As the Upson County government website notes: Sprewell Bluff Park is one of Georgia’s best kept secrets and is known by locals as the hidden gem.
Historically, this natural feature of the Flint River was important to the Creek Indians. When they were forced to cede all their lands between the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers to the United States in 1825, it was opened to settlement.
It was named for Jeptha Simeon Spruiell (1784-1873), a native of Abbeville County, South Carolina, who came to Georgia’s western frontier sometime before 1850, in what was then part of Talbot County. Spruiell was a successful farmer who understood the economic potential of the bluff area, which was a busy crossing on the Old Alabama Road.
Straddling the Fall Line and providing a mountain-like environment in west central Georgia, Sprewell Bluff is one of the most interesting natural areas in the Piedmont region. The Flint River here is quite different than at its southern extremes in Georgia, characterized by rocky shoals and sheer rock walls along its banks.
Located about 10 miles west of Thomaston [take Georgia Highway 74 to Old Alabama Road, then turn onto Sprewell Bluff Road], the site has been as popular a landmark in the modern era as it was to the indigenous people who lived here for centuries before White settlers arrived.
As Atlanta’s population exploded in the early 1970s, the Army Corps of Engineers sought to build a dam at Sprewell Bluff, but thanks to strong local opposition and the personal intervention of Governor Jimmy Carter, the proposal was officially tabled in 1974.
Georgia Power has owned the site for many years and in the early 1990s leased it to the state of Georgia as a day-use state park. This arrangement didn’t prove too popular as there were no employees on-site full time, and beginning in 2013, Upson County assumed responsibility for managing the property. A trading post is located on Sprewell Bluff Road, and is the check-in point for the park. An amazing overlook deck is located there. Sprewell Bluff Park is a truly magical place for fishermen [especially with its population of Shoal Bass], paddlers, swimmers, hikers, campers, or anyone wanting to take in the awesome landscape.
Check out the linked article. Apparently the shoal bass was only considered a separate species in 1999. I can see from the pictures of the river in that article why this would be such a popular place. Kudos to Governor Carter for stopping that dam!
Have fished the Flint River more times than I can count in my 73 years. I never heard of a “Shoal Bass”. Mind you, I didn’t say there was no such thing- just that I never heard the name. We used to catch a hybrid smallmouth bass down around Albany and in Lee County that was commonly known as the “Flint River Bass”. Probably the same species. If you caught one that weighed 2-3 pounds it fought like a largemouth bass that weighed twice as much.