The 'Apalachicola River' is a river, approximately 112 mi (180 km) long in the
U.S. state Florida. The river's large watershed, known as the
ACF River Basin for short, drains an area of approximately 19,500 sq mi (50,505 km²) into the
Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its farthest headstream in northwest
Georgia is approximately 500 mi (800 km). Its name comes from the
Apalachicola tribe, which used to live along the river.
It is formed on the state line between Florida and Georgia, near the town of
Chattahoochee, Florida, approximately 60 mi northeast of
Panama City, by the confluence of the
Flint and
Chattahoochee rivers. The actual confluence is submerged in the
Lake Seminole reservoir formed by the
Jim Woodruff Dam. It flows generally south through the forests of the
Florida Panhandle, past
Bristol. In northern
Gulf County, it receives the
Chipola River from the west. It flows into
Apalachicola Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, at
Apalachicola. The lower 30 mi (48 km) of the river is surrounded by extensive
swamps and
wetlands except at the coast. The channel of the river is dreged by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide navigation.
Except for the area around its mouth, the river provides the boundary between the
Eastern and
Central time zones in the United States.
The Apalachicola River is famous for its tupelo honey, a high quality
Monofloral honey, which is produced wherever the
Tupelo trees bloom in the southeastern United States, but the purest and most expensive version (which is certified by
pollen analysis) is produced mainly in this basin and, to a lesser extent, in other panhandle river basins. In a good harvest year, the value of the tupelo honey crop produced by a group of specialized Florida beekeepers approaches US$1,000,000.
[1]
During Florida's British colonial period the river formed the boundary between
East Florida and
West Florida.
List of crossings
See also
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List of Florida rivers
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Voices of the Apalachicola
External links
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Flint-Chatahoochee-Apalachicola basin
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Florida State Univ: Apalachicola River Ecological Management Plan
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Blountstown Bridge
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The Nature Conservancy on the Apalachicola River The river basin is home to a multitude of biological diversity.
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Apalachicola River: an American Treasure