Lake Lanier, situated near Oscarville, Georgia, is where a guy of 20 years of age was found dead after having drowned there. Around Memorial Day, the kid was swimming across the man-made Lake. The issue was handled by game wardens from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, who used side-scan sonar to track down the missing individual, according to the agency. Lake Lanier has a murky and deadly past, despite being a popular place for fishing, boating, and sunbathing. Numerous drownings have been reported in the region in recent years. Reginald Terrell Whitehead, 30, and Michael Thompson, 61, both passed away in May of this year within a few hours. Dontay Lane, 17, of Lithonia, was rescued from Lake Lanier weeks before the event after coming dangerously close to drowning. Kile Glover, 11, son of musician Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster, was the latest victim of the Lake.
Why is Lake Lanier haunted? Explaining the Roots of Oscarville’s Huge
After Sidney Lanier, a poet and a soldier of the Confederate Army, the Lake was given his name. The man-made Lake dates back to 1957 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed it. It was established to reduce flooding and improve navigation on the Chattahoochee River. Atlantans would get their water supply from this source. As a result of the government’s acquisition of more than 50,000 acres of farmland over the five years needed to build the Lake, more than 250 households were forced to relocate. A total of 20 cemeteries and their occupants’ remains had to be moved, along with 15 businesses.
Oscarville, a thriving community, was eventually submerged under Lake Lanier. Lisa Russell, the author of Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia, discusses the departure in her book: “Emotions such as wrath, resentment, dread, anxiety, confusion, and uncertainty surfaced with discussions of moving. Their land was invaluable to them. More than a dozen cemeteries with headstones and burials may be at the Lake’s bottom. As was previously shown on the Discovery Channel program Expedition X. Since the evicted population’s ancestors were never moved, legends started to circulate that the Lake was haunted.
Another urban legend about the alleged haunted Lake Lanier
The “Lady of the Lake” narrative is another well-known urban myth associated with Lake Lanier. The automobile driven by Delia May Parker Young and her companion Susie Roberts plunged over a bridge and into a lake in 1958. The bodies of the two ladies were recovered from the Lake after 31 years. On the night of the incident, Susie was allegedly wearing a blue dress. Other lake goers who were strolling in the neighbourhood reported the woman in the blue outfit.
Many individuals took an interest in Oscarville again when Lake Lanier flooded the town. A white lady called Sleety Mae Crow was the first victim of the 1912 lynchings and accompanying violence. Another lady, Ellen Grice, also reported that in the same year, she awoke to find a Black guy in her bed. Civilians’ self-enforced retribution intensified racial tensions. Despite Forsyth County’s agricultural prosperity, some 1,100 Black inhabitants left the town and county out of fear.
