Old Town Resurfaces as Drought Dries Ga. Lake

Cars, boats, and building scraps found under evaporating Lake Lenier

By Dustin Lushing, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 24, 2007 10:03 PM CST

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Old Town Resurfaces as Drought Dries Ga. Lake — A portion of the grandstands of Gaineville Speedway, once submerged under Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga., remains near the shoreline Monday, Dec. 17, 2007. As a record drought continues to take it's toll on the 38,000-acre man-made reservoir that supplies more than three million residents with water... (Associated Press)

The brutal drought hitting Georgia is drying up an artificial lake and exposing the long-dead town that lies beneath—along with mountains of trash. "It's horrendous, it's unbelievable," said one local resident. Lake Lanier's receding shores have exposed debris of all shapes and sizes, including an old dirt racing track, foundations of buildings, sunken cars and boats, even a stretch of Georgia Highway 53.

The government built the lake in the 1950s, forcing out 700 families, and it now provides water to 3 million people in Atlanta. The current drought has made the lake 19 feet shallower. "In a way it's interesting, I guess," said the head of the Lake Lanier Association. "But I feel really heartbroken for the lake. If there's a silver lining, it's being able to get the trash out." (More Georgia stories.)

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