It's remembered as "a wet Woodstock" and "Freaknik minus the traffic," but if you really want to understand the cultural phenomenon that was the Ramblin' Raft Race, look no further than the decade in which it thrived.

The annual Memorial Day weekend Chattahoochee River "race" — more like a crawl and less competitive than spring training baseball — served as the unofficial kickoff to summer for Atlantans throughout the 1970s. At its peak, more than 300,000 rafters descended upon the once-sleepy Chattahoochee, and they brought the freewheeling, free-lovin' era along for the ride.

George Clark/AJC (ENLARGE)

"It was all good, clean fun," Roswell airline pilot and raft race veteran J.J. Jordan said between chuckles. "Man, everyone was there. It was like a week of Spring Break crammed into one day."

Bill Mahan/AJC (ENLARGE)

'There were no rules or regulations,' said Jerry Hightower, a ranger with the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area who attended all but the first two years of the race. "It came out of that Woodstock mentality, the whole back-to-nature mindset."

RELATED LINKS: • Photos | Submit your river race photos! Recent headlines: [an error occurred while processing this directive]    • Metro and state news

"There were no rules or regulations," said Jerry Hightower, a ranger with the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area who attended all but the first two years of the festival. "It came out of that Woodstock mentality, the whole back-to-nature mindset."

Inhibitions were left ashore as rafters meandered along the scenic course from Sandy Springs to Vinings. Clothes were shed, grass was smoked and authorities consented to look the other way.

"It was all good, clean fun," Roswell airline pilot and raft race veteran J.J. Jordan said between chuckles. "Man, everyone was there. It was like a week of Spring Break crammed into one day."

Fittingly enough, a group of Georgia Tech fraternity brothers originated the event. About 500 people participated in that first race, held 39 years ago tomorrow. "The next year, we had over 1,000," said Larry Patrick, who now raises catfish on the Broad River in Kings Mountain, S.C. Word quickly spread as radio station WQXI became a sponsor and promoter. By the mid-70s, hundreds of thousands of revelers were crowding the Chattahoochee to either watch or participate. That year, the Guinness Book of World Records dubbed it the world's largest spectator sporting event.

One of the race's more wholesome trademarks were the clever and often elaborate raft designs. Patrick recalled his first vessel, "built with cross ties." A department store mannequin served as the makeshift figurehead.

There were Tiki huts, improvised Titanics and even automobiles floating down the 'Hooch. Some structures took months to realize, though most rafters opted for a humbler craft.

"I remember seeing so many guys just sprawled out on an inter tube with a cooler of beer tied to the back," Jordan said.

The easygoing vibe began to change in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed a bill creating the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. New management took over, and before long the feds were openly fretting about controlling the "thousands of beer-swilling, dope-smoking rafters," as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1980.

Citations for drunk and disorderly behavior started to be issued. Then, in the event's final year, a rafter drowned, the only fatality recorded in the festival's history.

After the 1980 race, officials informed organizers they would no longer pay for security and cleanup. "The budget had for it had grown so big, it was just hard to keep up," Patrick said.

An inevitablity, perhaps, as the times were a rapidly changin'. Hot tubbing and hip huggers were out; aerobics and designer jeans, in. Sobriety replaced frivolity. A popular song declared, "it's hip to be square."

Casual debauchery and rafting were no longer hip.

"The race had begun to set a tone that wasn't the best for the river," Hightower said. But it's impact extends beyond hazy memories of a bygone era.

"There's no doubt the festival helped the Chattahoochee become what it is," he said. "Before it started, the river was under assault by developers. It was almost forgotten. Now you had a whole generation of people who were taking in the extraordinary beauty of the place."

Patrick and his old frat buddies still get together to reminisce. "We sit around telling stories all afternoon into the night," he said. No hyperbole necessary.

"It was such a good time for so many people," Patrick said. "We look at each other and say, 'Man, didn't we have fun!' "