Evening Lecture: Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia

LOST BENEATH THE WATER: THE GHOST TOWNS OF NORTH GEORGIA

What lies beneath North Georgia’s lakes? In many cases, entire communities.

Join us for an Evening Lecture, Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia, featuring author and Georgia historian Lisa M. Russell on October 29 from 7 to 8 p.m.

Drawing from her book of the same name, Russell will uncover the stories of communities that disappeared beneath North Georgia’s man-made lakes. The region is home to more than 40 lakes, none of which formed naturally. As rivers were dammed to provide power and water, the resulting reservoirs permanently transformed the landscape, displacing families and submerging towns, crossroads, racetracks and other places that once played a role in everyday life.

Russell will share the stories of the people who faced these dramatic changes, including more than 700 families displaced by the creation of Lake Lanier, schoolboys recruited to help relocate a cemetery during the construction of Lake Chatuge, and 78-year-old Eliza Brock, who confronted contractors clearing her property for Lake Hartwell with a shotgun.

During periods of extreme drought, the waters sometimes recede enough to reveal remnants of these lost communities, offering a rare glimpse of the places that disappeared beneath North Georgia’s lakes.

About the Speaker

Lisa M. Russell, MAPW, earned a Master of Arts in Professional Writing from Kennesaw State University in 2012. She teaches Human Communication in the School of Communication and Media and First-Year English in the English Department. She also teaches full-time at Georgia Northwestern Technical College.

Russell is the author of three creative nonfiction books published by Arcadia/History Press: Lost Towns of North Georgia, Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia, and Lost Company Towns of North Georgia.

Admission:

• Free for Bartow History Museum members
• $9 for non-members