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Choccolocco Creek

Choccolocco Creek
Map
EtymologyMuskogean: chahko lago ("big shoals/house")
Location
CountryUnited States
StateAlabama
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationNear Liberty Hill, Alabama
 • elevation643.61 ft (196.17 m)
Depth 
 • maximum11.95 ft (3.64 m)
Discharge 
 • locationChoccolocco, Alabama
33°39′48″N 85°41′16″W / 33.66333°N 85.68778°W / 33.66333; -85.68778[1]
 • maximum6,860 cu ft/s (194 m3/s) (May 4, 1957)[1]
Basin features
ProgressionChoccolocco Creek → Coosa River → (joins Tallapoosa River) → Alabama River → Mobile Bay → Gulf of Mexico
River systemMiddle Coosa subbasin hydrologic unit[2]

The Choccolocco Creek is one of two main tributaries of the Coosa River in central Alabama. The watershed of the creek comprises 246,000 acres (376 mi2) of drainage area. The waterway runs through the Talledega National Forest (also referred to as Choccolocco Management Area), and crosses through Calhoun, Talladega, and Cleburne counties, in central Alabama.[3][4]

Hydrology and etymology

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The headwaters of the creek are located in the Appalachian Mountains near Liberty Hill, Alabama, in the Talladega National Forest.[3] The origin of the creek's name is from the Muskogean chahko lago, meaning "big shoals" or "big house".[4]

Ancient sites

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The Choccolocco Creek Archaeological Complex near Boiling Spring, Alabama,[5][a] contains the remains of at least one temple and three burial mounds, and is an important piece of the history of early Middle Woodland period inhabitants in the area.[6] There are indications of land usage along the creek stretching back to the Archaic Period (8,000 BC), that includes evidence of extended habitation by the Mound Builders and peoples of the Mississippian culture.[5]

Creek Chief Selocta Chinnabby's village was located on the north shore of Choccolocco Creek near the influx of Wolfskull Creek,[b] An ally of the U.S., and a friend to Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812, in 1813 he and his tribe helped build a defensive stockade just three miles north of the settlement. Completed in 1813, the fort was known as Fort Chinnabee.[7] Another Native American village further down stream, Estaboga, means "where the people reside" in the Muscogee language. It is today an unincorporated community in Talladega County.[8] Following the Indian Removal of 1836, the creek valley was quickly settled by White settlers.[4][5]

Condition

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The creek is home to over 70 species, several of which are endangered, including the pygmy sculpin (Cottus paulus), the holiday darter (Etheostoma brevirostrum), and the blue shiner (Cyprinella caerulea).[3] The wicker ancylid (Rhodacmea filosa)—a freshwater snail once thought extinct —was surprisingly (due to episodic heavy water pollution events on the waterway) found in the creek in 2011, and is still extant as of 2023.[9][10][11] Environmental concerns in creek pollution have been focused primarily on discharges of Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) into Snow Creek, a feeder stream of the Choccolocco, from the Monsanto plant that had operated at Anniston, Alabama from 1935 to 1971. The dumping and discharges have badly damaged the creek's ecosystem. There were still signs of continuing damage through at least 2007.[12]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Boiling Spring is a few miles east of present day Oxford, Alabama.[5]
  2. ^ Wolfskull Creek joins Choccolocco Creek six miles east of Oxford.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "USGS Data"; accessed January 2023
  2. ^ WaterData; USGS; accessed January 2023
  3. ^ a b c Choccolocco Creek; webpage; Choccolocco Creek Watershed Organization; accessed January 2023
  4. ^ a b c Choccolocco State Forest; webpage; Alabama State Government; accessed January 2023
  5. ^ a b c d The Creek Indians of Boiling Spring, AR; newspaper article; Robinson, Bessie Coleman; "Boiling Spring"; via The Anniston Times, December 30, 1932. via Appalachian History Net; accessed January 2023
  6. ^ "Alabama Mounds : The Choccolocco Creek Archaeological Complex"; Alabama Indigenous Mound Trail website; accessed January 2023
  7. ^ a b Harris, W. Stuart (1977). Dead Towns of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press (January 2023). p. 38. ISBN 0-8173-1125-4.
  8. ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 121.
  9. ^ Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Talladega, a N. E. county of Alabama" . The American Cyclopædia.
  10. ^ Meade, Mark; O'Kelley, Jeffrey; Scull, Greg; and Turner, Josh; Fish Assemblages in Talladega National Forest's Choccolocco, Shoal, and Scarbrough Creeks; Southeastern Naturalist 8:677-686; (2009).
  11. ^ Ó Foighil D., Li J., Lee T., Johnson P., Evans R. & Burch J. B.; "Conservation Genetics of a Critically Endangered Limpet Genus and Rediscovery of an Extinct Species"; via PLoS ONE; volume 6, (5): e20496; (2011); doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020496.
  12. ^ Preliminary Evaluation of the Effects of; via www.cerc.usgs.gov/orda_docs/DocHandler.ashx?task=get&ID=1219; PDF download; accessed January 2023