It could not match the fabled searches for the source of the Nile in the 19th century, but a proposed expedition to investigate all 16 miles of the Cooper River in Camden County can declare some lofty aims.

By kayaking, climbing and bushwhacking their way from the Cooper’s confluence with the Delaware River at the metropolis of Camden to its supply at Gibbsboro to the south, contributors hope to attract consideration to a neglected purely natural gem that has been obscured by a gritty city landscape, and to transform it into the recreational asset they imagine it ought to be.

While Cooper River Lake in close proximity to the river’s northern conclusion has turn out to be a well known attraction for water athletics together with countrywide rowing competitions, most of the river is an obscure, meandering stream which is navigable by kayak for some of the way but occasionally blocked by fallen trees and piles of trash.

Credit rating: (Upstream Allliance)

The occasion, titled “Search for the Cooper River,” is currently being headed by Don Baugh, president of Upstream Alliance, a nonprofit that works to join people with character and create recreational alternatives in normal parts these types of as the Delaware River basin. He hopes to stage the expedition in September or Oct, based on the availability of funding.

Contributing to ‘Camden Rising’

Baugh hopes to set a nationwide precedent by opening up the river, and showing that it can have