The Deadly Curse of Lake Lanier

amid the Blue Ridge Mountains in Northern Georgia you can find what appears to be a fairly typical and Scenic Lake called Lake laner but this body of water in particular holds many dark secrets in its seemingly Placid depths where you see lake laner is a madade lake that's become infamous over the decades because of its abnormally large body count to date more than 700 people have drowned or even vanished entirely never to be seen again this has led many people to believe that Lake laner may be haunted or cursed in this episode I'm going to tell you all about the tragic history of Lake Sydney laner and although Skeptics claim there's nothing unusual about the large number of deaths in the lake when you hear the dark history of this man-made body of water you'll see why some people believe that the Restless spirits of the Dead dwell at the bottom of the lake dragging more souls down there to join them each year back in 1946 the United States Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with constructing what would become the Buford Dam along the chattah huchi river in order to create a reservoir this man-made lake was needed to provide water hydroelectricity and flood control of the river for the rapidly growing city of Atlanta and surrounding areas but in order to do this the US government had to purchase the land that would be flooded and turned into the lake the main problem with this though was that much of this land had already long since been settled and developed most of the land owners sold out for about $50 per acre some people remain bitter and resentful toward the government for making them clear out of the land their families had lived on for Generations While others who had been struggling to get by as subsistence farmers were just happy to have cash in hand to feed their families it's actually unknown just how many people sold their land during this time estimates range anywhere from 250 to 700 families there are a handful of stories claiming that a few land owners stubbornly refused to sell but they were forcibly removed and had their lands seized by the government under eminent domain laws the US Army Corps of Engineers broke ground on the Buford Dam on March 1st 1950 construction took 6 years to complete with an estimated cost of $45 million in 1956 the floodgates were opened and the Waters of the chattah huchi river began filling the on dry valleys throughout Northern Georgia it would take an additional 5 years for the Waters of Lake laner to reach full capacity at first the plan was for the lake that would be formed to be named Buford Lake but some politicians objected in several names were tossed around then quickly rejected the lake remained unnamed until 1950 when it was finally named after the 19th century Georgia poet Sydney laner whose poem the song of the chattah huchi is an Ode to the river that created it today lake lenir is a major tourist attraction to Northern Georgia attracting roughly 11 million visitors each year this is roughly the same number of people who visit the Lou each year at 211 ft deep lake laner is one of the deepest man-made lakes in the United States that's deeper than the Statue of Liberty as tall from the sky the lake forms a sprawling insect like shape on a map with 692 Mi of Shoreline on sunny days the lake is spectacular lush green oak and hickory trees encircle much of the coastline because of the nature of the way the lake was formed there are still whole trees under the water some as big as 60 ft tall across the sparkling Blue Water you can find dozens of tiny Islands primarily hilltops that were too high for the waters to completely envelop over the years some stories appeared about monsterized catfish as big as cars under the water near a bridge so The Story Goes that a chicken truck dumped its load into the lake which led to the hungry catfish growing bigger and bigger there are divers who have sworn they have seen such enormous fish although there don't appear to be any dive videos on line showing these Giants there are many videos you can find of sunken house boats and other remnants of days gone by at the bottom of the lake what's particularly troubling though about lake laner is that since its formation more than 700 people have died in its murky deaths many Skeptics claim it's simply a numbers game and that with as many people visiting the lake each year there are bound to be a large number of tragic accidents but keep in mind lake alauna lies about 40 Mi to the west and attracts a similar number of visitors each year but that Lake only has about onethird the number of deaths if you Google the name Lake laner you'll undoubtedly come across countless articles detailing the popular belief that the lake may be haunted or cursed to understand the origins these stories you have to travel back in time to the 1800s when Cherokee and Creek Indians still lived across millions of acres of land in Georgia Tennessee Alabama North Carolina and Florida it should come as no surprise that white settlers who moved into these regions often resented the natives who already occupied these lands to them these Indians were nothing more than primitive Savages occupying land that they wanted for themselves as tensions Rose many settlers yearned to make their fortunes growing cotton and other crops and they often resorted to violence to take what they wanted many whites stole livestock burned and looted Villages and even committed mass murder the US government was complicit in helping this along by passing laws that legalize the removal of the indigenous people from the land throughout the South Andrew Jackson had long been an advocate of what he called Indian Removal as an army General K let numerous brutal campaigns against the creeks and seminal throughout Georgia Alabama and Florida campaigns that resulted in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of acres of land from the natives to White Farmers as president in 1830 he signed the Indian Removal Act which gave the federal government the legal authority to exchange native held land in the cotton Rich Southeast for land to the West in the Indian colonization Zone that had been designated in Oklahoma even though the law was written in a way that made it appear the government was required to negotiate the land trade fairly the reality was altogether different the US government often resorted to force to drive the natives off their land sending them in a long and tragic march across the country and what one Chaka leader described as a Trail of Tears and death it's believed that more than 15,000 people died along the trail many of which occurred right along the same stretch of land that would become Lake laner since then some people have claimed to have seen the spirits of Native Americans both on the water and in the woods surrounding the lake but the Trail of Tears isn't the only great tragedy that occurred in the area that has become Lake linear beneath the lake there lies the remnants of an entire town called oscarville prior to 1912 roughly 1100 black people owned land and operated businesses in Georgia's foresight County they came to live and work there during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War but although the slaves were freed following the war racism still burned white hot throughout the South during reconstruction freed black men gained the right to vote to own businesses and to lay down roots in the communities but this only further stirred resentments among many White Citizens on September 22nd 1906 riots broke out in Atlanta following newspaper reports of four alleged assaults on local white women none of which were ever substantiated throughout the day further articles published even more detailed accounts featuring lurid details and inflammatory Language by early evening mobs of white residents became attacking blackowned businesses at least two dozen African-Americans were murdered in the riots incidents of racial violence continued throughout Georgia in the years that followed then on September 5th 1912 a 22-year-old white resident in a foresight County named Ellen GCE claimed a black man entered her home at night and assaulted her while her husband was away but things grew even worse just 3 days later that was when an 18-year-old white girl from oscarville named May Crow went missing after visiting Rand on September 9th 1912 a search party discovered Crow unconscious but still alive her throat had been slashed and although the papers usually refuseed to print such details it was presumed she'd been sexually assaulted one search party member later claimed to have found a small pocket mirror in the woods although he did not specify how close this mirror actually was to the crime scene meanwhile onlookers began to gather outside the crime scene to see what was going on among them was a 17-year-old man named Ernest Knox he had only recently moved to the county to live with his extended family the Daniels one prominent member of the search party approached Knox and asked him if he owned the mirror according to the Searcher Knox admitted to owning it it's a little unclear though whether this was true or not or even if the mirror had any relation to the crime at all but still this was plenty of evidence for the all-white sech party to turn on Knox they coerced him into confessing to attacking Crow then they turned him over to the sheriff news spread quickly about knox's arrest in order to prevent another mob scene like the one that occurred a few days earlier in coming Knox was taken to the fton county jail a building commonly known as The Fulton Tower or just the tower meanwhile rumors began to spread that Knox had a complies in the assault the following morning Sheriff Reed arrested 24-year-old Rob Edwards the common law husband of Jane try Daniel knox's cousin while Sheri Reed was transporting Edwards to the coming jail a mob of 2,000 white men swarmed the jail prepared to murder him the mob broke into the jail and dragged Edwards out they lynched Edwards by hanging him from a telephone poll in downtown cing several members of the crowd used a man's body for target practice riddling it with bullets soon after Sheriff Reed arrested three more black residents of oscarville for the assault on make Pro these were Jane Daniel Oscar Daniel Jane's 17-year-old brother and Ed Collins their 27-year-old neighbor all of them were taken to the tower following Edward's lynching many white residents of foresight County began terrorizing black families throughout the area gangs of white Vigilantes known as Night Riders began threatening people at gunpoint and even turning to arson to drive black residence out newspaper stories from the time tell of black churches and homes being burned to the ground or shot to pieces many black residents were forced to flee for their lives abandoning their property or being forced to sell it for a loss according to the Atlanta History Center the 1910 census recorded about 1100 black residents in foresight County by 1920 there were only 30 left May Crow died on September 23rd without ever regaining Consciousness after her death Jane and Oscar Daniel Knox and Collins were all charged with their murder at the trial prosecutor presented a story in which Knox Oscar Daniel and Edwards attacked May Crow while Jane Daniel stood by and held a lantern to light the assault the all-white jury convicted Knox and Oscar Daniel of the assault and murder on May Crow both men were sentenced to hang the judge set an execution date of October 25th 1912 for Knox and Oscar Daniel he ordered that the hangings be kept private a local doctor named anel Strickland offered up his land as a location for the hanging in response to the judge's orders 15t walls were put up around the Gallows but the night before the hanging a mob showed up and tore the fence down and thre the wood in a bonfire the mob did this without any interference from the sheriff or Dr Strickland the following day thousands of people poured into the field to watch Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel Swing From The Gallows by the end of 1912 white residents of foresight County had forced most of the black residents to flee some stories say that mobs of armed whites chased many of the the black residents to the banks of the chattah huchi river then with nowhere left to go they were ordered at gunpoint to swim for their lives many of whom drowned in that same river that would one day fill Lake laner after which white residents pretty much just stole the land that had been abdicated by all the black people who had fled many white residents managed to obtain the property Deeds for these patches of land even though they didn't have any bills of sale or papers showing the legal transfer over time oscarville effectively became a goh town and the white residents sold their stolen land to the government to make way for Lake laner we can argue endlessly about whether ghosts are real or not but those who believe in spirits say they are often strongest when those deaths are violent or tragic and the town of oscarville had more than its fair share of tragedy the Army Corps of Engineers did try to demolish many of the buildings in oscarville before they flooded the town but they didn't get it all there are still remnants of old houses Old businesses Church and even an old RAC trck called Looper Speedway in 2001 a severe drought in the area caused the water level to drop low enough to reveal the top of Looper Speedway's old grandstand the first time it had seen the sun in more than 50 years then there were the graveyards estimates say there were as many as 20 graveyards that were flooded over officially the bodies were moved and reburied elsewhere but even the most hardcore Skeptics about all the ghost stories con seeed the officials probably didn't get them all that some bodies were left behind before the water flooded the landscape one spirit in particular has been seen more than any other since the 1950s many people have reported seeing the ghostly Apparition of the lady in the lake Witnesses who have claimed to have seen her say she wears a blue dress and she looks sad and lonely in 1959 fisherman on the lake found the water logged remains of a young woman what was left of her body was far too decayed to allow for identification the body was missing both hands and part of her feet but it was found wearing a blue dress back in May 1958 two young mothers from Dawsonville named deia May young and Susie Roberts drove out to a nightclub in Dawsonville called the three Gables where they danced the night away at the time dilia was wearing a borrowed blue dress the two women were spotted stopping for gas and heading in the direction of home that was the last time anyone saw either of them the body of the woman in the Lake was found 18 months later although the body was never positively identified as D her brother claimed that as soon as he heard about the body though he just knew it was a sister in 1990 some workmen were dredging the lake bed to make room for some pilings that were being installed for a new bridge that was when they found the 1954 Ford the women had been driving in submerged in the water inside the car were human remains the license plate on the car was traced to Susie Roberts and some of the personal contents inside the car like a purse and some jewelry were positively identified as belonging to her as well it was presumed that the women must have accidentally driven off a bridge some 30 years earlier now of course we can't say for certain whether the ghostly Lady of the Lake really exists or if it truly is the spirit of Dum May Parker but there is one curious detail in particular that leads many people to believe that this is indeed the ghost of Dum may you see like the body Bound in the water back in 1959 the ghost Lady of the Lake is often seen missing both hands over the decades lake laner has gained a Sinister reputation for the unusually high number of deaths that occur each year since the 1950s it's estimated that more than 700 people have died in the lake everything from cars like Susie Roberts's vehicle driving into the water to boating accidents and an aborally large number of drownings some stories claim that some boats speeding through the water have capsized after striking some mysterious obstacle in the water but then when the location where the accident occurred is searched nothing is found that could have caused the boat to crash other stories claim that massive rogue waves will sometimes churn up in the water waves big enough to drag a boat down to the bottom then there are the drownings some people who have gone swimming in the lake lineer and lived to tell the tale of sworn they felt invisible hands grabbed them from below and try to pull them under the single deadliest day in Lake l Year's history came on Christmas day in 1964 that was when a car carrying 11 people craned off a bridge in that accident five children and two adults were killed in July of 2023 three men died in separate accidents over a single weekend 24-year-old Thomas Milner was electrocuted after jumping into the lake then a 61-year-old man was found dead after diving off the side of his boat that same day another 27-year-old man vanished while swimming his body was discovered several days later there are plenty of Skeptics who swear there's nothing unusual about all the deaths on Lake laner you have a large body of water that tracks millions of visitors each year many of whom go out boating while drinking and accidents are bound to occur at the same time there are people like diver Buck Buchanan who told CNN in 2020 that when he went diving into the darkest depths of lake lineer he swore that he could reach out and feel an arm or a leg unmoving in the dark so is Lake linear cursed well that's for you to decide it remains one of Georgia's biggest tourist attractions but its dark history and abnormally large number of deaths has caused some people to call for the reservoir to be drained in 2023 a petition collected more than 2,500 signatures imploring officials to drain the lake after the drowning death of the son of Tama Foster singer Usher's ex-wife but considering how Central the lake is to Georgia's water and power infrastructure as well as its tourism industry it doesn't seem like this is going to happen anytime soon in May 2024 a water park opened on Lake lineer featuring 14 water slides a wave pool and four attractions that same month a 73-year-old man from Gainesville Georgia named Matthew Mayo drowned while fishing on the lake according to his wife who was with him at the time the man's seat on his bass boat became inexplicably unbolted from the floor of his boat and caused him to fall into the water game wardens found Mayo's body in 6 ft of water at the time of this recording Mayo was not even the latest death in the lake the following month on June 6th 2024 a 76-year-old man named Jim hanser vanished at his dock near Keith Bridge Park a friend became worried about Hansard after he didn't return at the expected time the friend went to check on the man and found his golf cart parked near the dock shortly after 9:30 p.m. emergency crews found hansard's body in 13 ft of water it remains unclear exactly how the man ended up there if you like this video and want to see more creepy stories just like it then click the video on the screen to see another tale about a family that believed their house was haunted only to learn that something even more terrifying was going on