power Cabin chimney still stands next to the fire pit, a remnant of the Power’s family home that once stood at the site. The Power family were early settlers of the area, when the Chattahoochee River was the western border of the United States with the Cherokee Nation on the other side of the River. The site was part of the Hightower (Etowah) Trail – a trading network for the Creek and Cherokee nations locally and expanding into Canada and Mexico.

In the early 1900’s, that land was sold to the Morgan Smith Company and the Atlanta Water and Electric company to build the Morgan Falls Dam. The dam powered the streetcars of Atlanta, encouraging outdoor leisure culture outside the city limits. Today, the dam still generates electricity and the reservoir, also known as Bull Sluice Lake.

The reservoir provides a popular destination for boating and includes unique wetlands areas that are habitat for a variety of wildlife, including beavers, muskrats, waterfowl, songbirds, migrating birds, and numerous species of fish, reptiles, and amphibians. The Sandy Springs Conservancy is championing the popular idea of constructing a pedestrian bridge that would unite public amenities on both sides of the River, connecting to the Hyde Farm property just south of Morgan Falls Dam.

This site visit was part of the 100-mile Windshield Driving Tour – a multi-day driving tour along the banks of the full 100-mile river corridor from December 10-14, 2018. The tour allowed the Design Team to ground truth GIS data with on-the-ground site explorations, photography and video documentation. The Design Team engaged with the community members and interviewed stakeholders on the river as face-to-face research that informs the project and forces an authentic identity for the Chattahoochee RiverLands Greenway. Download the full summary of the tour to learn more.