Amicalola Falls

This was taken at Amicalola Falls State Park in 2004. The 729 foot waterfall is the tallest cascading falls east of the Mississippi. The beautiful falls and park are in the middle of the Chattahoochee National Forest.

I have seen it written that the name is Cherokee for “tumbling water.” Actually, it comes from the Cherokee words “a-ma u-qua-le-lv-yi.”The “a-ma” means “water.”The other part means something like “place where it makes a rolling sound [like thunder].” As we can see, the original pronunciation got botched up quite a bit when it was taken over into English.Still, a “place where water makes a rolling thunder” is not a bad name for a major waterfall. [Source: chenocetah.wordpress.com}

One Response to “Amicalola Falls”

  1. 27 May 2008 at 2:35 am Cherokee Place Names in the Southeastern U.S., Part 2 « Chenocetah’s Weblog
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    […] AMICALOLA: From the Cherokee words “a-ma u-qua-le-lv-yi.” (There is that locative -yi again!) The “a-ma” means “water.” The other part means something like “place where it makes a rolling sound [like thunder].”As we can see, the original pronunciation got botched up quite a bit in this one when it was taken over into English. Still, a “place where water makes a rolling thunder” is not a bad name for a major waterfall. A good photo of the falls can be found at dawnmorningstar.wordpress.com. […]

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