LUMPKIN, Ga. (WALB) — Providence Canyon State Park draws more than 100,000 visitors a year, but the Southwest Georgia landmark was not carved by nature—park staff say poor farming practices in the 1800s created the red-sand gullies that grew into one of Georgia’s Seven Natural Wonders.

Providence Canyon, located in Stewart County, spans roughly 1,000 acres of shifting iron-rich sand and clay. The canyon exposes four distinct geologic layers: Ripley Formation, Providence Formation, Baker Hill Formation and the Clayton Formation—dating back nearly 80 million years ago.

“It really didn’t start anything like the Grand Canyon,” said Reba Bolton, assistant manager at Providence Canyon State Park. “In the early 1800s, it was caused by poor farming practices. They didn’t do any kind of crop rotation. They were farming up and down the hillsides. And every time it would rain, water would run down the hill in between the crop rows, creating gullies. And eventually those gullies turned into the canyons that you see today.”

How Providence Canyon formed

Bolton said what surprises most visitors is what the walls of Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon” are actually made of.

“Ours is really not even rock,” she said. “When you’re looking at the canyon walls, it’s 43 different colors of sand and soil that can be found. You can’t find anything like this anywhere in the southeastern U.S. at all.”

The canyon is still actively changing. Park crews say it continues to erode by roughly two feet a year—and they replaced about 150 feet of fencing in the past year alone to protect fragile areas.

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Local history

The site also carries a sense of local and national history.

An old home site sits on the far side of the park, and a church—Providence Methodist Church—was moved three times as the canyon expanded around it.

The canyon’s origins also caught the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used the eroded landscape to strengthen calls for the 1935 Soil Conservation Act.

“Everything in here reminds you of this old-style life,” Teel said.

Bolton, who has worked at the park for six years and lives on the property with her family, said the park’s setting has become personal.

“My daughter gets to grow up here, so that’s the best part,” Bolton said.

The rare endangered flower you can only find at Providence Canyon

Providence Canyon is also home to one of the rarest plants in the Southeast: the plum leaf azalea, an endangered species found only in southwestern Georgia and southeastern Alabama.

“We have the rare endangered plum leaf azalea here. It can be found in the bottom of the canyon. It’s actually blooming right now,” Bolton said. “The plum leaf azalea blooms after all other azaleas have been done blooming. They only bloom for about two weeks.”

The flower draws researchers from across the region. Bolton said state botanists and graduate students visited recently and spent about three hours studying the plants in the canyon.

The park also hosts a plum leaf azalea festival each year, typically around July 18 or 19, with guided tours into the canyon to see the blooms up close.

What to know before you hike Providence Canyon

The hike into the canyon is steep and demanding, park staff say.

“It’s very hot, and it’s very steep going down. It’s going to be rocky and you’re going to be walking through red Georgia clay,” Bolton said.

Michael Teel, who has worked at the park for 13 years and serves as captain of the debris team for Georgia State Parks, said the volume of visitors makes safety a constant priority.

Staff perform two or three rescues a week during warm months, most often for heat-related illness. Teel urged visitors to come prepared.

“We just advise people to bring plenty of water with them when they come to do the hike,” he said. “We make probably two or three rescues a week. And that is, luckily, a lot of times, it’s just getting somebody that’s overheated. Sometimes it’s somebody that gets a heart attack. So please, just hydrate when you come.”

Things to do at Providence Canyon

Listed among Georgia’s Seven Natural Wonders, Providence Canyon offers events year-round, including a painting contest, a foot race, astronomy nights with the Coca-Cola Space and Science Center and a Junior Ranger Academy.

You can see the “Little Grand Canyon” yourself with a drive of just over an hour from Albany.

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