Reactions are pouring in online to news of a new water park set to open at Lake Lanier this summer that will feature Georgia’s first waterslide coaster.
Officials and crews broke ground on the Apocalypso coaster on Wednesday. The attraction is a four-slide tower and the centerpiece attraction at Fins Up Water Park, which is opening May 4 at Margaritaville at Lanier Islands.
“This monumental investment marks the most significant expansion of Margaritaville at Lanier Islands in decades, adding Georgia’s largest waterslide complex to the water park, boasting an impressive 15 slides in total in 2024,” park officials wrote.
Many online weren’t sold on the idea of a water park at Lake Lanier, given its history. It has been the site of numerous drownings and deadly water accidents over the years, so it’s gained a reputation among locals for being “haunted.”
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources reported that more than 210 people died at Lake Lanier between 1994 and 2010 in drownings and boating accidents.
Of the roughly 40 drownings that happened in Georgia waters in 2023, eight of them were at Lake Lanier, making that year one of the deadliest years on record for the lake. One of the victims was even electrocuted before he died.
There were six drownings in 2022, four in 2021, seven in 2020, and eight in 2019 and 2018, according to Channel 2 News.
Tameka Foster, the ex-wife of singer and songwriter Usher, has previously called for officials to adopt “drain, clean, restore and improve safety measures” at Lake Lanier. Foster’s son, Kile Glover, who was Usher’s stepson, died in a jet ski-related incident at the lake in 2012.
Lake Lanier is a man-made lake formed in 1956 when the Chattahoochee River was dammed for flood control and power generation. It also provides drinking water for nearly five million people in North Georgia.
The lake sits atop what was once the site of a thriving Black community called Oscarville. Oscarville was established in the 1800s during the Reconstruction era and, though small, it was home to a successful Black populace filled with carpenters, blacksmiths, bricklayers, and farmers.
The town was destroyed in 1912 after an 18-year-old white woman was found dead in woods close to the community. Three Black men were accused of her rape and murder and were subsequently lynched. By the year’s end, all of the community’s residents were violently driven out.
Urban legends have surfaced in recent decades due to what some observers are calling a bizarre pattern of deaths at Lake Lanier, so most social users had darker responses to the news that the lake will now be home to a water park.
Margaritaville at Lanier Islands is a waterfront park in Buford, Georgia, less than 50 miles outside Atlanta. It’s situated on the small islands of Lake Lanier. Visitors can camp, fish, boat, swim, and beach on lakeside shores.
