Since the erasure of Oscarville, locals believe the lake is haunted because of the high number of drownings that occur there.
A new docuseries explores the dark and murky past of Georgia’s Lake Lanier from the perspective of survivors who had near-death experiences at the lake.
The Amazon Prime docuseries, “Surviving Lake Lanier,” comes from filmmakers William Eric Bush-Anderson and Cindy Kunz-Anderson, who also made a fictional horror film inspired by the infamous body of water outside Atlanta.
The new series looks at the tragic history of the lake and explores the theories that the lake is haunted due to the erasure of Oscarville, the town that once stood there.
Oscarville was a thriving Black farming community full of carpenters, blacksmiths and bricklayers that was formed during the 1800s in Reconstruction, according to 11 Alive.
However, the once thriving Black town came to a standstill in 1912, when Mae Crow, a 19-year-old white woman, was found dead and presumed to have been raped in the woods near Oscarville. Mobs drove the Black community out, according to 11 Alive.
The town was destroyed and then the Buford Dam was built in the late 1950s. Lake Lanier was then formed, covering up Oscarville and erasing it from the map. Structures and forest areas that were once part of Oscarville still remain under the water, officials told 11 Alive.
Local diver Richard Pickering told WSB-TV, “It doesn't decompose. It doesn't rot. The limbs, everything is there. So, when you're diving around this, you're diving into the middle of a forest.”
The lake also sits near Forsyth County, which was part of the Cherokee Nation before the federal government forcibly moved indigenous people from of their homes as part of the Trail of Tears, according to the Oxford American.
Now, the lake is a highly popular area for tourists. It receives about 12 million visitors a year, according to Time.
”As a recreation resource, Lake Lanier attracts about eight million visitors a year, with 68 parks and recreation areas, 1,200 campsites, and 10 full-service marinas,” according to Gwinnett County.
There have also been a high number of drownings at the lake, which some attribute to the result of its tragic history. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division's data shows that 216 people have died at Lake Lanier between 1994 and 2022. Of those deaths, 140 were the result of drownings and 70 happened in boating accidents.
The most recent death happened in May, when 73-year-old Matthew Mayo of Gainesville was fishing out of a bass boat with his wife and drowned.
“When the man tried to sit down in the seat, it became unbolted from the floor and caused him to fall into the water,” according to a statement from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Authorities eventually located and recovered his body in six feet of water.
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