DELIVERANCE: CLAYTON
Slicing through the Appalachian wilderness along the Georgia–South Carolina border, the Chattooga River rates among the nation’s top 10 whitewater river adventures, attracting some 100,000 visitors a year for rafting, canoeing, kayaking, tubing, swimming, fishing, and riverside hiking. The “Wild and Scenic” river was seen in the movie Deliverance, based on the book by Georgia poet and novelist James Dickey; ever since the movie was released, authorities have been pulling bodies out of the river—not toothless mountaineers but overconfident river-runners who underestimate the whitewater’s power.
The largest town in the area, the down-home mountain community of Clayton (pop. 2,019) is a popular base for excursions into the wild forest and Chattooga River areas. US-441 has grown into an exurban morass of Wal-Mart sprawl, but Main Street, a three-block length of wooden storefronts on a sunny rise just west of US-411, still looks like you could hitch a horse at the curb without attracting much attention. The Old Clayton Inn (706/782-7722) at the center of town has been open for a century or so, though it’s been tidied up considerably in the years since Burt Reynolds and crew stayed here while filming Deliverance on the raging Chattooga.
The smaller Clayton Cafe, 50 Main Street, slings down-home breakfasts, burgers, and other basic diner fare, while south of town the Cookie Jar Café (706/782-6810) at 621 S. US-441 is run by Billy Redden who, in the movie, played one of the porchfront “Duelin’ Banjos.”
Atlanta
