Tobesofkee Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data The National Map accessed April 21, 2011 river in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
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* Related to the ...
Bibb
Bibb may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Bibb County, Alabama
* Fort Bibb, Alabama, constructed in 1818
* Bibb City, Georgia, in Muscogee County
* Bibb County, Georgia
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counties to join the
Ocmulgee River
The Ocmulgee River () is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha.
After 1670 the Lower Creek Trading Path, which linked Creek towns on the Chattahoochee River to the English colonial town of Charlestown, crossed Tobesofkee Creek. The river has been called by several names in the Muskogee language, spoken by
Creek Indians
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsWilliam Bartram recorded the river's name as ''Tobosochte''.John H. Goff, ''Placenames of Georgia: Essays of John H. Goff'', ed. Francis Lee Utley and Marion R. Hemperley (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 37-38.
The meaning of the name ''Tobesofkee'' is unclear, although it appears to contain the word ''sofkee'', a hominy dish that is considered the forerunner of
grits
Grits are a type of porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy – corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Grits are of ...
. The name was first recorded in the 1790s by
Benjamin Hawkins
Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754June 6, 1816) was an American planter, statesman and a U.S. Indian agent He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite ...
, the United States agent to the Creek Indians, who spelled it variously as ''Tobosaufkee'', ''Tobe saufe ke'', and ''Tobesauke''.
In his 1905 study of U.S. place names, Henry Gannett derived the stream's name (which he spelled "Tobesofka") from the supposed fact that "an Indian lost a dish of meal while crossing it." William A. Read later translated the name as meaning "sofkee stirrer," from ''atapa'' (tool for stirring) and ''safki'' (corn gruel). Historian John Goff criticized Gannett's interpretation as "open to doubt" and concluded that, with the available historical sources, "it would be mere speculation to attempt to translate Tobesofkee."
Between 1963 and 1967 the U.S. Soil Conservation Service and the Bibb County Commission built a series of dams on Tobesofkee Creek to form flood control reservoirs, including Lake Tobesofkee and "Little Lake Tobosofkee." The Lake Tobesofkee Recreation Area opened in 1969, and private developers built and sold lakefront houses over the following decades. By the turn of the 21st century Lake Tobesofkee was considered one of the most heavily fished lakes in Georgia.S. Heather Duncan "Report urges expanding size of 16 Georgia reservoirs," ''Macon Telegraph'', 18 November 2008; Kevin Dallmier, ''Fishing Georgia: An Angler's Guide to More Than 100 Fresh- and Saltwater Fishing Spots'', 2nd ed. (Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2007), 220.