The Haunting of Lake Lanier

It’s the Month of May and I figured I would do a theme for this month. Since May is so close to being summer, I thought what better theme to go with than Lakes…So This month we will dive into, pun totally intended, a few of the world’s most haunted lakes!

And we are starting off Haunted Lake month with a good one! Lake Lanier, in the state of Georgia.

First, we are going to cover the history of the area that was the site for the lake and why it was created because it is a man-made lake. I think that is an important piece to give you context on why the lake could be haunted, then we are going to get into the good stuff the haunted legends and paranormal activities so without further adieu …let’s get into it.

Lake Lanier is located about 60 miles North of Atlanta and is the largest lake in the state of Georgia by far. It has an area of just under 60 sq miles and has around 700 miles of shoreline making it #88 on the top 100 list of largest lakes in the United States. The lake is fed by run off from the blue ridge mountains in Northern Georgia that flows into the Chattahoochee and Chestatee rivers which then keep lake Lanier filled to maintain its maximum depth of 160’ in spots.

But, as I mentioned earlier, Lake Lanier is not a natural lake…the lake was created in the 1956 by the Army Corps of Engineers as a multipurpose lake. The idea was that they would build the Buford Dam which would then flood the area, creating this huge lake. The new lake would not only serve as a hydroelectric power source, but also help to control flooding in the area from the Chattahoochee and Chestatee river and be a source of water for the growing population in the area.

Sounds like a pretty good plan, right?

Well, there was a little problem, see the land that the government wanted for this project was occupied by a town called Oscarville. Or to be more accurate it was occupied by the skeletons of the once thriving town of Oscarville, both actual skeletons as well as the remains of the burned down businesses and homes.  

About 40 years before the idea to create this dam and flood the area became a thing… The Town of Oscarville was growing and thriving in that area. The town was a predominantly black community with around 1100 residents…most of which were successful which was unheard of back then because there were not a lot if any opportunities available for black communities in the south at that time….out of those 1100 residents 58 were landowners ...which again was very rare. 109 of the residents were farm owners/operators…and a lot of the remaining community worked as skilled craftsman and/or skilled laborers.

In 1908 the Georgia school census showed that 316 children of color from that county were enrolled in school. So Oscarville by any measure was really a very successful strong black community in Georgia at that time.

However, the success of Oscarville and its residents did not sit well with some white members of the surrounding communities, and they did not like the success of Oscarville residents at all. A lot of them saw the success and the tight knit community as a threat and feared that the educated residents would be able to vote and then …well they couldn’t let that happen.

In 1912 there were several incidents that happened to white female residents in the county where Oscarville was located for both of which the fingers were immediately pointed at black men in the community. I am not going to go into all the details but ...what happened was bad and was described later on in articles and books as a racial cleansing of the area. Groups of white men who called themselves “Night Riders” rode through the town on horseback, firing guns and lighting the homes and business on fire and throwing explosives into buildings to destroy them.

Mobs of angry white people and these “Night Riders” continued these violent acts until they had successful ran every back resident out of Oscarville. All the buildings, including the churches had been burned to the ground. And the residents who were landowners were so scared for their lives that they never came back, so their land was essentially stolen from them.

So, all of that happened 40 years or so before the dam was built in 1956… Once the dam was built and the area flooded …Oscarville and its tragic past was lost to history forever laying out of sight out of mind at the bottom of the brand-new Lake Lanier.

Ok so now that you have a little bit of the history and creation of the area and the lake. Let’s get into the paranormal happenings and goings on.

Today Lake Lanier is a vacation destination and gets millions of visitors every year enjoying the lake and having fun swimming, boating, fishing, and well you know lake life activities.

With that many people coming around every year, there are many different claims of paranormal activity on the lake. I read a story about people seeing a showdown figure on a boat paddling eerily slow with a long stick and a dimly lit lantern on the front of the boat. Like a super creepy gondola ride…which I would totally be down for. There are also tons of claims of hearing whispers and voices in the surrounding wooded areas.

We know now that most of the residents of Oscarville either met a very horrific end or were ran out of town and had all their worldly possessions taken or destroyed…But are the residents of Oscarville gone forever? Or have the ghost from the past been taking out their anger and frustrations on the vacationers and lake lovers enjoying themselves unknowingly floating above the truth.

It is very widely believed that the ghosts of the residents of Oscarville can be seen in the waters of lake laner and like reaching and grabbing for you while you’re swimming trying to pull you under.  See, before the army corps of engineers was to begin this huge project, they were supposed to relocate all 20 of the cemeteries, including the bodies. It is thought that along with the many submerged homes, farms, and business of the displaced residents there were many unmarked graves that may have been missed in the relocation process. There are also claims that the spirits of the workers that died on the project also haunt the lake…people have claimed that they feel ice cold hands grab at them and try to pull them under while they are swimming.

The most popular ghost stories though revolve around Lady of the Lake. People claim to see the apparition of a woman wearing a blue dress walking along the old bridge and people will, you know, get out of the car, or assume she is in some kind of distress and follow her only to realize just in time that she is luring them into the lake to drown.

Also, she doesn’t have any hands, that’s what the stories claim is that the apparition is handless…

But who could the Lady of the Lake be?

In 1958 several years after the flooding of the area and the creation of the lake, 2 young women Delia Parker Young and Susie Roberts were driving to Dawsonville GA in Susie’s 1954 Ford Sedan. It was late and they were most likely speeding as they had just left a gas station without paying. In the midst of their getaway driving, they opted to take state route 53 crossing over Lake Lanier’s Jerry D. Jackson bridge. The two young women would never make it to their destination, they along with Susie’s sedan just vanished in the Georgia southern night.

No one had any clue what had happened to them until around 1 year later when a fisherman discovered the remains of a woman under Jerry D. Jackson bridge. It was presumed to be the body of Delia Parker Young …the body was missing its hands…. but there was no sign of Roberts.

In November of 1990 the old relic Jerry D Jackson bridge was in need of some serious renovation. As crews began prepping the area, they were dredging the bottom of the lake surrounding the bridge when their machinery uncovered something truly incredible. A 1954 Ford Sedan filled with almost half a century worth of mud and debris. And amongst the mud and water was the inside the sedan were the bones of Susie Roberts. 

 Since the lake’s creation in the 1950’s over 700 people have died. That’s a lot of people, even though the lake gets over 10 million visitors annually that’s still a lot of deaths for one place. According to an article from the Gainesville times in 2022 6 people died presumably by drowning.

One of those individuals was 20-year-old man from around the area that was visiting the lake for Memorial Day weekend. The man and his friends were swimming in a designated and highly populated, swimming area called Margaritaville. At some point when they all out swimming and having fun the victim went underwater and did not resurface. His friends were unable to find him and alerted authorities who had to use side scanning sonar to locate his body. The circumstances that led to his drowning are unclear and the details of his death have not been released to the public. Is it possible that an icy cold hand reached up from the depths and pulled him under?

Over the past almost 70 years, Lake Lanier has gained a significant reputation as one of the most haunted places in Georgia. From the terrible things that went on in Oscarville to disturbing and relocation of cemeteries…and the nearly 700 lives lost…Lake Lanier will continue to baffle us all with it’s many secrets hidden just beneath the surface.