Has anyone here heard of Lake Lanier? It is a man made lake located in Forsyth County, GA

[CatWoman]

I remember hearing about the lake occasionally, as there was a massive drought here around 2007 and the water had evaporated to the point you could see parts of the submerged interstate road pavement signs.

Then I remember hearing about it when the entertainer Usher's stepson was killed there by someone on jet skis.

But it just keeps popping up in the news as it has an unnatural death count.

As a matter of fact the most recent drowning was yesterday as a man went under while swimming from the shore out to his boat and never reappeared above the surface.

I'm not a native Georgian, so I decided to do a little research.

That area was originally called "Oscarville" and had a thriving African American population. The population was destroyed by white mobs in the early 1900s and the residents had to flee with little or nothing but the clothing on their backs. Whole businesses, farms, homes, property etc. were forfeit. White citizens seized the property of those who fled, and over the following decades, the government began buying up the land. Oscarville effectively became a ghost town. After the 250 families who remained were forced out for the lake’s construction, the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t even bother to demolish Oscarville.

The remains of Oscarville, GA was flooded in the 1950's creating the lake and reservoir. The lake was named for a confederate veteran and was officially named Lake Sidney Lanier. One of the main purposes of the lake is flood control of the Chattahoochee River downstream, mainly protecting metro Atlanta.

Since Lake Lanier was created in 1956, an estimated 700 victims have died in its waters — and some people even believe this reservoir is cursed. More than 200 people died at Lake Lanier between 1994 and 2022, according to USA Today and Georgia DNR. In 2018 and 2019, there were 8 drownings each. In 2020, there were 7 drownings; 4 drownings in 2021; and 6 drownings in 2022. There were 48 additional deaths (boating fatalities) for those same years.

Some say the lake is haunted. Due to the displaced cemeteries and unmarked graves Lake Lanier submerged during its creation, the body of water is rumored to be haunted with ghosts. Phil Torres, on an episode of Expedition X, performed a dive on a submerged cemetery and discovered tombstones that had not been disturbed, complete with mementos left by loved ones, suggesting that the government did not relocate graves as promised. The ruins the town sit beneath its surface, still complete with intact streets, businesses, and homes. These structures may entrap swimmers and divers, causing them to drown.

The underwater ruins only explain some of the deaths, however. There have also been dozens of freak accidents, electrocutions, boat fires, missing people, and other tragedies at the reservoir — which makes the mystery of the Lake Lanier deaths all the more complicated.


Bottom line -- there is no effing way I would visit that place, much less get into the water.

[SoFlaBro]

1. Fucking MAGA talks more shit than a toilet salesman. Piss on those fucking turds.

[nolabear]

4. Replying to the wrong post?

[nolabear]

2. Oh yeah, people have been leery of it for a long time.

[wordstroken]

3. We stayed in an RV park near Lake Lanier a while back.

Remember the area as calm and peaceful. Didn’t know its history.

Appreciate your interesting and educational post, CatWoman.

[Cattledog]

5. Yep, never swim out in the open water

too much stuff under water to get caught in. A guy just died there the other day swimming back to his boat.

[Mopar151]

6. So, how many Oscarvilles, Greenwood(Tulsa), Rosewoods were there?

How many Ludlow, CO strike camps? Battles of Blair Mountain? 1st Columbine massacre?

It's no wonder these cretins are trying to bury history - a lot of their ancestors turn out to be real shitheels! Sumbitches want to whine about culture wars and furrin terrorists - this is what good 'ol American terrorisim has looked like, since we ran the British occupation troops out!

[CatWoman]

8. when I started reading up on the history

I called my grand daughter and told her this sounded just like Black Wall Street Rosewood.

Indeed - just how many were there?????

[rubbersole]

14. Native Americans have a serious beef with "our history".

Howard Zinn set the record straight. "A People's History of the United States."

[barbtries]

16. been thinking about this book lately.

I think I'm going to get copies of it for all of my grandchildren for christmas this year.

[rubbersole]

17. Hurry before it gets banned by President DeSantis.

Oh, wait...

[CatWoman]

19. Forsyth County was the home of the Cherokee Nation

and they were forced out and marched into Oklahoma during the disastrous "Trail of Tears"

Fucking Andrew Jackson

[MaryMagdaline]

7. Yes. I grew up in Macon. I wasn't familiar with the curse but with a horrible murder

took place there. I can’t remember the victim but the murderer’s father was in law enforcement and turned the murderer in.

[CatWoman]

9. Stone Mountain here

also did research on Stone Mountain and the confederate carving.

[MaryMagdaline]

10. Shout out to Stone Mountain

I’ve been gone from GA for many years. Hope we keep the blue streak going

[GeorgiaBoomerGirl]

35. You may be thinking of the Lake Juliette murders

near Macon in 1995.

[MaryMagdaline]

39. You are so right, GeorgiaBoomerGirl

It was Lake Juliette. Thank you for correcting the record.

[LeftInTX]

11. We have Lanier High School here. Named after the same guy.

My father in law went to school and graduated in 1949.
It's a very Latino school in a very poor area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanier_High_School_(San_Antonio)

Sidney Lanier High School is a local public high school of the San Antonio Independent School District in the westside of San Antonio, Texas (United States). Serving the San Antonio Independent School District, Lanier has an enrollment of 1,547 students. For the 2021-2022 school year, the school was given a "C" by the Texas Education Agency.

Sidney Lanier High School serves 9th through 12th grade students and opened in 1915 as McKinley Elementary School. In 1923, McKinley was renamed after Confederate poet Sidney Lanier in accordance with the District's practice of naming the junior schools after American authors. Lanier was a junior-senior high school from 1929 until 1969, when Tafolla Middle School opened. The new Lanier Campus, on the site of the old school, opened in 1975


From 1967 to 1969, a group of students challenged and changed the curricular structure because of vocational tracking and insufficient academic college preparation. Student leaders, including Homer Garcia, Edgar Lozano, Stephen Castro, and Irene Ramirez, challenged the authority of the school and staged a walkout that catapulted Sidney Lanier into the limelight and forced the district to adapt to changes. Other students involved indirectly were members of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) started by Mario Compean, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and Ignacio Garcia, all students at St. Mary's University. Student leaders from Edgewood High School and even former Central Catholic High School students contributed ideas and participatory support. School administrators appointed Pablo Ortiz as Student Council President after Homer Garcia was deemed too disruptive and radical. Later, school administrators bowed to student and community pressure, conceding to demands. Even though a massive walkout was averted, some students did stage their protest march and left campus during lunch. Ultimately, the legacy benefited students so that more scholarships were awarded. The 1969 graduate, Homer Garcia, forged alliances with other campus leaders and graduated from the University of Texas and received a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University. Other alumni from that year went on to author books and became professors and writers (Rafael Castillo, Ignacio Garcia, David O. Martinez and Daniel Hernandez). Rafael C. Castillo's (2023) "Dostoevsky on Guadalupe Street: Writings from the Edge" highlights some of those events and insight into the culture of social protest activity from a literary perspective.

In 1970, Lanier became one of the first schools in the U.S. to offer mariachi classes due to the efforts of education advocate Belle Ortiz. Classes spread to other districts and schools, remaining in the curriculum well into the 2020s.[citation needed]


__________

Lanier was a private. He caught TB, then taught school and was on faculty and Johns Hopkins and died of TB at age 39. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Lanier

[cannabis_flower]

21. There was a middle school in Houston

named after Lanier. It was the only renaming of Confederate named things I disagreed with. He was known more for his poetry than his Confederate service. And since he was only a private his service might have been motivated by something other than preserving slavery or state’s rights - such as earning a living. I believe I also later renounced his service in the Confederacy.

[LeftInTX]

27. Lanier in SA would never change it's name. There's too much pride and not due to Sidney Lanier.

It's name recognition and the fact that it's the "school of hard knocks".

"I went to the worst of the worst, I went to Lanier". That's what my FIL used to say and that's what everyone still says. And then of course there's the litany of what Lanier didn't have.... OTOH, it has a culture associated with it too, such as many students live in housing projects, when my FIL went, having water delivered to their homes and not having indoor plumbing, being in the heart and culture of the barrio right off of Guadalupe St. It's steeped in culture.

If they can't say they went to Lanier, they would lose part of their identity. It defines their zip code: 78207.

&t=164s

[ananda]

33. Yeah, I did my student teaching there.

It was a very good school and we had
a lot of fun..

[MaryMagdaline]

40. We had Lanier High School in Macon - the old white (boys) school

When the schools integrated in about 1969, we had Lanier A (girls) and Lanier B (boys). Not until my junior year did they integrate boys and girls.

Sidney Lanier was born in Macon - his name is everywhere, including Sidney Lanier Cottage.

[tulipsandroses]

12. Yep. I live in GA. My son thinks it's haunted

He seriously believes that. I don’t believe in such things. But I will never go there. I drive by it once or twice a year when I go to the shopping outlets.

[CatWoman]

13. the issue of the intact cemetary and graves reminded me of Poltergeist

and I'm a firm believer of the supernatural

[LeftInTX]

18. Then Falcon Lake is also haunted!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_International_Reservoir


My husband's grandmother was born in the town that is submerged under Falcon Lake on the Mexican side of the lake. The lake is in both the US and Mexico.



https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-flooded-mexican-ghost-town-offers-refuge-to-border-crossers

[tulipsandroses]

36. Does it also have a high number of deaths and accidents?

That’s the reason my son and other people think it’s haunted.

[LeftInTX]

41. There have been a few cartel incidents.....

but I don't think it's haunted...


Widow Not Surprised After Another Person Murdered On Falcon Lake
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/tiffany-hartley-david-falcon-lake-texas-mexico/

[rubbersole]

15. Ask mtg to organize a t***p boat parade there.

[tom_kelly]

20. Thank you for the history

The disregard for the cemetery reminds me of the "I-4 Dead Zone" which runs through Sanford, FL (near Orlando). When I-4 was built they were supposed to relocate the remains from a graveyard but paved right over them. This stretch of I-4 is believed to be cursed, based on strange occurrences and the number of fatal auto accidents.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/i-4-dead-zone

[Lemon Lyman]

22. Yup

I've heard of this lake before (in relation to it being "cursed" and awful things happening too frequently there). I wonder how a lake of its size (however big it is) compares to a lake in similar size somewhere else. Friends of my parents used to vacation (from here in Iowa) at Leech Lake in Minnesota every summer. I've no idea if the two lakes are comparable in sizes, but I wonder if there are as many accidents that happen at Leech Lake (or any other lake ) when compared to Lanier.

Thanks for the history lesson. I knew absolutely none of that. How f'ing awful.

[CatWoman]

23. Area 37,066 acres, Volume 0.3105 cubic miles

All large bodies of water present some form of inherent danger. Waves, currents, and rising tides can pull swimmers under the surface, causing them to drown. In fact, since 2010, more than 1,200 people have drowned in the Great Lakes, according to Detroit’s WDIV-TV.

But Lake Lanier is a fraction of the size of even the smallest Great Lake. For 700 people to have died in Lake Lanier in its 70-year history is out of the ordinary.

[Lemon Lyman]

26. TY!

Thanks for the info CW!

[GaYellowDawg]

24. Pssh.

Just about any man-made lake is going to have drowned communities and graveyards, etc., etc. And there are usually spooooooky tales about ghosts. Y'all, it's bullshit. No such thing as ghosts.

I've done two open water swims in Lake Lanier for Swim Across America, an anti-cancer charity. My sister's family has done it every year for about 15 years now. No ghosts, no problems. The buoys marking the swim course were more of a threat for me because I wasnt used to open water swimming and ran into every damn one of the..

A more simple explanation for the deaths is that a lot of people drink when they go out on the lake.

[CatWoman]

42. and that makes it right?

Just about any man-made lake is going to have drowned communities and graveyards, etc., etc

while researching this topic i came across some rather nasty comments, and one commenter asked why race had to be interjected into this.

bet if blacks rioted and took over white communities the shoe would be on the other foot.

there are far too many instances of this happening to black communities in this country. period.

glad you enjoyed your swim.

[GaYellowDawg]

45. In fact I did enjoy the swim.

I raised $600 to fight cancer in the process.

So what do you propose to do? Drain the lake? Or are you just going to sit around and wag your finger on DU? The reality is that when dams have gone up, they’ve flooded out a lot of different communities. Most were poor rural whites in Appalachia. There are buried towns under most of the lakes. I see old roads come out during droughts all the time near where I live. This wasn’t racial as much as it was socioeconomic. And if the hydroelectric dams hadn’t gone up, we’d be burning a hell of a lot more coal. No doubt things should have been done differently, but the dams have done a lot more good than bad.

Ghosts still aren’t real, and frankly, I think it’s demeaning to use these events to push ghost stories and bullshit about karma. Can’t swim in the scaaaary lake. Ghosts gonna get ya! Please.

[mahina]

25. Same. 100%

[mnhtnbb]

28. Lake drownings in perspective

Attached is an article about the number of people that have drowned due to being caught in rip currents in the ocean off the North Carolina coast: 450 from 2017-2023. Most of the drownings were male and alcohol was often involved.

There's no doubt that local/state/federal government in this country has been insensitive to native communities or communities of color throughout our history. But I rather doubt that ghosts from the bottom of Lake Lanier are responsible for the number of people drowned in it. More likely the deaths are due to poor swimming skills, boating accidents involving people not wearing life jackets, and poor judgment of testosterone loaded individuals who have consumed too much alcohol.

https://www.wral.com/story/data-rip-currents-kill-many-more-men-than-women/20949836/

[GoCubsGo]

37. THANK YOU!!!!!

These stories are a regular occurrence on every goddamn lake and reservoir in the country, as well as on both coastlines, and many of our rivers. The reason people hear a lot about Lake Lanier, is because it's the biggest body of water outside of the largest population center in Georgia. And, like every other reservoir in the country, people of all shades were displaced by its construction, including lots of white people. None of them are "cursed." FFS.

[hlthe2b]

29. Yes.. The electrocutions are what has me appalled... I swam there many many years ago, going with my parents

Last edited Mon Sep 2, 2024, 09:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Of course, I knew nothing about that potential--the source of which I am not sure is fully understood. Drownings are way above expected and the suggestion that divers are getting caught up on submerged largely intact building structures is certainly plausible.

That the graves were not relocated is appalling and intensely wrong-- but not wholly unexpected. I lived for years near Denver's Cheeseman Park, constructed on the site of both wealthy cemeteries and those for the poor. Of course the former were fully relocated, the latter not so much... The submerged unequal soil disruptions from only partially exhumed graves have led to temperature inversions that many find extremely spooky when walking the interior of the park. (This leads to suggestions that it is haunted.) I experienced those inversions walking my pup and have to agree they are exceedingly unexpected and freaky.

[Wonder Why]

38. The electrocutions are caused by the sharks driving Tesla Cybertrucks that were dumped there. 😁😁

[CatWoman]

44. I can't lie

when I read about the electrocutions for some reason my mind veered to Trump's battery powered sharks

[lostnfound]

30. Gorgeous days out learning to sail in college

I had no idea.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Knew A Guy Who Lived On That Lake

He was a regional director at our facility near Atlanta.
Attended a conference at their big clubhouse there once.
It had too many vibes of "gated community" to me.

[multigraincracker]

32. Went to school in a town on that lake in the 60s.

Remember lots of Water Moccasins in that lake.

[hatrack]

34. The only lake curse I've encountered is crowds of drunks operating power boats . . .

. . . . which is more than cursed enough for me to stay away.

[Marcuse]

43. Hmmm. Nah.

[Mountainguy]

46. It's a massive lake, near a major US city, in a hot region

It gets a lot of people visiting, which mean it gets more deaths too.

[CatWoman]

48. Area 37,066 acres, Volume 0.3105 cubic miles

All large bodies of water present some form of inherent danger. Waves, currents, and rising tides can pull swimmers under the surface, causing them to drown. In fact, since 2010, more than 1,200 people have drowned in the Great Lakes, according to Detroit’s WDIV-TV.

But Lake Lanier is a fraction of the size of even the smallest Great Lake. For 700 people to have died in Lake Lanier in its 70-year history is out of the ordinary.

[Mountainguy]

49. Lake Lanier

Gets 10 million visitors annually.

There's nothing surprising about the number of deaths over 3/4 of a century.


Lake Mead had 200 deaths between 2013 and 2023.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

47. .