This ancient rock dam, hidden within a 1,600-acre woodland, is known by all who have hunted the fox and coyote through the Belle Meade Hunt country in Thomson, Georgia. Which means it’s dearly familiar to the Belle Meade members and has been seen by a thousand foxhunting visitors from at least fifty different hunts from fifteen separate nations! It appears to the rider as he or she drops down to a water crossing, looks to the side, and beholds the massive rock-faced cliff standing over its pool in complete concert with its natural surroundings. One is often on the move while hunting at Belle Meade, with little chance to stop and absorb the peaceful beauty of the scene, which disappears behind just as suddenly as it revealed itself. So let’s pause for a moment in this off-season and let Master Epp Wilson tell us what he has learned about it.
The Rock Dam on Maddock’s Creek, McDuffie County, Georgia, is a magical place. Some like vanilla, some like chocolate, but everyone likes or loves the Rock Dam. History. Water. Strength. Engineering. It is truly timeless and holds something for everyone, young and old. City person or countryside person. If there is one place that we could say is the most popular place in our hunting country, the Rock Dam is it.
Brief History
Wrightsboro, Georgia was settled by groups of Quakers and non-Quakers in 1768. The original group of Quakers came from England with William Penn in 1682 and settled in Pennsylvania. Among them was Joseph Maddock, Sr. His son, Joseph Maddock, Jr., moved to a Quaker settlement in Hillsboro, North Carolina where he built a rock dam on the Eno River and established a thriving business. This mill had a tannery, a blacksmith shop, a corn grist mill, a wheat grist mill, and a sawmill.
After several years of persecution and unfair taxation by Royal Governor Tryon, Joseph Maddock, Jr. and Jonathan Sell petitioned Georgia’s Royal Governor James Wright for land. This land became the Wrightsboro land grant, named for Royal Governor Wright, who was kindly disposed towards Maddock and his group.
The land grant was done in stages. Eventually, it totaled over 100,000 acres and included land from Little River north of Wrightsboro to south of Sweetwater Creek near Brier Creek. The land grant was approximately the footprint of present-day McDuffie County.
Maddock built two mills and dams. The first was on Sweetwater Creek near present-day City Pond which supplies the City of Thomson with much of its municipal water. He built the second dam―our dam―in 1771 about two miles east of Wrightsboro on the creek named for him.
The Rock Dam is 226 feet long and fourteen feet high. It backed up over six million gallons of water, and diverted water into a mill race about one-quarter-mile long and leading to the mill. The race was used because there was not enough fall at the dam to generate enough force to turn the wheel and run the mill. The race and the mill foundation stones are still there.
In the mornings, they would open the sluice gate and let the water run down the race to the mill. The excess water went over the top of the dam, which it still does today. If they opened the gate too wide, too much water came and would erode the race. If they did not open it wide enough, there was not enough water to turn the wheel fast enough to run the mill.
The mill ran continuously from 1771 until the great spring flood of 1930 when it washed away. This was the last big flood that devastated Augusta. Clarks Hill Dam was built in 1954 to provide flood control.
There were about twenty dams that were built on various creeks in McDuffie County before 1870. Our ancestors did not have Georgia Power or Atlanta Gas for power to run the mills at that time. The only major source of power was water.
It is remarkable that of all the dams built during that one-hundred-year period, this is the only one still almost completely intact. Most of the others barely show the footprint of the original dams if anything at all—a tribute to the stalwart, determined men that built ours. Maddock had only been here three years when he selected this site on this creek to build this dam.
He must have had a wonderful eye for engineering as there were no USGS topographical maps of the area. There were no airplanes or helicopters to fly over this vast wilderness to help locate the best site. Maddock had to ride a horse along the creeks to find just the right spot…this spot…where a solid rock foundation stretched across the creek valley almost the full 226-foot length of the structure.
It is also remarkable that all three of the dam sites upon which Maddock built have a dam on them today. The Rock Dam is original. His dam on the Eno River was washed away in a flood and replaced by a new dam for municipal water. And his dam on Sweetwater Creek is the site of the current City Pond for the City of Thomson. Once again this proves his eye for the best dam locations. (Pun intended!)
Like any structure, the Rock Dam has required maintenance over the years. Boone Knox, owner of the property, recalled during high school helping his father and a crew to repair the dam. Many stones had been washed off the top of the dam through the years. They mixed the mortar, relayed the stones, caulked the cracks, and restored the structure.
In the summer of 2001, a flash flood swept across McDuffie County and washed out several County roads. Boone Knox watched the torrent of water coming over the dam. The dam was not visible at all. It was just a speed bump under the raging river. The next day he called me and asked if I would organize the Belle Meade Hunt members and restore the dam again. Over the preceding fifty years, a few stones had fallen away here and there, but the flash flood had damaged the structure to the point that major work was needed.
Hunt members and friends responded and over several weekends we managed to restore the dam. Andy Knox was one of the main stonemasons. We used tractors and front-end loaders to lift the fallen stones from the creek. Some stones were too large for us to move even with several strong men with pry bars. It made us wonder how the settlers managed with no tractors or hydraulics. All they had were mules and brute strength and determination. They could not drive to Lowe’s and buy cement. They had to make it. They did all this while trying to raise a few crops and feed their families in the wilderness.
The three main settlers and leaders of Wrightsboro were Joseph Maddock, Jonathan Sell, and Tom Watson. During the restoration project, we began to delve deeper into the history of the dam and the people of that era. It turns out that Ann Eliza Maddock, the granddaughter of Joseph Maddock, married John S. Watson and had five children. Their second son, John Forrest Watson, was the grandfather of Masters James Wilson, founder of the Belle Meade Hunt.
Among their other descendants are David Joesbury, Chris Mohr, Tad and Tom Watson Brown, and many more local characters. My father had told us of our family’s Watson and Wilson ancestry here in McDuffie County dating back to before the Revolution. Now we know about the Joseph Maddock connection as well. Naturally, this made the restoration project all the more intriguing, fulfilling, and personal for my children, Wendi and Chase, and me.
The Rock Dam is a wonderful landmark. It is a tribute to those stalwart men and women who settled this area and paved the way for us. They loved this land of rolling hills and beautiful fields and forests. They realized that this was God’s Country—and worthwhile maintaining.
Posted May 25, 2021