CCC History: Gary Gurkin And The Battle Of Bull Sluice by Robert Martin
| River: | Chattooga |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 01/01/2003 |
Prior to 1969 the Chattooga River area of North Georgia was an isolated, close community that few people, outside relatives of the families who lived there, new much about. Then came the movie Deliverance and the area was changed forever. It became a wild lawless place as thrill seekers from all over the world rushed to this river to experience the excitement and beauty it offered. As long as your vehicle didn’t pose a traffic hazard, you could camp anywhere you could set up a tent, free. This free camping and absences of law enforcement officials lasted much longer than it could have, but eventually the outlaw days came to an end. The Battle of Bull Sluice was one of the pivotal events that bought and end to the lawlessness and the free camping.
The battle was between paddlers camping on the South Carolina side of the river and a group of heavily armed and severely intoxicated men on the Georgia side of the river. Although the paddlers were unarmed and disunited Gary Gurkin, through his brave and decisive actions, rallied the paddlers to victory.
The party was going strong on the Georgia side of the river as the paddlers began to turn in for the night. They had a blazing bonfire and from the sounds of empty beer cans hitting the rocks the Georgia boys seemed to be going strong. The shooting started at around 10:30 with sporadic rifle and pistol shots. By 11:00 the gun fire grew so intense you could hear the rounds clicking through the trees, ricocheting off the rocks and thumping into the dirt around the tents. All the paddlers were hunkered down hoping the barrage would let up when the Georgia boys ran out of ammo or passed out.
Then during one of the brief lulls when they were reloading, Gary heard the unmistakable sound of an empty whiskey bottle being smashed against rock. “That’s it!” Gary raged. “This river is dangerous enough without having to worry about cutting open your feet on some jack ass’s whiskey bottle.” With that Gary crawled out of his tent into the night and started making his way down towards the river, using rocks and trees as cover. You see, Gary speaks Redneck and was quite sure that these guys were unaware that there were people in the line of fire, and that if he pointed this out to them they would stop. When Gary reached the river and hailing distance of the enemy camp he yelled “Hey Ya’ll.” The enemy camp went silent. “There must be a dozen campsites along this side of the river. Ya’ll need to stop shootin’ over here!” The silence continued as the Georgians considered Gary’s proposal. Until Gary heard the unmistakable sound of six spent cartridges tinkling off the rocks. “They’re reloading!”
Gary told himself has he scrambled back to safety behind a mound of dirt. As soon as he reached safety a fuselage erupted from the enemy camp. They were shooting into the treetops with everything they had. It was then that Gary went for reinforcements. He drove almost to Clayton before he found a phone. He called the Rabun County Sheriff’s Department and told them his story. “We’re bringing those guys in now. Another camper called us an hour ago.” The deputy said. “Would you mind coming down to the county jail and identifying these guys?” Gary agreed and continued on to the Rabun County Jail where he met the sheriff. “These boys are from Atlanta” He said. “We don’t have any trouble with the local boys. They know better.” He added. He bought Gary to a jail cell that held the perpetrators. “These are the guys we picked up, do recognize any of them?”
Gary looked in the cell and said “What the hell happened to ‘em?” ”They resisted arrest” was all that the sheriff said. They were so badly beaten that even if Gary had gotten a good look at them he wouldn’t have recognized them. Gary told the sheriff that he was sorry but it was too dark and they were across the river from him. He quickly left the Rabun County Jail hoping to never return.
Thus the battle ended along with an era…..but a legend was born. Author’s notes: The Battle actually took place at Sandy Ford but Bull Sluice has a better ring to it. Gary may say I’m making some of this story up but he’s just being modest.