Revisiting the site of the movie Deliverance | Eastern NC Now

1972 was a very good year for Bobby Tony.

    After the movie Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight was released there was a rush of people from Atlanta to try their hand at the Chattooga River in north Georgia where some of the movie was filmed.

    Tim, myself and another guy form the apartment complex drove up to Clayton Georgia and planned to do some fly fishing and then rent a canoe and take take the rapids tour. They had three levels of rapids from beginner to "you must be this crazy to take this one". The beginner course was enough for us.

    We asked everyone we saw about the movie and most of the good old mountain boys said that was the craziest bunch of people they had ever seen. We finally found a guy who told us that we should check in a boarding house up on the side of the mountain. That was where the main actors stayed.

    We drove up and it looked like it was right out of the movie. I do not know if it was actually the house but they claimed it was. We checked in and they gave us separate rooms on the second floor. When we came down for dinner, it was family style and most of the people were locals. They started telling stories about how wild the film crew was but that both Burt and Jon were very nice.

    They were enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame and really hammed it up with the country mountain persona. After they found out we were from the Atlanta area, they calmed down and we had a good night singing jamming. The banjo player was not there and most of the guys were pretty darn good players.

    The next morning we went down to breakfast and the woman who seemed to be in charge asked us if we slept well. After we said everything was great she said well, you should have; each of you slept in the same room that Burt, Jon and Ned Beatty used. I do not believe it was true but what the heck. Another story I did not have to embellish too much.

    I never did ask who slept in what room but I hope mine was Jon Voight's room. He is a republican you know and I have no idea what Ned and Burt are, but you can't be too careful with those Hollywood Types.

    Below is an excerpt from this link about the river and the rafting

    "The Chattooga headwaters start near Cashiers as a small stream, but Green Creek is the start of the boatable section. Section I is the West Fork and is ideal for tubing and class II float trips.[3] Section II starting at Highway 28 is a class II float.[4] Section III has Class II-IV rapids which rafters and kayakers frequent. The final rapid in Section III is Bull Sluice.[5] Section IV includes Class II-V rapids, including the famous Five Falls (five class III-V rapids in roughly a 1/4 mile stretch).[6] The minimum age requirement to raft Section III is 8, and Section IV is 12. A number of signature rapids on this river were featured in the motion picture Deliverance."