Lake lanier georgia underwater town. Lake lanier officially lake sidney lanier is a reservoir in the northern portion of the us. In order to create space for the giant lake which covers just under 58 miles a handful of towns were flooded. Yet even with its haunted tales lake lanier is one of georgias largest tourist destinations with around 7 million visitors per year.
After much effort on the part of many people the groundbreaking for the project which included the new buford dam took place in the spring of 1950. Built in the 1950s lake lanier is a man made lake with an eerie construction. Tires poke out of the cracked muck that was once lake lanier near a bridge on highway 369.
Along the lakes bottom one can eerily find towns complete with roads walls and houses intact like an abandoned ghost town immersed in water. Channel 2s berndt petersen spoke to gloria holland who once. The buford dam on lake lanier was a billion dollar project.
Lake lanier is a north georgia jewel. Long before fish made their homes in the beautiful lake strom thurmond people lived worked raised their families and fell in love all beneath those choppy waters. Petersburg georgia is now an underwater ghost town after the army corps of engineers flooded more than 72000 acres to build what is today called thurmond lake.
38000 acres of water for boating drinking water and hydroelectric power. State of georgiait was created by the completion of buford dam on the chattahoochee river in 1956 and is also fed by the waters of the chestatee riverthe lake encompasses 38000 acres 150 km 2 or 59 square miles 150 km 2 of water and 692 miles 1114 km of shoreline at normal level a full. The town was bought by the georgia railway and electric company in 1917 and much like the town of judson was soon submerged.
Its one of georgias top tourist attractions but many visitors have no idea lake lanier wasnt always as it is today.