Missing hiker’s body found at bottom of Tallulah Gorge, Georgia officials say
The body of a missing hiker has been recovered from the bottom of Tallulah Gorge in Georgia, officials said.
Around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, game wardens with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources got a call about a missing hiker in Tallulah Gorge State Park, according to a news release from the department. They “completed a hasty search” of trails around the gorge with Rabun County search and rescue crews but found no signs of him.
They later found his vehicle in the parking lot of the park’s Interpretive Center, the DNR said.
Shortly after 11 p.m., crews used a drone to search in the gorge and found a body at the bottom — about 150 feet from the top of an overlook, according to the DNR.
At 7 a.m. on Oct. 30, crews resumed the recovery operation after pausing the previous night because of “darkness and poor weather conditions” and completed a “manual longline recovery of the body” at 11 a.m., the DNR said.
The body was identified as 39-year-old William Lang Pottle, according to the department. He was from Brookhaven.
His body was turned over to the Rabun County Coroner’s Office, the DNR said. Officials are investigating the incident.
No other information had been released as of Nov. 1.
Tallulah Gorge State Park is in Tallulah Falls, which is in northern Georgia near the South Carolina border. The gorge is 2 miles long and nearly 1,000 feet deep, and the park includes “rim trails to several overlooks.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 10:23 AM with the headline "Missing hiker’s body found at bottom of Tallulah Gorge, Georgia officials say."
