Taken and Delivered - Southern Water, Southern Power - page 137

Southeastern Expeditions (Terry and Woodward). 62 The film, however, introduced the river
to a much larger and more inexperienced throng of leisure and thrill seekers. After Deliver-
ance popularized the Chattooga's wild rapids—with Terry, Woodward, and Kennedy hired
as body-paddler-doubles for Jon Voight and Ned Beatty—river visitation jumped to an es-
timated 21,000 visitors in 1973. 63 The movie infected would-be paddlers with a “Deliver-
ance Syndrome” that led many to their deaths, according to Terry. 64
Recreation, risk, and tragedy nudged the Chattooga closer to formal wild and scenic
river designation. According to a Georgia Outdoors writer, the movie spawned traffic jams
“and all but choked every access point; the river filled with jaunty adventurers in varied
vessels—in kayaks and canoes, in rafts and rickety inflatable contraptions—each seeking
in one way or another to prove himself (or herself)” equal to star Jon Voight or the oth-
er lead superstar. On screen, Burt Reynolds was the movie's wet-suit-clad, cigar-smoking,
bow-hunting-survivalist, and whitewater-paddling embodiment of 1970s masculinity. The
Chattooga's popularity, however, led to an increased number of recreation-related fatalities
on the river. The banks “echoed the calls of search parties seeking the remains of those
whose carelessness or naiveté proved terribly expensive,” according to T. Craig Martin. 65
Some whitewater guide companies, including Claude Terry's newly established Southeast-
ern Expeditions, and other paddling clubs had formed explicitly to provide visitors with
a safe introduction to the river. But not all river-runners sought guides or advice, and the
mounting recreational dangers and a proliferation of guide services ultimately contributed
to the river's use, abuse, and upgrade from study river to full wild and scenic river. In re-
sponse to the hordes and persistent lobbying by advocates and agency staff, in May 1974
the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River became an official component to the national system
of protected rivers. And with congressional authorization, the Forest Service deployed river
ranger staff and instituted a permit system to better manage guide companies and individu-
al river-runners. 66
Saving the Chattooga in the 1970s—made possible by the combined efforts of the Forest
Service, the Georgia Power Company, and new environmental institutions—was clearly
not entirely about saving wilderness. When the river was officially folded into the National
Wild and Scenic River system in May 1974, the end of the designation chapter signaled
a general agreement over the river's unique qualities. But the management chapter chron-
icled the deteriorating relationship between the river corridor's users and managers. The
public and private network that shifted the Chattooga from a study river to a wild and scen-
ic river did so in a self-contained manner that increasingly alienated a body of local river
enthusiasts. According to Max Gates, the first official Chattooga Wild and Scenic River
ranger, “mostly outsiders” supported the river's designation. The former Sumter National
Forest (S.C.) land manager explained that the Forest Service sponsored multiple, well-ad-
vertised public meetings in three counties in the three states adjacent to the Chattooga River