Lake Lanier between its tragic history, cursed and ghost stories

Lake Lanier, in Northern Georgia is one of the most haunted bodies of water in the United States.
At least, they say.
Probably because several deaths have occurred in its waters over the years, which could be the reason behind the supposedly ghostly sightings.
But the tragic history of how the lake was established and the memory of the waters that flow into it could also be to blame.
Although it is frequently described as beautiful, quaint and peaceful, it is not technically made by Mother Nature, but it is actually manmade, and established semi-recently, more precisely in the 1950’s, to prevent flooding but also to supply water and electric to nearby urban areas, including the city of Atlanta.
Basically it is a reservoir made by damming up the Chattahoochie River and into which the Chestatee River also flows.
The source of the first one is located deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The word “Chattahoochie” is a Muscogee word that means either “painted” or “rocks”, which may be because of the granite outcroppings lining its shores.
Not by chance, granite takes on a light red color under certain conditions, which makes it look like its stained in blood, but it has also metaphysical properties that grant protection and abundance to those who harness its energy: It’s linked to both the water and earth elements and is made up mostly of quartz and feldspar, and both of these stones in and of themselves are powerful conductors of otherworldly energy.
But Chattahoochie River was once also a separating line between two large indigenous nations, the Creek (Muscogee) and the Cherokee, who flourished along its shores since at least the sixteen hundreds.
Both nations also share common ancestors who lived along the river dating back to at least the 800’s AD, and there’s no doubt a portion of the Cherokee and Creek peoples, and before them their ancestors, lived and died on the land that would become the bottom of Lake Lanier. There is also speculation that Native burial grounds lie at the bottom of the lake.
Among others, of course.
In any case, in 1838, the U.S. government forcibly removed the Cherokee Nations from their homeland in Georgia.
Prior to their expulsion, the Creek nation was also forced to leave beginning in 1814.
That being said, much tragedy occurred in the area long before the lake was made, and it seems at least three thousand Natives died in the area.
In addition, the river has been a site of historical significance when it comes to the American Civil War, with its banks that saw multiple skirmishes and battles and obviously bloody deaths.
This tainted water, full of bloody secrets and tragic memories, flows into our modern Lake Lanier.

The Chestatee, the other river located in Northern Georgia, once fed into the Chattahoochie River, but is now where the lake sits.
It takes its name from the Cherokee people and means literally “place of lights”, probably because they kept bonfires ablaze along the river, lighting the way for hunters and providing their torches with a source of fire.
Its source is the Blood Mountain, Georgia’s highest peak on the Appalachian Trail.
Locals still debate the origin of the mountain’s name, with some say it’s because of an epic battle between the Muscogee and Cherokee, while others say it simply refers to the regular red-tinted lichen that covers the rock.
And then they built the lake.
It was 1957 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built it by damming up the waters of both Chattahoochie and Chestatee Rivers.
However, starting from the beginning, its construction wasn’t that easy.
Before even starting the project, the government “bought” over seven hundred families who owned over fifty thousand acres of farmland in the area that would become the bottom of Lake Lanier.
Families that had been put their blood, sweat and tears into working the land, who had lived lot of their years there.
And, as you can imagine, the government came in and offered them way less than they deserved.
In addition to leveling their businesses, houses, farmhouses, and barns, the government also had to destruct multiple cemeteries, with several unmarked graves now ghostly lie at the bottom of the lake.
But, people apart, the entire area has been home to much racial conflict, injustice, and bias for centuries, and this further only enhances the negative energy that haunts our lake.

If all of those reasons aren’t good enough, there are also some modern facts.
Since its establishment, the has caused at least five hundred deaths, two hundred and three of which since 1994, mostly drownings, cars that drive into the lake, as well as boating and jet ski incidents, including R&B singer Usher’s ex-wife’s son.
But probably the most famous of all ghost stories on Lake Lanier is the Lady of the Lake.
In 1958, a bridge over the lake was the site of a tragic car accident involving two young women, Susie Roberts and Delia Parker Young.
As story goes, the two had nearly run out of gas, stolen it from a station close by and hightailed it out of there, but only to meet their tragic end, when they ran off the side of the bridge, supposedly drowning in the waters below.
About eighteen months after their disappearance, a woman’s water-logged body was found in the lake by a local fisherman, but before this macabre discovery, people crossing the bridge claimed to have seen the ghost of a woman in a flowy blue dress walking back and forth on the bridge, as if waiting for someone or something. So when the fisherman found the girl’s body, locals suspected it was either Susie or Delia and, although no one knew for sure who it was and they laid the body to rest in an unmarked grave.
Since the 1950’s, the Lady of the Lake became a paranormal legend and drew the attention of paranormal investigators and curious locals and not. Even more frightening are the tales that tell of people feeling hands grabbing them from beneath the dark waters, trying to drag them down into the depths.
But, believe it or not, everything is based on truth, although the legend of Susie and Delia and the Lady of the Lake was eventually waved off as a made-up story.
At least until in the 1990’s, when the Jerry D. Jackson bridge required renovation.
Workers dredging the area around the bridge discovered a submerged, mangled 1954 Ford, with the skeletal remains of a young woman who turned out to be Susie Roberts.
So the other young woman, Delia Parker Young, who had been lying in an unmarked grave for forty years was given a proper epitaph.
Legends say the Lady of the Lake is the spirit of Delia herself, but It could be one or the other…or even someone else.

More recently, in 2019, a thirty-year-old man fell off of his jet ski in the lake, assumedly drowned, and was never seen again while, in the same year, a man jumped into the lake to save a friend in distress and also died.
In any case, as Lake Lanier is nearly 60 meters deep in some places, it makes searching for bodies rather difficult.
A well-known diver named Buck Buchannon whose gone on multiple dives there claims literally he’s reached out in the dark and felt an arm or a leg that doesn’t move.
And It doesn’t seem too unlikely, as there have been people who have gone missing around the Lake who have never resurfaced.
In addition to being extremely deep in places, there are multiple structures at the bottom of the lake, and brave explorers could easily get their feet, hands, and arms trapped in debris and never make it back out.
Again, on May 29th, 2022, a young man named Jose Camarillo was swimming in the lake and suddenly disappeared.
He was found later, dead.
In addition, four other drownings occurred, all men, Frantz Scutt a forty-eight year old man from Gainesville Florida, who apparently also drowned and whose body was found on in the Little River area.
In 2023, the Lake saw the most deaths in a year than it has in a long time, at least eight people drowned, including a twenty-four year old man who jumped into the lake and was electrocuted.