Divide Marker to be Dedicated Thursday

The metro Atlanta area’s first permanent Eastern Continental Divide marker will be unveiled and dedicated in a ceremony on the at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22. The monument is expected to attract tourists who would pose next to it for photographs near the edge of the Duluth Town Green at West Lawrenceville Street. 

The footing for the marker has been poured awaiting arrival of the 3,600-pound, nine-foot-tall slender granite obelisk. The marker is 18 inches square at the bottom tapering to 15 inches square at the base of the pyramidium at the top.

The front of the monument has been designed so that the words Duluth, GA, would appear above the head of a six-foot-person posing for a photograph. On the rear would be a map of Georgia showing the location of the Eastern Continental Divide and the rivers in the state. The front of the monument would face the old city hall. The granite for the marker was quarried in Elberton, GA.

Special guests at the unveiling will be Duluth Downtown Development Authority Vice Chairman Rob Ponder and his wife Carmen. Ponder, an architect, designed the marker at no cost to the city. The obelisk is a redesigned version of Ponder’s original concept of a granite monolith that the Duluth City Council thought would block too much of the view of the Town Green and City Hall. At eye level, the obelisk is only 16 inches wide. Ponder’s wife suggested the obelisk as an alternative to the monolith. Eastern Continental Divide enthusiasts Elliott Brack and Jack Yeazel are also expected to attend.

The Eastern Continental Divide runs from Pennsylvania to Florida and demarcates the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico watersheds. If water falls on the east side of the divide it eventually runs into the Atlantic Ocean, whereas water falling on the west side flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

The ECD begins in Pennsylvania and then traverses Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to the watershed of the Kissimmee River, which drains via Lake Okeechobee and the Okeechobee Waterway to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

The Eastern Continental Divide is important to Duluth, according to information provided by the city, because the city owes its location to the railroad. Railroads follow a divide whenever they can as they did in Duluth. Streams do not cross divides, which means expensive bridges and culverts were not required along a divide-centered route. Cities like Duluth grew and prospered alongside the railroad.

The divide route in Duluth runs through the center of downtown where it crosses both the old city hall and the new City Hall. A crack in the steps of old city hall is on the divide. Interestingly, the location of the divide is not fixed in space. It changes as water flow is changed.

The marker is a collaborative project between the DDA and the Duluth Fall Festival Committee. The committee is paying for the marker, estimated to cost $9,700 including the footing, with festival proceeds. “We hope marking the divide spreads to other communities,” said Kathryn Willis, co-chairman of the festival, “but we wanted to be the first to mark it in a significant way.” Lighting for the monument will be installed later.

The divide is presently indicated by a wooden sign on posts next to the Church Ladies consignment shop across West Lawrenceville Street from the Town Green. The location of the sign is not conducive to taking photographs along the actual route of the divide.