More than a year from completion, Great Falls whitewater park is progressing on time

A whitewater center offering hiking, fishing, rafting, kayaking and canoeing in the Chester County town of Great Falls is set to open in August 2022, and representatives say that construction is progressing on schedule.

By that time, driving through Great Falls over Highway 97, visitors will be able to look over the Catawba and see the river alive with activity, project manager Tim Huffman said.

The project, called the Great Falls-Dearborn Development, has broken ground. It is backed by the town of Great Falls and Duke Energy.

The Nitrolee Access Area, where visitors can park and launch their boats, will be the first piece completed. A grand opening has been planned for July, Huffman said.

The Access Area will host a visitor center where visitors can learn about the history of Great Falls, a town where buildings date back to the Revolutionary War, Robert Long, director of Chester County Economic Development, said.

The land has been cleared and the parking lot, which will have spots for 100 cars and buses, is coming to fruition.

Return of ‘Great Falls’ breaks ground

At the site Wednesday, the beginnings of a boardwalk for visitors to carry their boats into the water could be seen. The platform where boaters will put-in is complete.

The construction crew onsite set a goal of finishing the platform construction by March and were able to meet that goal, representatives said.

The project may even be completed ahead of schedule, Glinda Price Coleman, executive director of the Great Falls Home Town Association, told the Herald.

It has been nearly four decades since textile mills pulled out of Great Falls and left its economy depressed. And nearly a century since the 50-foot Great Falls of the Catawba, the town’s namesake, was cut off by the construction of dams to power the mills.

Now, Duke Energy will divert water back to the channels and bring wildlife, fishing, canoeing, kayaking and whitewater rafting. And the waterfall will flow again.

There will be two channels: A shorter channel for more intense rapids and a longer channel for a more “relaxing” experience, will be created, Huffman said.

Carolina Thread Trail and a state park

Within a year of the project’s completion, the site will be connected to the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional network of “connected greenways, trails and blueways that reaches 15 counties,” according to the trail’s website.

The trail should bring extra tourism and offer a year-round option for visitors when it’s too cold to be in the water, Long said.

The trail will also connect the Nitrolee Access Area to another put-in area for boats in lower Great Falls, Crawford said.

This diversion will recreate Dearborn Island, which existed originally due to the diverging channels off of the Catawba River.

Duke Energy also will provide funding to the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism to help the state develop a state park there. Duke will build a pedestrian bridge to provide access to the island, said Kim Crawford, spokesperson for Duke Energy.

This will most likely be the final stage of the project, completed sometime in 2023, Huffman said.

Revitalizing Great Falls

The Great Falls-Dearborn Development will be a welcome rebirth for Great Falls, said Glinda Price Coleman, executive director of the Great Falls Home Town Association, a nonprofit that focuses on the town’s economy.

Since the mills closed in the mid-1980s, “the town has been economically depressed,” she said. Data produced by nonprofit American Whitewater estimates that from whitewater activities alone, the development will bring $3.1-$4.6 million to Great Falls annually, and Coleman guesses it will probably exceed that.

Long says that the county is working to produce a fiscal study and determine the revenue this project will bring to Great Falls.

“It will be complementary to the white water center in Charlotte,” Long said. And it will provide an option for residents who want to canoe or kayak but find other spots on the Catawba overcrowded.

Long said the return of the waterways will revitalize the community of Great Falls.

“This is an opportunity to get to re-ignite that connection back between the Great Falls community in the river in the white water,” he said. “I think there’s also opportunities for us to help revitalize parts of the town of Great Falls.

“There are some great opportunities right there for craft breweries, restaurants, some shopping opportunities. You have these folks visiting, not everybody’s going to be kayaking. There’s gonna be opportunities for these folks to spend some time and some money. That’s fantastic for the community.”

Coleman said she hopes people will be enticed to move to the small town -- which is conveniently located off of Interstate 77 halfway between Charlotte and Columbia -- and commute to work.

A long time coming

Plans to bring nature-based tourism to Great Falls began in 2000, Coleman said.

A new license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has allowed Duke Energy to provide enhancements to water quality, giving the green light to this project, Crawford said. Duke can now control the flow of water to the channels.

In 2003, Great Falls and the Great Falls Home Town Association were named as stakeholders in the re-licensing process. For Duke Energy to utilize the town’s resources (which include 3 dams and 5 power plants) for commerce, the company agreed to give back to the community -- which included providing recreation.

While planning began in 2006, the licensing for the project was not complete until 2015. “And the clock didn’t really start ticking on the process until 2017,” Coleman said.

Now, change is on its way.

This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 1:28 PM.