The Jim Woodruff Dam was built on the Apalachicola River to create electricity for the region and to aid with flood control. The resulting lake was named Lake Seminole and it borders both Georgia and Florida, has 37,500 acres of water and over 18,000 acres of surrounding land. Extending up the Chattahoochee River 30 miles and up the Flint River 35 miles, Lake Seminole has 376 miles of shoreline. The dam was named in honor of James W. Woodruff, Sr., a Georgia native who recognized the extraordinary beneficial impact that improvements of waterways would have on the Chattahoochee River Valley. An engineer, financier, businessman and philanthropist, James Woodruff already had achieved a level of success few individuals can claim in a lifetime when he envisioned the transforming effect that could be achieved by waterway management in the Chattahoochee Valley.
After spearheading the establishment in 1935 of the Chattahoochee Valley Chamber of Commerce, Woodruff subsequently devoted the remainder of his career in work that promoted a navigable Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola waterway and that provided needed flood control, power and recreation for millions of citizens living and working in this area. His educational background in engineering, his invigorating influence among commercial leaders, and his skill in navigating the Washington D.C. governmental structure culminated in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Project. The Project resulted in the construction of major dams along the Chattahoochee that provided hydroelectric power generation, flood control, and navigation. Appropriately, the first dam built under this project was the Jim Woodruff Dam which was dedicated on March 22, 1957.
This egret was enjoying a fine day of fishing at the Jim Woodruff Dam.