Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press Wesley Myers, assistant manager at Cloudland Canyon State Park, speaks about a contest that the park is having to name its two waterfalls. Now they're just called No. 1 and No. 2.

RISING FAWN, Ga.-For thousands of years, water has poured over two unnamed sandstone and shale ledges at Cloudland Canyon, but the waterfalls will not be nameless much longer.

Officials with Georgia State Parks are holding a contest to name the two waterfalls on Daniel Creek in Cloudland Canyon.

Kim Hatcher, spokeswoman for Georgia State Parks, said it's possible someone could come forward during the contest with a documented historical name, but the department doesn't know of any. "In the research that the park has done, they haven't found anything," she said.

Maps handed out at the park's visitor center call the cascades Falls No. 1 and Falls No. 2. Trail signs and another map simply refer to them as First and Second Waterfall. The first falls is about 60 feet high, and the second is about 90 feet, according to park literature.

On Friday, the creek rushed around boulders and hardwoods while a mist from the cascading falls floated around the evergreens.

Hatcher said the parks system held an informal naming contest for a lamb at a South Georgia park, but a contest to name geographic features is a new idea. The person who sends in the winning name by April 15 gets a free stay at the park.

Staff members at the park said they had received nine entries by Friday morning, some from as far away as California.

"More is always better," said Wesley Myers, assistant manager at Cloudland, as water from Thursday night's storms gushed over the falls behind him. "Exposure is a big goal of the contest, just to get people interested in the park."

Myers said his favorite nominations so far were cloud-themed names such as "Cirrus Falls."

Tom Pounds, chairman of the Friends of Cloudland Canyon, said his favorite suggestion has been "Pathkiller Falls," named after an American Indian leader who used to live in the area.

The name is appropriate, he said, because of the 1,200-stair, 35-story climb to get down to the falls and back.

"I love it; I think it's a great idea," Pounds said. "It's a pathkiller getting to the waterfalls."