Georgia’s first ‘waterslide’ is set to open on haunted Lake Lanier, notorious for hundreds of bizarre drownings and electrocution deaths.
The famous man-made lake, built on top of burial grounds in the 1950s, has seen more than 70 deaths in boating incidents and recorded 140 drowning deaths between 1994 and 2022.
Now, at the top of the lake, a water park is poised to introduce “Georgia’s first adrenaline-fueled waterslide that will redefine aquatic thrills,” according to Margaritaville at Lake Lanier Islands.
Fins Up Water Park, scheduled to open May 4, will feature 15 rides, 15 restaurants and concessions, according to the resort’s website.
“This monumental investment marks the most significant expansion of Margaritaville at Lanier Islands in decades, adding Georgia’s largest water slide complex to the water park, which will boast an impressive 15 total slides by 2024,” park officials wrote.
Georgia’s first ‘waterslide’ to open on haunted Lake Lanier, notorious for hundreds of bizarre drownings and electrocution deaths
The famous man-made lake, built on top of burial grounds in the 1950s, has seen more than 70 people killed in boating incidents and recorded 140 drowning deaths between 1994 and 2022
Now, at the top of the lake, a water park is poised to introduce ‘Georgia’s first adrenaline-fueled waterslide that will redefine aquatic thrills,’ according to Margaritaville at Lake Lanier Islands
The resort held a ceremony on Wednesday this week to announce the news, including the construction of Apocalypso and three additional slides.
The waterslide will send riders downhill at an average speed of 30 mph, according to park officials.
“This blockbuster tower of slides, featuring Georgia’s first waterslide, will be an epic addition to Margaritaville at Lanier Islands,” said Bucky Perry, vice president of Margaritaville at Lanier Islands.
“For those seeking an escape and a nonstop day of high-speed intensity and fun for the whole family, Margaritaville at Lanier Islands is the place to be.”
The celebration of the multi-million-dollar renovation, however, is being met with intense backlash from outraged social media users.
‘For those who don’t remember, over 200 bodies have been pulled from Georgia’s Lake Lanier since 1994. Lake Lanier was built on top of black communities in the early 20th century,’ one Instagram user wrote.
According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division, 216 people have died at the lake between 1994 and 2022.
In just one week last September, three people lost their lives in Lake Lanier, adding to the death toll that doesn’t even include suicides or medical emergencies.
Built in 1956 by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the lake has more than 38,000 acres of water and hosts several million visitors a year.
‘For those who don’t remember, over 200 bodies have been pulled from Georgia’s Lake Lanier since 1994. Lake Lanier was built on top of black communities in the early 20th century,’ one Instagram user wrote
In just one week last September, three people lost their lives in Lake Lanier, adding to the death toll that doesn’t even include suicides or medical emergencies. Pictured: Leonardo Martine (left) and Thomas Milner (right), who died last September
According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division, 216 people have died at the lake between 1994 and 2022. Pictured: Cristofer Acosta-Farias (left) died in 2020 and Kile Glover (right) died in 2012
Located about an hour’s drive from Atlanta, the lake covers 60 square miles with depths of up to 160 feet.
The lake provides drinking water to about 5 million people, according to the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper conservation group.
Buford Dam at the lake’s southern end generates hydroelectric power for the Atlanta metro area.
Prior to the 1950s, the current location of the lake was home to a small black community in the town of Oscarville, notorious for being the site of a 1912 lynching.
To build the lake, the town was emptied and in 1947 most of the residents were driven away. The city’s remains, including graves located within the city’s burial grounds, were subsequently flooded during construction in 1950.
One explanation for the shocking death toll in Lake Lenier could be the treacherous underwater traps, according to a 2023 Washington Post article.
“When the lake was built, they didn’t remove every single structure from the area before they flooded it,” said Dee Gillespie, a professor of American history at the University of North Georgia.
“That means if you’re swimming, you’re more likely to get caught in something.”
Beneath the lake are ‘roofs, house foundations, cemeteries and the Gainesville Speedway’ because city officials felt it is too expensive to tear down the infrastructure.
“When Lake Lanier formed in the 1950s, it washed over Oscarville and turned it into an underwater ghost town,” reads a 2021 Oxford American article.
One explanation for the shocking death toll in Lake Lanier could be the treacherous underwater traps, according to a 2023 Washington Post article
Last year, Lake Lanier made national headlines when Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster, 52, collected more than 2,500 signatures on a petition asking officials to drain the lake.
It comes after her 11-year-old son Kile Glover was struck and killed on the lake 12 years ago by Jeffrey Hubbard, a close friend of Kile’s father Ryan Glover, when he was riding a jet ski in a ‘reckless’ manner with no hands .
Foster said, ‘Draining, cleaning and restoring Lake Lanier is not only necessary, but also an opportunity to honor the memory of those who lost their lives and prevent further tragedies.’
Patrick Cloud, a TikTok influencer, expressed his confusion as to why the plan to build a water park was approved in the first place.
‘It has a haunted history because it used to be a thriving black community. And they said, what if we flood it and make it a lake instead,’ he said in a video, referring to the lake as a mass grave.
‘That’s what they did. And now hundreds of people have died in there. And now they’re like, you know what would be fooled in here? A water slide!’
He continued: ‘If you have any plans to go here, you are probably either insane, completely stupid or very racist, or all three.’