Constitution Lakes (South River Brick Co. pits)

From the air

Water rose sharply between 2001 and 2005, drowning forest and joining the old brick pits into one connected wetland, with no dam and no visible cause.

First seen

In 1940 a large pale pit floor is visible, dry-looking; open water is first clear in 1968.

Dam in the lidar

No dam or retaining embankment was found. The pits sit on a broad, flat river terrace with no berm, spillway or breach at the outlet. The county's 2024 lidar smooths over the water, so a low berm under the surface cannot be fully ruled out.

Low water and drawdowns

• 1955 possibly: Most pits look pale and grainy with no dark water, so they were probably dry or grassy. Low confidence; not a managed drawdown.
• 1968 to 1972 possibly: The south pits look like pale mud and marsh with only small dark pools. This appears to be a dry or marshy state, not a drawdown. Low confidence.
• 1993: The south pits are pale bare mud and dry flats, while 1981 showed open water. Probably a dry spell or silting; no managed drawdown is implied.

Read from aerial photos taken between 1940 and 2026 and from DeKalb County 2024 lidar, then checked by a second reading. How the photos were read.

History

Constitution Lakes are flooded red-clay pits dug for the South River Brick Company, which a blog and Paste Magazine date to 1892 and which other sources say failed around 1907. A family homestead and a dump later used the land. DeKalb County bought it in 2003 and made it a park. Sources disagree on when brickmaking ended and on acreage (125, about 143, 200 or 267). The public National Inventory of Dams file lists no dam here; these are excavation ponds beside the river. 12345678

Who built it

Excavation pits, not an impounded stream. The South River Brick Company dug red clay from the South River floodplain for brickmaking, and the pits filled with water when digging stopped. Rails-to-Trails says the company began in the late 1800s and went under in 1907. A blog gives the founding as 1892 by owners J.R. Knapp and S.F. Cain, chosen for railroad access, and Paste Magazine also says 1892. A 2025 journal article says the company made nearly seven million bricks a year by 1897. 2345

Timeline

1. 1892South River Brick Company founded, per a blog naming owners J.R. Knapp and S.F. Cain (railroad access) and Paste Magazine, which says it was founded to compete with convict-labor firms like Chattahoochee Brick. No primary record found; owner names rest on the blog alone. Likely 54
2. 1897A 2025 journal article says the company was making nearly seven million bricks a year by this year. Likely 3
3. c. 1890s-1909Chattahoochee Brick Company, the convict-leasing firm, puts work crews on clay properties along the South River in DeKalb County. The record does not say which parcel or dates. 9
4. 1902A blog says Chattahoochee Brick bought adjacent land and cut South River Brick off from major roads in 1902. The 2025 article says only that Chattahoochee bought land around the lake, cutting off its clay, with no date. Uncertain 53
5. 1907Rails-to-Trails says the South River Brick Company 'went under in 1907'; the 2025 article ties its collapse to the 1907 financial crisis. Likely 23
6. September 1908Georgia legislature abolishes the convict lease system; Chattahoochee Brick gets ninety days to move to free labor. Regional context for the company's competitor; the source does not mention South River. 10
7. 1909, 1915, 1929Blog summary: original owners sold in 1909, the new owner went bankrupt in 1915, and Chattahoochee Brick bought the land in 1929. Conflicts with other closure dates; unverified. Uncertain 5
8. c. 1959Friends of Constitution Lakes wrote in 2009 that the brick operation shut down 'nearly 50 years ago,' which conflicts with the 1907 collapse date. Uncertain 1
9. Late 1950sA Black family settles on the land and runs a bait and supply business, overseeing the lakes as a local fishing spot, per a 2025 article citing a 2014 History Atlanta piece. Likely 3
10. 1960s'According to neighbors,' the family's store was burned down in a racially motivated attack, the 2025 article says. It cites no other record; a small concrete slab, possibly marking the site, bears a 'Homestead Ruins' sign. Uncertain 3
11. After brickmaking ended, before 2003A homestead on the property, lacking garbage service, used part of the land as a dumping ground. Likely 23
12. 2003DeKalb County buys the property (the Friends group says 125 acres) and adds a parking lot, a paved walkway and a boardwalk. Likely 1115
13. February 2011Carpenter Joel Slaton begins the Doll's Head Trail from dumped objects he found in the park; a county parks leader approved it formally in 2012. 122
14. March 15, 2015History Atlanta leads a Constitution Lakes and Dolls Head Trail walk for the Atlanta Preservation Center, covering Native American history, convict lease labor and brickmaking. 13
15. 2021A storm buckles the boardwalk and knocks down railing sections, according to a Paste Magazine piece. Likely 4
16. February 3-18, 2022DeKalb posts a notice that Georgia DOT project PI 713300 (I-285 at Bouldercrest Road interchange) needs about 5.30 acres, 3.7 percent, of Constitution Lakes Park as permanent right-of-way. Comments close Feb. 18; the park is to stay open during construction. 14
17. May 2022A DeKalb County committee agenda (file dated May 26, 2022) lists boardwalk repair services at Constitution Lakes Park awarded to JOC Construction, LLC, not to exceed $422,066.03. Completion not confirmed. 15
18. August 2022 to 2024GDOT awards the I-285 at Bouldercrest Road interchange contract (about $90.7 million) to C.W. Matthews; a July 2024 update reports construction in progress. Neither source mentions the park. 1617
19. June 6, 2026Georgia Conservancy and DeKalb Parks hold a volunteer trail-clearing and habitat day at the park. 18

Names

Constitution Lakes Park

Official DeKalb County park name; address 1305 South River Industrial Blvd SE. 214

Constitution Lakes Park and Wilderness Area

Title of a commercial listing (Yelp); not seen on the county's own page. 19

Constitution Lake (singular)

Used by the 2025 PIR article; the plural is the county's and the Friends group's usage. 3

South River Brickworks / South River Brick Company site

Name of the industrial operation whose clay pits became the lakes; used in the 2015 History Atlanta tour listing. 133

Doll's Head Trail

Found-object art trail inside the park, begun February 2011 by carpenter Joel Slaton; not the name of the lakes. 122

Rail Ridge Trail

Trail name used in the 2015 tour listing for the walk through the old brickworks area. 13

Homestead Ruins

Sign name at a small concrete slab that the 2025 PIR article says possibly marks the site of a family's store or homestead. 3

The dam

No dam is documented. The lakes are flooded clay pits. The public National Inventory of Dams bulk file (data updated Sept. 23, 2026) has no record named for this site and no dam within about 3.5 km of the coordinates except Lake Charlotte Dam (GA01954, City of Atlanta, a different lake about 1.2 km away in Fulton County). NID lists only dams above size thresholds, so a small pit berm would not appear. Georgia EPD Safe Dams was not checked. 8

Around the lake

Water

The pits sit in the South River floodplain. River flooding still deposits debris that feeds the Doll's Head Trail (per Rails-to-Trails and CNN accounts of found objects), and a 2021 storm damaged the boardwalk. The Muscogee name for the river, Weelaunee, is glossed as 'brown water' or 'green-brown water.' The park is named among existing greenspaces in the proposed South River Forest.

Civil War

No 1864 lines are documented at the lakes. Hardee's column stopped at Intrenchment Creek, at William Cobb's mill on Key Road (listed at 1510 Key Rd), at dawn on July 22, 1864, then marched toward Bald Hill. By a Census geocode of that address, the mill site is roughly 1.4 miles north-northeast of the lakes. No source ties the column to the lakes themselves.

Segregation

A 2025 article reports that a Black family ran a bait and supply store here from the late 1950s and that, according to neighbors, it was burned in a racially motivated attack in the 1960s. No other record is cited; only a slab is reported. Paste says the company was founded to compete with convict-labor firms like Chattahoochee Brick, which used convict labor; the 2025 article found no direct documentation of convict leasing at the South River site.

Before 1861

Sources say the Muscogee called the South River Weelaunee, before the removals of the 1830s. The 2025 article says the wider South River Forest area was once a site of Muscogee soapstone production and trade; that is uncorroborated here and not tied to the lakes. Cobb's Mill, operated by DeKalb pioneer William Cobb, stood nearby on Intrenchment Creek. No land-lot or early road records for the lakes were found.

Visiting

Today

Constitution Lakes Park (DeKalb County) off South River Industrial Boulevard, with ponds, a boardwalk and the Doll's Head Trail.

Getting there

Public DeKalb County park at 1305 South River Industrial Blvd SE. Free parking at the trailhead; guides and Rails-to-Trails describe a paved, wheelchair-accessible path from the lot to the lake and boardwalk, with natural-surface trails beyond. Hours: ATLnature, Hiking Atlanta and AtlantaTrails say 7 am to sunset; Rails-to-Trails says it closes at dusk; the county's park page lists no hours. A 2021 storm damaged the boardwalk and a 2022 county agenda lists a repair contract. A March 2026 visitor review called the park in good condition. On July 24, 2026 the entrance was blocked during a police investigation; reopening was not confirmed. An Atlanta police range next door is audible at times.

What you can see

Two former clay-pit lakes with a boardwalk and wetland, bricks and tile fragments, an old well and trough along the trail, a concrete slab signed 'Homestead Ruins,' and the Doll's Head Trail found-object art. One hiking guide says a trail leads on to a railroad trestle over the South River. Do not dig or collect anything; the site is a public park.

What to look for

Brick rubble along the trails; steep-sided pit ponds; excavated basins cut into the South River floodplain in lidar.

Look, don’t dig. Parks, cemeteries and preserves are off limits to digging and collecting, and private land needs the owner’s permission to enter.

Open questions

• Where 'Constitution' in the name comes from; no source found for the origin.
• When brickmaking actually ended: 1907, 1909, 1915, 1929 and c. 1959 all appear, with no primary source.
• Whether the 1892 founding, the Knapp and Cain ownership and the 1902 road cutoff hold up in contemporary newspapers or deeds.
• Whether the Chattahoochee Brick clay crews on the South River were at this parcel, and whether South River Brick ever used convict labor.
• Who owned the land between the brickyard's end and 2003, and what DeKalb paid.
• Which acreage is right: 125 (Friends group, Rails-to-Trails), 200 (Paste, TNC), 267 (ATLnature); the GDOT notice's 3.7 percent figure implies roughly 143 acres for the county park parcel.
• Whether the 1960s arson account is recorded in any news, police or oral-history source.
• Whether the 2022 boardwalk repair contract was carried out and when the boardwalk was rebuilt.

Know something? Write to hello@historyunderfoot.org. Family papers, photos and deeds often settle these.

Where to look next

• Connor Lee, History Atlanta, 2014 article on the South River Brick Company (cited by the 2025 PIR article for the 1950s family; the site blocked fetches by robots rules) (historyatlanta.com, tag South River Brick Company)
• Search 'South River Brick Company' in Georgia Historic Newspapers for 1892 incorporation, 1897 output, 1907-1915 sale or receivership notices (Digital Library of Georgia, Georgia Historic Newspapers)
• Chattahoochee Brick Company records, 1821-1941, including deeds and indentures for land acquisition in the greater Atlanta area; ask whether any cover South River property or a 1929 acquisition (Atlanta History Center Kenan Research Center)
• Historic American Landscapes Survey GA-7 on Chattahoochee Brick, which mentions crews at South River clay sites in DeKalb County (Library of Congress)
• UGA 1938-40 DeKalb County aerial photographs, to see pits, kiln area and rail spur before the lakes matured (UGA Libraries aerial collection)
• Georgia State University 1949 Atlanta aerials, for the pits, homestead and the post-1950s fishing camp (GSU Library Special Collections)
• USGS topographic map editions of the South River at Bouldercrest Road quadrangle, to date when pits appear as ponds (USGS historical topographic map collection)
• DeKalb County Superior Court deed and plat records for the 2003 purchase, and county parks and greenspace records (DeKalb County Clerk and Parks Department)
• Oral histories from neighbors and the Friends of Constitution Lakes about the fishing camp and the store (DeKalb History Center; Friends of Constitution Lakes)

Sources

1. About | Friends of Constitution Lakes Friends of Constitution Lakes (2009)
2. Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail Is an Eerily Cool Trailside Attraction Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (2020)
3. Restorationland: The Lost & Found Objects of Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail PIR journal (Tom Fish, 2025)
4. Constitution Lakes Is My Favorite Place in Atlanta Paste Magazine
5. Doll's Head Trail at Constitution Lakes - Atlanta, GA Finding Family Adventures (blog, 2021)
6. South River Atlanta Urban Conservation The Nature Conservancy in Georgia
7. Constitution Lakes ATLnature
8. National Inventory of Dams bulk download (data updated 2026-09-23) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
9. Chattahoochee Brick Company, HALS GA-7 written historical and descriptive data Library of Congress, Historic American Landscapes Survey
10. Chattahoochee Brick Company New Georgia Encyclopedia
11. A Closer Look into Constitution Lakes Park: Exterior Built Environment Description Georgia State University student blog (2016)
12. Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta CNN Travel
13. South River Brickworks and Doll's Head Trail tour (March 15, 2015) Atlanta Preservation Center
14. Georgia DOT Project PI 713300: notice of impacts to Constitution Lakes Park DeKalb County (2022)
15. PECS Committee Agenda, May 26, 2022 (boardwalk repair contract, Constitution Lakes Park) DeKalb County
16. I-285 at Bouldercrest Road C.W. Matthews Contracting
17. I-285 at Bouldercrest Road Interchange Improvements update, July 2024 Metro South CID
18. Constitution Lakes Trailblazing Project, June 6, 2026 Georgia Conservancy with DeKalb County Parks
19. Constitution Lakes Park and Wilderness Area (Yelp listing title) Yelp