North Georgia has more than forty lakes and not one is natural. The state’s controversial decision to dam the region’s rivers for power and water supply changed the landscape forever. Lost communities, forgotten crossroads, dissolving racetracks and even entire towns disappeared, with remnants occasionally peeking up from the depths during times of extreme drought. The creation of Lake Lanier displaced more than seven hundred families. During the construction of Lake Chatuge, busloads of schoolboys were brought in to help disinter graves for the community’s cemetery relocation. Contractors clearing land for the development of Lake Hartwell met with seventy-eight-year-old Eliza Brock wielding a shotgun and warning the men off her property. Lisa Russell, author of Lost Cities of North Georgia, Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia, and the upcoming Lost Mill Towns of North Georgia, dives into the history hidden beneath North Georgia’s lakes.

Lisa M. Russell is a member of Society for Georgia Archaeology, Bartow History Museum, Etowah Valley Historical Society, Whitfield-Murray Historical Society, and the Cherokee County Historical Society. She earned her Masters of Arts degree in professional writing from Kennesaw State University. Lisa teaches English full-time at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. She is a part-time professor of communication at Kennesaw State University. She also teaches at Belhaven University. In her “spare-time” You can find Lisa exploring North Georgia for her next story.