Norton Real Estate
GAINESVILLE, Ga. | In North Georgia, there are three kinds of public lakes you could classify:
- The Georgia Power lakes: Lakes Burton, Rabun, Seed, Tugalo, Tallulah Falls Lake, Yonah and Oconee;
- The TVA lakes: Blue Ridge, Nottely, Nickajack, Chattuge, Chickamauga; and
- The Corps of Engineer lakes: Lake Lanier, Allatoona, Hartwell, Carters and Lake Russell.
The evolution of real estate and the lakes revolved around power. Lake Rabun was first. It was built in 1915 by the predecessor to Georgia Power. A little-known fact is they paid $15 per acre for land under Burton, most likely Rabun and Seed. Lake Seed was built in 1927 and to clear the land workers were paid 50 cents a day. Today, Lakes Burton, Rabun and Seed have some of the highest-priced real estate in the Georgia.
Lake Lanier originated as a WPA project. The reason it has such varying shoreline distances is because they took aerial photographs in the 1930s, and some of those may have been blurry, so they used straight lines. The project was put on hold until after World War II. They bought 58,000 acres around Hall, Forsyth, Dawson, Lumpkin and Gwinnett counties, paying an average of $50 per acre. Lake Lanier reached full pool in 1958 and was intended mainly for power and flood control of the Chattahoochee. Shortly after, folks recognized the recreational aspects of the lake. My father and grandfather sold some of the first lakefront lots for $2,500 per acre. Since that time our firm has sold more lake property than any other…