Wetumpka is known for its natural beauty.
From the Coosa River to the impact crater formed 83 million years ago, the area has numerous geographic features many people consider noteworthy.
One geographic feature not mentioned in visitor guides is the 900-mile Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line runs that through Wetumpka and is visible at the last set of rapids on the Coosa River north of Bibb Graves Bridge.
Area resident Joe Champion has studied this geologically diverse area of Alabama for years.
“Many towns were formed because of cross roads or railroads, but Wetumpka and Tallassee are here because of the geography and the ecotone the fall line created,” Champion said.
Champion said an ecotone is a region where there is a transition between two biological communities.
This ecotone can be found all along this fall line that starts around New Brunswick, New Jersey and ends around Tuscaloosa.
Concerning Wetumpka, it is situated along the geographic region of the Piedmont Upland to the North and transitions to softer sedimentary rocks of the coastal plain to the South.
In many cases, towns were built along this fall line, Champion said.
“The fall line was part of what formed cities like Philadelphia, Fredericksburg, (Virginia), Baltimore, (Maryland), Raleigh, (North Carolina) and Wetumpka, just to name a few,” he said. “The fall line influenced where early settlements were located.”
For early European explorers, this fall line was notable because it marked the limits of river travel for ships, Champion said.
“Elmore County is really unique place,” he said. “Lock 31 is there because of the fall line. That’s where everything changes right there. That one spot right there is a paradigm shift.”
Champion said Lock 31 was part of a $6 million project consisting of 31 locks to make the Coosa and Alabama Rivers easier to navigate for steamboats.
According to Champion’s research, the lock was finished in 1896.
He said the items the steamboats shipped up the rivers is what caused the demise of river navigation.
“There was not much of a road structure,” he said. “Steamboats put themselves out of business by bringing timber and iron and railroad supplies up river.”
While the lock appears to be two large slabs of concrete in the river, the project was abandoned because of how quickly trains replaced steamboats as the preferred method of transportation in the late 1800s.
“It took some time to replace steamboats, but if there is one place in this area that defines that it is Lock 31,” he said.
As for the current generation of inhabitants of Wetumpka, Champion said access to modern technology and the ability to change the landscape has made the fall line a geographic feature that does not impact people now the way it did centuries ago.
“I think 200 years ago the fall line was really obvious,” he said. “Today, it’s not much anymore with people moving plants and species around like they do now.”
While civilization has moved plants and animals from one ecosystem to the other, Champion said there is one notable perennial plant that favors growing south of this fall line.
“The cypress trees will not grow north of the fall line and no one really knows why,” he said.
Champion said while his interests are varied, he was drawn to researching natural history and geology due to scuba diving.
“I was diving and I found some petrified wood,” he said. “It kind of went from there. I was seeing things nobody had ever seen before like some old landings. I have about 1,000 hobbies.”
Champion’s natural curiosity has led him to be part of the nonprofit group Main Street Wetumpka.
The group has worked to add Lock 31 to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage and create the Tulotoma Snail Trail.
