Shoal Creek (Dawson County)
Tucked inside Dawson Forest, Shoal Creek is one of the healthiest streams in the Upper Etowah and a refuge for some of its rarest fish.
Not to be confused with Shoal Creek in Cherokee County, which flows into Lake Allatoona.
A Biodiversity Hotspot
Georgia River Network has called Shoal Creek the “epicenter” of Upper Etowah biodiversity. It holds healthy populations of both the Etowah and Cherokee darters, and federal biologists list it among the few places where Etowah darters are still found in good numbers.
Much of that health comes from protected land. The creek flows through Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area, and land in its watershed has been permanently preserved to offset the impacts of building Hickory Log Creek Reservoir in Canton. Its upper watershed is also designated trout water.
A Surprising History
From 1956 to 1971, Lockheed operated the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory in what is now Dawson Forest, near where Shoal Creek Road crosses the Etowah, to research nuclear-powered aircraft. Today the land is a wildlife management area owned by the City of Atlanta.
A Reservoir That Wasn’t Built
Since the early 1990s, a dam has been proposed near the mouth of Shoal Creek to create a reservoir of 1,200 to 2,000 acres for metro Atlanta water supply. The Georgia Water Coalition named the proposal to its 2011 “Dirty Dozen” list because of the threat to darter habitat. The reservoir has never been built.
How You Can Help
Healthy streams like Shoal Creek are the source populations that could someday help rare fish return to other creeks. Help keep it that way by supporting land protection, respecting WMA rules when you visit, and becoming a UERA member.