The Chattooga River may have been added to the National Wild and Scenic River inventory just in time. Known to only a few hundred whitewater river rafters in the 1960s, the 1970s book and motion picture Deliverance introduced the Chattooga to remainder of America.
   Criteria for National Wild and Scenic River stipulates that the river be free flowing, generally inaccessible and essentially primitive, and unpolluted. The task force began its study on the Chattooga in 1969. Its designation of Wild and Scenic was applied in May, 1974. It wasn't long until 50,000 whitewater enthusiasts flocked to the Georgia-South Carolina border, enjoying a lazy ride on the upper sections of the Chattooga. Section IV, just below U.S. Route 76, is where the Chattooga is the best. Rapids with a rating of Class IIIs and IVs are common. Pictured here is just upstream of section IV with a baptism of extreme rapids. Here rafters and kayakers are introduced to the Bull Sluice. This stretch of class IV+ rapids exhibit some of the most exciting whitewater in the Southeast, coupled with some of the most scenic portions of the river in the Sumter National Forest. With today's rafting crowds surpassing 100,000, it should not be totally unexpected that this dangerous part of the river has claimed two dozen river-rafters, known as the Deliverance Syndrome.

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