Big Creek (Georgia)

This article is about the North Georgia creek. For the Forsyth County community, see Big Creek CCD, Georgia.
Big Creek aka (Vickery Creek)
Vickery Creek at entrance to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Roswell, Georgia
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationSouthern part of Cumming, Georgia just west of U.S. Route 19[1]
 • coordinates34°11′25″N 84°08′32″W / 34.19028°N 84.14222°W / 34.19028; -84.14222
 • elevation1210 ft.[1]
Mouth 
 • location
Chattahoochee River
 • coordinates
34°00′18″N 84°20′57″W / 34.00500°N 84.34917°W / 34.00500; -84.34917
 • elevation
853 ft.[2]

Big Creek or Vickery Creek[2] is a 26.5-mile-long (42.6 km)[3] stream in Forsyth and Fulton counties in Georgia. The creek mouth into the Chattahoochee River is located at the southern border of Roswell where State Route 9 crosses the river. Its source is located just north of the intersection of Georgia State Route 9 and Georgia State Route 20, in Forsyth County, about 1 mile directly south of downtown Cumming.

Vickery Creek is named after a Cherokee woman named Sharlot Vickery who lived in present-day Roswell and owned much of the land around the creek. The creek was originally called Cedar Creek; however, the name was changed to Vickery some time after the arrival of Roswell King and family in 1834.[4]

The creek also became known as Big Creek at some point after the American Civil War.

Mouth of Vickery Creek at Chattahoochee River, Roswell, Georgia USA

Much of the land east of the creek and west of Grimes Bridge Road in Roswell forms the Vickery Creek unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Upstream of the covered bridge and Ivy Mill is a man-made waterfall. Big Creek Greenway is an under construction multi-use trail with two completed sections along Big Creek (formerly known as Vickery Creek). The creek has a history of flooding along the local bike path: the Greenway along Big Creek in Alpharetta near Mansell Road.[citation needed]

Hog Wallow Creek is a major tributary that enters in Roswell, just north of the Chattahoochee River.

References

  1. ^ a b Cumming, GA, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1999 (2003 rev)
  2. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Vickery Creek
  3. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed April 15, 2011
  4. ^ Darlene M. Walsh, ed. (1994). Roswell, A Pictorial History (2nd ed.). Roswell Historical Society. ISBN 0-9615854-2-0.

Bibliography