The St. Marys River (named Saint Marys River by the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

,) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed April 21, 2011 river in the southeastern

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. The river was known to the

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...

as Thlathlothlaguphka, or Phlaphlagaphgaw, meaning "rotten fish". French explorer

Jean Ribault Jean Ribault (also spelled ''Ribaut'') (1520 – October 12, 1565) was a French naval officer, navigator, and a colonizer of what would become the southeastern United States. He was a major figure in the French attempts to colonize Florida. A ...

named the river the Seine when he encountered it in 1562. From near its source in the

Okefenokee Swamp The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000-acre (177,000 ha), peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia–Florida line in the United States. A majority of the swamp is protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Ref ...

, to its mouth at the

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, it forms a portion of the

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between the

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s of

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and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Part of the river runs along the southernmost point in the state of Georgia. The St. Marys River rises as a tiny stream flowing from the western edge of Trail Ridge, the geological relic of a barrier island/dune system, and into the southeastern Okefenokee Swamp. Arching to the northwest, it loses its channel within the swamp, then turns back to the southwest and reforms a stream, at which point it becomes the St. Marys River. Joined by another stream, Moccasin Creek, the river emerges from the Okefenokee Swamp at Baxter, Florida/Moniac, Georgia. It then flows south, then east, then north, then east-southeast intersecting

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

near Yulee, and finally emptying its waters into the Atlantic, near St. Marys, Georgia and

Fernandina Beach, Florida Fernandina Beach is a city in and the county seat of Nassau County, Florida, Nassau County, Florida, United States, in the state's northeastern corner. It is the northernmost city on Florida's Atlantic coast, situated on Amelia Island, and is o ...

Name

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names discourages the use of apostrophes in place names, including St. Marys River.

1805 incident

On 6 July 1805, Lieutenant Robert Pigot of arrived off the harbour in the French privateer schooner ''Matilda'', which the British had captured three days earlier. On 7 July Pigot took ''Matilda'' up the St Marys River to attack three vessels reported to be there. Along the way militia and riflemen fired on ''Matilda''. Eventually the British reached the three vessels, which were lashed in a line across the river. They consisted of a Spanish privateer schooner and her two British prizes, the ship and the brig ''Ceres'', which the Spanish privateer had captured some two months earlier. The Spaniards had armed ''Golden Grove'' with eight 6-pounder guns and six swivels, and given her a crew of 50 men. The brig too was armed with swivels and small arms. The Spanish schooner carried six guns and a crew of 70 men. Pigot engaged the vessels for an hour, and then after ''Matilda'' had grounded, took his crew in her boats and captured ''Golden Grove''. The British then captured the other two vessels. Lastly, Pigot fired on a group of 100 militia, with a field gun, dispersing them. The British had two men killed, and 14 wounded, including Pigot, who had received two bullet wounds to head and one to a leg. A crowd of Americans on the Georgia side of the river watched the entire battle.

War of 1812

See Battle of Fort Peter

Literature

Martin, Charles. ''Where the River Ends''. New York, Broadway Books, 2008. . An artist and his dying wife fulfill her wish of one last canoe ride from the headwaters of the St. Marys to the sea.

List of crossings

References

External links

State of Florida
Guide to the St. Marys River * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marys River (Florida-Georgia) Rivers of Florida Rivers of Georgia (U.S. state) Borders of Florida Borders of Georgia (U.S. state) Rivers of Charlton County, Georgia Bodies of water of Nassau County, Florida Rivers of Camden County, Georgia Bodies of water of Baker County, Florida Inlets of Florida