South River Forest

The South River Forest or Weelaunee Forest is a forested area in southeast DeKalb County, Georgia, United States outside Atlanta named after the nearby South River. The area itself is made up of disparate forested regions. The forest once held a prison farm, and it is a proposed site for a police training facility that has garnered protests.

History

The Muscogee Creek people inhabited the area—which they referred to as the Weelaunee Forest—until they were forcibly displaced in the 1820s and 1830s. Inscribed stones from a Carnegie library are among items dumped in the area.[1]

In 1999, Jillian Wootten wrote a historical analysis of the honor farm facility in the forest.[2] Plans to officially designate the area as a national park began in the early 2010s; a smaller portion of it was designated the South River Park in 2017 by the Atlanta City Planning Commissioner Tim Keane.[3]

The Old Atlanta Prison Farm is located in the forest, and an 85-acre police training facility was proposed for construction at the site in 2021. A decentralized protest movement called Stop Cop City formed in opposition to the construction of the facility—which opponents commonly refer to as Cop City.[4] Several protestors were arrested[5][6] and one protester, Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, was killed by police in the forest in January 2023.[7]

There have also been plans since 2022 to allow Shadowbox Studios (previously known as BlackHall Studios) to build on the land containing the prison farm; planned construction includes a sound stage which, if built, would become the largest in the United States.[8]

See also

References
  1. Bethea, Charles (August 3, 2022). "The New Fight Over An Old Forest In Atlanta". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  2. Wootten, Jillian (November 5, 1999). "An Historical Analysis Of The Atlanta Prison Farm" (PDF). dekalbhistory.org. Dekalb History Museum. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  3. Ruch, John (June 6, 2021). "South River Forest: A big green dream starts coming true". Saporta Report. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  4. Fassler, Ella (December 21, 2022). "Activists Occupying The Woods to Block 'Cop City' Face Terrorism Charges". Vice. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  5. "Protesters arrested after chucking Molotov cocktail at police over planned APD training facility". WSB-TV. May 17, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  6. Crosbie, Jack (September 3, 2022). "The Battle for 'Cop City'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  7. Massie, Graeme (2023-02-10). "Video of 'Cop City' activist shooting suggests officer was injured by friendly fire". The Independent. Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  8. Gant, Mia (April 12, 2022). "Injustice Hidden Deep in Atlanta's Forest: The Old Atlanta Prison Farm and the South River". sites.gsu.edu. Georgia State University. Retrieved January 19, 2023.


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