Town under lake lanier georgia. Lake lanier in northeast georgia is a favorite recreation spot for millions each year. They give a glimpse into long gone. Eventually the entire black population of forsyth county was driven out says blood at the root author patrick phillips.
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. Now as drought struck georgia in 2007 the waters of lanier started to drop and eventually the grandstands of the old looper speedway peaked out of the water near laurel park reminding a new generation that at one point lanier was land. Its one of georgias top tourist attractions but many visitors have no idea lake lanier wasnt always as it is today.
Its demographics are shaped by an event that happened in 1912 when white people forced. Tires poke out of the cracked muck that was once lake lanier near a bridge on highway 369. Army corps of engineers estimates that some 75 million people visit lake sidney lanier annually.
The hand drawn charts were created more than 60 years ago. On the forsyth county side of the lake the town of oscarville was covered by the lake. Lake lanier covers several towns and up to 50000 acres of what was once prime farm land.
Both assets sit on a ground lease from the lake lanier islands development authority which in turn leases the land from the us. 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. Army corps of engineers.
Lake lanier was the site of the 1997 bilderberg conference. In 2017 2018 margaritaville jimmy buffett fame was announced to take over lanier islands park. Channel 2s berndt petersen spoke to gloria holland.
In 1912 white mobs set fire to black churches and black owned businesses. Theres a myth about there being towns located underneath because they used the word community.