Wheeler Lake HistoryWheeler Lake History Information

1867

Authorization of a Survey of the Alabama-Coose Corridor - Making the Waterway Navigable by Steamboat
Shortly after the close of the Civil War, with miles of southern rail lines destroyed by Union troops, the rivers of Alabama once again became a vital artery of commerce throughout the region.
From Rome to Greensport on the Upper Coosa, the river was virtually clear for navigation with few hidden rocks submerged below the surface. It began to dawn on residents that ferrying the goods of Alabama upstream to be bought and sold in Rome, Georgia had little advantages to the long-term economic growth of the state. However, with long impassable shoals separating Greensport and Riverside on the upper Coosa from Wetumpka on the lower Coosa, there was no downstream market alternative. The Lower Coosa, for all intents and purposes, ran smack into a rocky dead end. (Jackson)
These treacherous shoals started downstream of Greensport with Embry Bend and Broken Arrow Shoals. But it was below where the bridge crossed the river connecting Talladega and Shelby counties that the wild water began. The names of these shoals accurately depicted their hazardous nature.

The Narrows
Devil’s Race
Butting Ram Shoals
Hell’s Gap
Peckerwood Shoals
The Nigger
Closet
Moccassin’s Reefs
Devil’s Staircase

In 1867, Alabama legislators set out to resolve this dilemma by authorizing a survey of the Alabama-Coosa corridor with the intention of making the waterway navigable for steamboat traffic. The budget for this survey was set at $3,000.

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