Constructed right atop the historically Black town of Oscarville, Georgia in 1956, Lake Lanier has become one of the most dangerous bodies of water in America with the remains of buildings just below the surface ensnaring hundreds of boats and swimmers.

Each year, more than 10 million people visit Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia. Though unsuspecting the massive, placid lake might look, its considered one of the deadliest in America indeed, there have been 700 deaths at Lake Lanier since its construction in 1956.

This shocking number of accidents at the lake have led many to theorize that the site may, in fact, be haunted.

And given the controversial circumstances surrounding the lakes construction and a history of racial violence in the ruins of the former town of Oscarville that lie beneath the lakes surface, there might be some truth to this idea.

In 1956, the United States Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with creating a lake to provide water and power to parts of Georgia and help to prevent the Chattahoochee River from flooding.

They chose to construct the lake near Oscarville, in Forsyth County. Named after the poet and Confederate soldier Sidney Lanier, Lake Lanier has 692 miles of shoreline, making it the largest in Georgia and far, far larger than the town of Oscarville, which the Corps of Engineers forcefully emptied so that the lake could be built.

In total, 250 families were displaced, roughly 50,000 acres of farmland were destroyed, and 20 cemeteries were either relocated or otherwise engulfed by the lakes waters over its five-year construction period.

The town of Oscarville, however, was strangely not demolish before the lake was filled, and its ruins still rest at the bottom of Lake Lanier.

Divers have reported finding fully intact streets, walls, and houses, making it the single most dangerous underwater surface in the United States.

The flooded structures, coupled with declining water levels, are presumed to be a major factor in the high number of deaths that occur yearly at Lake Lanier, catching swimmers and holding them under or damaging boats with debris.

The deaths at Lake Lanier arent the typical sort, though. While there are many instances of people drowning, there are also reports of boats randomly going up in flames, freak accidents, missing persons, and inexplicable tragedies.

Some believe the regions dark past is responsible for these incidents. Legend asserts that vengeful and restless spirits of those whose graves were flooded many of whom were Black or persecuted and driven out by violent white mobs is behind this curse.

The town of Oscarville was once a bustling, turn-of-the-century community and a beacon for Black culture in the South. At the time, 1,100 Black people owned land and operated businesses in Forsyth County alone.

But on Sept. 9, 1912, an 18-year-old white woman named Mae Crow was raped and murdered near Browns Bridge on the Chattahoochee River banks, right by Oscarville.

According to the Oxford American, Mae Crows murder was pinned on four young Black people who happened to live in the area nearby; siblings Oscar and Trussie Jane Daniel, only 18 and 22 respectively, and their 16-year-old cousin Ernest Knox. With them was Robert Big Rob Edwards, 24.

Edwards was arrested for Crows rape and murder and taken to jail in Cumming, Georgia, the seat of Forsyth County.

A day later, a white mob invaded Edwards jail cell. They shot him, dragged him through the streets, and hanged him from a telephone pole outside the courthouse.

A month later, Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel appeared in court for the rape and murder of Mae Crow. They were found guilty by the jury in just over an hour.

Some 5,000 people gathered to watch the teenagers be hanged.

Trussie Daniels charges were dismissed, but its widely believed that all three boys were innocent of the crimes.

Following Edwards lynching, white mobs known as night riders started going door to door across Forsyth County with torches and guns, burning down Black businesses and churches, demanding that all Black citizens vacate the county.

As Narcity reported, to this day less than five percent of Forsyth Countys population is Black.

But perhaps Lake Lanier is haunted by some other force?

The most popular legend surrounding Lake Lanier is called The Lady of the Lake.

As the story goes, in 1958, two young girls named Delia May Parker Young and Susie Roberts were at a dance in town but had decided to leave early. On the way home, they stopped to get gas and then left without paying for it.

They were driving across a bridge over Lake Lanier when they lost control of the car, spiraling off the edge and crashing into the dark waters below.

A year later, a fisherman out on the lake came across a decomposed, unrecognizable body floating near the bridge. At the time, no one could identify who it belonged to.

It wasnt until 1990 when officials discovered a 1950s Ford sedan at the bottom of the lake with the remains of Susie Roberts inside, that they were able to identify the body found three decades earlier as Delia May Parker Youngs.

But locals already knew who she was. They had reportedly seen her, still in her blue dress, wandering near the bridge at night with handless arms, waiting to drag unsuspecting lake-goers to the bottom.

Other people have reported seeing a shadowy figure sitting on a raft, inching himself across the water with a long pole and holding up a lantern to see.

Besides these ghost stories of yore, there are those who claim that the lake is haunted by the spirits of the 27 victims who have died in Lake Lanier over the years, but whose bodies were never found.

In the end, though, ghost stories are perhaps nothing more than a fun way to write off an otherwise tragic history littered with racist violence as well as unsafe and poorly planned construction.

Regardless of its size, for 700 people to have died in the lake in less than 70 years, something must be wrong. The Army Corps of Engineers initially believed that the submerged town of Oscarville wouldnt cause any harm, but the lake also wasnt constructed to be recreational it was meant to supply water from the Chattahoochee River to towns and cities in Georgia.

Many of the deaths can likely be attributed to things as simple as not wearing a life jacket, drinking alcohol while out on the lake, accidents, or incorrectly assuming that shallow water is always safe.

Perhaps the only thing that truly haunts Lake Lanier is its bigoted past.

After reading about the deaths at Lake Lanier and the history of Lake Lanier, learn about Ohios Franklin Castle, which quickly became a house of horrors. Then, see the twisted, dark history of the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana.

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Inside Lake Lanier's Deaths And Why People Say It's Haunted - All That's Interesting