This Fourth of July, a boat exploded on Lake Lanier, a reservoir in Northern Georgia named after a Confederate soldier. The fact that seven people were injured in such an unusual occurrence would make this newsworthy on any given day, but the history of Lake Lanier makes it an even more interesting case. For years there have been accidents and deaths in the waters of Lake Lanier — so much so that many believe it to be haunted. Its tragic history lends credence to those beliefs.
A town ripped apart by racism
Before Lake Lanier existed, there was a town called Oscarville, located in Georgia’s Forsyth County. It was a predominantly Black town that was built up in the Reconstruction Era. By many accounts, it was a thriving place, and many of its residents were successfully building post-slavery lives as carpenters, blacksmiths and bricklayers.
Then in 1912, everything changed. A white woman named Mae Crow was found in the woods, unconscious having been sexually assaulted. She later died. Since she never regained consciousness, she never identified her attacker.
Crow’s attack happened on the heels of another violent incident. Earlier that year, a white woman named Ellen Grice accused a Black man of entering her house and attacking her while her husband was away. Five men were arrested and jailed, and a local Black preacher who dared to defend them was brutally beaten. That led to increased racial tension and when Crow’s body was found it was like throwing a match on a smoldering fire.
At this time racial violence such as lynchings was commonplace. When Crow’s body was found, it’s not a far stretch to see how three Black men could be accused of the crime even before an investigation could be done to see if that was really the truth. The three men — Rob Edwards, Ernest Knox, and Oscar Daniel — were arrested after being accused of participating in Crow’s attack. All three men were murdered — while Edwards was lynched, Knox and Daniel were convicted by an all-white jury.
Psychic tip: If you’re interested in exploring the energy of spaces that are deemed haunted or home to unrestful spirits, this is a good one to put on your list though getting in the water is probably not advised. If you do want to stake out a place believed to be haunted, protection tools such as a tourmaline crystal wouldn’t hurt to have on hand as well.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. It wasn’t enough for the local white residents to punish the people they believed to be responsible for the crime. Instead, they used threats of violence to force all Black people in the town to leave, basically banning them from living there. That meant more than 1,000 Black people had to leave the city and were for all practical purposes rendered homeless as they fled to safety in surrounding areas.
Another harsh blow
Years later in 1956, the Black community that once flourished in Oscarville were dealt another harsh blow. Plans were made to flood the area to build Lake Lanier. The goal: to help manage the water supply of metro Atlanta.
While the people who once lived in Oscarville was gone — having been driven out decades earlier — there were several cemeteries that remained. When Lake Lanier was built, those cemeteries were flooded and the resting places of those who were buried in Oscarville were disturbed forever.
Since the lake has existed there have been more than 700 deaths in those waters. Some were due to accidents; others were drownings. Some were the result of unusual incidents like the explosion on the Fourth of July.
