Lake Lanier at 50

GAINESVILLE - A summerlong celebration begins in a few weeks to mark the 50th anniversary of Lake Lanier. In this, the first in an occasional series of reports on Lake Lanier, we look back at at the project itself - from conception to completion.

Serious Planning for a reservoir north of Atlanta, which later became known as Lake Sidney Lanier, began in 1946, according to David Coughlin, the author of "The History of Lake Lanier."

"That's when an act of Congress was passed calling for the construction of the dam and other such projects around the country," Coughlin said. But. he adds the idea for the impoundment had been kicked around since early in the 20th Century, "back as early as the 20s and 30s."

Coughlin says several sites were looked at when serious planning for the dam began.

"They (engineers) surveyed site after site, up and down the Chattahoochee River looking for a place to put a dam in Atlanta, north of Atlanta. An early favorite was in Roswell," about 30 miles downstream from the site eventually selected for the dam.

Coughlin says that if the Corps had decided to build the dam at Roswell, the normal full pool of the lake, which is 1071.0, would have been 982.0 - and that was a big reason Roswell was rejected. In addition, he says, the lower elevation that would have provided a less regulated flow downstream, the high cost of relocating such a large urban area, and the expense of extensive highway and railroad relocations were others things that made the Roswell location less attractive than the Buford site.

The major underlying reason for building a dam on the Chattahoochee north of Atlanta was flood control.

"Before the dam was built," Coughlin said, "periodic flooding in the Atlanta area was pretty common."

The federal government bought 50,000 acres of private land for the lake - and ground breaking for the dam was held March 1, 1950.

Buford Lake? Lake Russell? Lake Hartsfield? Rogers Lake?

As for the name of the lake, Couglin says it appeared at first that it would be called Buford Lake. He says there was even talk of naming it after then-Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield, Georgia Sen. Richard Russell, and maybe even American humorist Will Rogers who was a descendant of Cherokee Indians who had lived near where the dam was being built.

But, Congress settled the issue in the spring of 1956, just months before the gates were closed at the dam and the water began to back up, forming the lake - naming the reservoir after noted Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, who was perhaps best known for "The Song of the Chattahoochee," which begins "Out of the hills of Habersham, down the valleys of Hall..."

Once the gates were closed at the dam in the summer of 1956, it took about a year for the water to back up and reach full pool and the project was officially delcared completed. The dam was dedicated in a cermony that was held in October 1957.

Coughlin will discuss the history of Lake Lanier in depth next Sunday, June 4, at 5:30 a.m. on Northeast Georgia This Week on WDUN NEWS TALK 550 (like AccessNorthGa.com, a part of Jacobs Media Corp.)

The celebration of Lake Lanier's 50th anniversary - 50 Days for 50 Years - begins next month and continues for the rest of the summer. (See link below.)

In future reports in this series, we'll look at, among other things, resistence to construction of the lake and the economic impact it has had on northeast Georgia, particularly Hall, Dawson, Forsyth and Gwinnett - the four counties that border the 38,000-acre reservoir.