Is Lake Lanier Haunted or Cursed?

Lake Lanier near Atlanta, Georgia was named for poet, musician, and Confederate army veteran Sidney Lanier. It was constructed in the mid 1950s, and has seen between 500-700 deaths. All lakes have death counts, but this lakes death count seems high compared to others. During the construction, whole towns and cemeteries were left in place to be covered by the water. Five churches are known to be submerged. Approximately 20 graveyards had the bodies relocated, but many other graves were left behind. Many of the graves were of indians and slaves. The land had been Cherokee, but they were forced out as part of the trail of tears. There are MANY MANY tales of ghosts and hauntings. The most famous is the lady in blue of the lake ... she walks the lake looking for people to drag down to their deaths. And there is lots of talk of 'bad luck' for boaters and swimmers on the lake. Strange accidents and fires on the lake seem to be common.

Ghosts of Lake Lanier

CNN Lake Lanier Urban Legends

Legend has it the ghost of a long-dead woman roams this lake in a flowing blue dress. Mysterious arms reach out for swimmers from the watery depths. Angry spirits call people home to submerged graves.

Some people have claimed to hear church bells from a sunken church. But Yabor told CNN that’s not possible.

In 2017, longtime diver Buck Buchannon told local media that he sometimes felt body parts in the lake during his many excursions. “You reach out into the dark and you feel an arm or a leg and it doesn’t move,” he said.

“The technological capability to identify and verify unmarked burial sites through subsurface scanning or other means was far less robust 70 years ago,” Yabor told CNN.

“While the Corps made every effort at the time to locate unmarked burials,” he added, “the limited capabilities of the time make it probable that unanticipated finds of human remains are possible, whether from the antebellum and Civil War periods or of Native American origin from pre-colonial and ancient times.”

All That's Interesting - Lake Lanier

The flooded structures, coupled with declining water levels, are presumed to be a major factor in the high number of deaths that occur yearly at Lake Lanier, catching swimmers and holding them under or damaging boats with debris.

The deaths at Lake Lanier aren’t the typical sort, though. While there are many instances of people drowning, there are also reports of boats randomly going up in flames, freak accidents, missing persons, and inexplicable tragedies.

Some believe the region’s dark past is responsible for these incidents. Legend asserts that the vengeful and restless spirits of those whose graves were flooded — many of whom were Black or persecuted and driven out by violent white mobs — are behind this curse.

The Grim and Mysterious History of Lake Laniers Many Deaths

This tragic history, coupled with some of the early accidents at Lake Lanier, has fueled rumors that the lake itself might be haunted. Regardless of whether or not this is true, Lake Lanier has an astonishingly high mortality rate compared to other nearby lakes. Although there are many factors contributing to the high rate of fatalities at Lake Lanier, ranging from people under the influence of alcohol to difficult rescues due to low visibility, local officials still can't really explain why there are so many deaths at Lake Lanier. But one thing's for sure: It helps to wear a life jacket.

Oxford American - The Haunting of Lake Lanier

The most famous ghost story, known as Lady of the Lake, reigns supreme in these parts. In 1958, two friends, Delia May Parker Young and Susie Roberts, departed a dance. After getting gas and skipping out on paying for it, they skidded off a bridge while crossing the lake and disappeared. The following year, a fisherman came across a decomposed, unidentifiable body floating near one of the bridges. It wasn’t until 1990, over three decades later, that officials discovered a 1950s Ford sedan with remains belonging to Roberts. Which meant that the body found way back in 1959 must have belonged to her friend, Parker Young.

Locals didn’t need a forensic analysis to know this. They had seen Parker Young themselves, wearing the blue dress she had borrowed that night from Roberts, wandering near the bridge. With her handless arms, so the story goes, she snatches unsuspecting lake-goers and drags them to the bottom.

I won't post more. You get the idea. Lots of hits on GOOGLE about haunted Lake Lanier. And cursed Lake Lanier.

Scratched this site off my bucket list!

Ive heard all the stories back in the 70s, we spent a lot of days on Lanier fishing and boating and it was a summer hang-out for teens,used to go with friends all the time. Dad used to tell the story about the truck full of chickens that ran off a bridge into the lake. Divers went down to see what was salvageable and reported seeing 5-6 foot catfish eating chicken whole.

We rented a houseboat and spent 2 weeks on Lainer in the '70s, it was a blast. We ran and jumped off the roof into the deep dark waters virtually every night, all night, and we were trying to scare each other and didn't see bupkis. Nothing on fishing trips either except for one night it was about 3-4 in the morning we pulled into a cove, and we hadn't caught anything for a couple of hours so I stood up to take a whizz off the boat. We were about 10 yards offshore and I heard rustling and a snort, as my buddy if he heard that and he was already reaching for the spotlight, caught the tail end of a pretty big whitetail deer book of into the brush. NGL we got the willies a little bit

It has a lot people on it, and well they drink like fish, all day long. Accidents are gonna happen, it was so crowded we prefer Lake Allatoona

I did see where Lainer Island Waterpark is not allowing swimming in there area of the lake and beach,safety concerns Granted it's changed alot since the 70s but that's why we went to catch some rays, catch a buzz, swim. Nobody just wanted to just lay on the beach. Well, some of the girls did, so funny we went to the beach with a totally different set of girls, than who we took on our boat. Boat girls were more fun.