Lake Lanier

(Lake Sidney Lanier)

GPS Coordinates 34°14'24.0"N 83°57'00.0"W

Status: Natural Wonder (Man-Made Lake); Multiple Fatality Site; Cursed

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History

Previous to the creation of this lake an African-American town was involved in a racially motivated violent incident which resulted in a lynching and the forced eviction of 1,100 African Americans by the white population in 1912.

A number of them were forced to swim over the Chattahoochee River – the lake, of course, was not there then – and many drown on that crossing.

There was also an earlier incident where an 18 year old woman was raped and murdered and African-American men were blamed – with absolutely no evidence – and murdered.

The area is also part of the Trail of Tears when the US Government forced huge numbers of the Indigenous Peoples out of the southeast and to Oklahoma. The people lost all of their land, their culture and 15,000 of them died on the journey.

The lake was created by building the Bulford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956.

The lake was named after a Confederate poet and encompasses 38,000 acres or 59 square miles (15,000 hectares or 150 square kilometres) at full level.

It’s creation destroyed 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of farmland, displaced 250 families, 15 businesses and 20 cemeteries. And attempt was made to remove the remains from the cemeteries but with the technology in the 50’s its likely over 50% of remains were left behind.

A dive was made on the show Expedition X which clearly showed undisturbed gravesites making many question if any of the remains were moved as the government claimed.

A stretch of Georgia Hwy 53 was abandoned, and the Gainesville Looper Speedway was condemned and went under the waters of the lake.

It was originally created for the production of hydro-electrcity.

It is now also used for both flood control and water consumption. The States of Alabama, Florida and Georgia use water from this lake but it’s primary consumer is the city of Atlanta for their lawns and gardens.

 The lake is also heavily used for recreation uses including watersports, boating and fishing. There are over 10 million people who visit the lake every year.

More than three times the people drown in Lake Lanier every year than in all of Georgia’s other waterways. And many of them are quite strange like strong swimmers jumping into the water from a boat or dock and just never coming up again.

Approximately 500 people have died in the lake; 200 of them since 1990.

 

Paranormal Activity

The official story is an acknowledgement of there being buildings, the stands from the speedway and even full grown trees at the bottom of the lake but all the human remains were removed – expect maybe some unmarked Indigenous graves – and the lake is neither cursed or haunted.

 

The Lady of the Lake

One night in 1958 Delia May Parker and Susie Roberts went to a dance and on their way home – some stories say they had neglected to pay for the gas and we’re speeding away from the crime – their car drove off the highway 58 bridge and into the lake.

Susie Roberts body was recovered about a year later by a fisherman, but Delia was not found until 1990 when they hit something on the bottom of the lake putting in a new piling for the bridge. What they had hit was the car with Delia’s skeleton still in it.

Since the accident the bridge has been haunted by the “lady of the Lake” an apparition of a woman in a blue dress – the same color as the dress Susie was wearing that night – who walks on the bridge. In some versions she is missing her hands and in a few versions she’s an evil spirit who attempts to lure people off the bridge to their deaths.

Susie’s ghost is also seen floating below the surface of the lake and said to be one of the entities responsible for dragging swimmers to the bottom.

 

Over the decades numerous people have reported being grabbed from below while in the lake. They were dragged below the surface but managed to escape. This thought to be the ghosts of people angry that their resting spots have been buried under the lake’s surface.

Many people believe this is why the number of drownings are so high in this lake. Even accomplished swimmers jumped in the water and never to surface again. That being said no one wearing a life jacket has been the victim of a drowning.

There are also reports of seeing apparitions floating under the surface and, sometimes, reaching up.

The apparitions of Indigenous people have been seen both in the lake and walking it’s shores.

Other reported activity: shadow figures walking the shores and nearby forests; disembodied voices and singing; light anomalies; electrical disturbances; feelings of being watched by something under the surface of the lake and a the entire lake is said to give off a strong feeling of eeriness.