For decades, it has been rumored that Lake Lanier is haunted by the dead Black residents of a town called Oscarville that was supposedly flooded when the lake was being developed in 1955. The story usually goes one of two ways: either the all-Black town was purposely obliterated by floodwaters, or that the flooded graveyard of a once Black town created vengeful spirits.
TikTok rappers have spit rhymes about the cursed lake; Instagram influencers have spread the legend; even Georgia ghost tours have told the tall tale.
“Swimmers have reported feeling unseen hands grabbing at their legs, pulling them under. These unexplained phenomena have contributed to the belief that Lake Lanier is haunted by the spirits of those who perished in its waters or whose graves were submerged during its creation,” reads a blog for a ghost tour company, Atlanta Ghosts .
Like a game of telephone, the stories have unraveled into many false narratives. If one follows the rumors backward, however, they do connect, albeit loosely, to a thread of truth. That truth is the subject of a new podcast, “1912: The Forsyth County Expulsion and its Aftermath.”