Home > Snellville.Talk > Archives > 2007 > May > 30 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USLake Lanier at 50: Aging gracefully?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I made a wish a few weeks ago and it was granted.
It had been a hectic weekend. My daughter graduated from University of Georgia on Saturday (hooray!). We had out-of-town guests and all of the logistical planning and celebration that entails.
By the time Sunday (Mother’s Day) rolled around, my family asked me what I would like to do.
“I want to go and just sit and watch the water,” I replied.
So we gathered the ingredients for a picnic, headed for one of the parks beside Lake Lanier and set out lawn chairs. I sat and watched the water. All afternoon. Even waded a bit. It was wonderful.
I love the water — the sight of it, the sound of it.
I grew up enjoying the backwaters of the Chattahoochee River. Not Lake Lanier, which was created by the construction of the Buford Dam on the river, but further downstream near Columbus - places with names such as Bartlett’s Ferry and Goat Rock.
My family had a cabin - back when cabins were truly cabins and people rarely lived on the lake. Friends’ families had them as well, so many summers and weekends were spent sitting on wooden docks, swimming, dangling from rope swings, skiing and hanging on to big black inner tubes behind boats.
Before I was old enough for any of that, my family would concoct a bed in the bow of our ski boat with plump orange life jackets, and I would nap to the drone of the motor.
The variety of boats was less extensive then — inboard, outboard, sail, fishing or skiing, wooden or fiberglass, an occasional cabin cruiser or pontoon. There were no ocean-sized vessels, no Jet Skis or “personal watercraft vehicles” on the backwater.
The best part of the day was early or late, when few were in the water and the lake was smooth as glass.
I thought about all of this as I watched the activity on Lake Lanier. I thought about the time a few years ago when a friend took us out on his pontoon boat. Two monstrous vessels came racing up beside us, creating wakes that almost capsized us. I thought about friends who moved to Lake Lanier but won’t go out on weekends or holidays because of the crowd.
Still, despite the growth, the traffic, the noise, the lake wields magic.
Old-timers will tell you that Lake Lanier once was like my downstream memories. On some days, in some spots, it still is.
Lake Lanier turns 50 this year. On June 17, 1957 generators at Buford Dam produced their first electricity. A dedication ceremony was held Oct. 9 of that year. Since then, water levels have gone down and up. Usage has climbed. Development has soared.
The lake’s mission to provide water and power for the ever-growing Atlanta area is far more vital than the recreation it provides. But fun also is part of the lake’s heritage. As is the magic of sitting and watching the water.
What do you think? After 50 years is Lake Lanier aging gracefully?
Permalink | Comments (43) | Post your comment | Categories: Susan Gast
Comments
By publius
May 30, 2007 10:29 PM | Link to this
Lake Lanier is not the problem. Crime in South Gwinnett is the problem.
By William
May 30, 2007 11:33 PM | Link to this
A boat size and horsepower limit should have been in place before the lake filled. Now the jetski’s and PWC ruin the relaxation and safety on the lake. I’m beginning to believe Lake Lanier sucks the last breath out of random Hispanics. Is this a ghostly warning from Sidney Lanier or the Ladys of the Lake?
By Katie
May 31, 2007 6:52 AM | Link to this
Lake Lanier is nasty—the water has a texture and it smells. The water doesn’t even look healthy, algae is supposed to be green, not brown and black in some cases. I’d much rather go to a lake where gas powered boats and recreation vehicles aren’t allowed—now that’s pretty water. Lake Lanier? No thanks.
By WHAT
May 31, 2007 8:41 AM | Link to this
What would you do at a lake where boats and recreation vechicles were’nt allowed?
By BCA
May 31, 2007 8:42 AM | Link to this
If you have to live in the Atlanta area, I believe that there is no better place than on Lanier. It is an enjoyable experience to take a Friday evening cruise to one of the restaurants on the water and then return with the sunset.
By gtfan
May 31, 2007 9:00 AM | Link to this
Well, the development is the problem. All this crying about water, but houses going up on 1/6th acre lots for the last 10 years.
I live by Allatoona, mainly serves to keep Rome from flooding. These days I won’t go out on weekends myself.
However, Lake Acworth, a big shallow pound that spills into Allatoona doesn’t and hasn’t allowed boats with over 5hp engines (Think John boats). Now this Lake is polluted from all the run-off, it was shut-down for a few years b/c of the toxicity.
Blame development, not boats.
By Britt
May 31, 2007 9:05 AM | Link to this
I grew up water skiing on Lanier, and while the water quality isn’t the best, God knows I’ve accidentally swallowed enough to kill me if it was going to. I do believe, however, that some of the boats have gotten too large for the good of the crowd. It’s just a lake, folks, no need for a triple engine offshore racer. As for PWC, I don’t think they are ruining the quiet, as I don’t remember the lake being all that quiet before the jet ski rage. All in all, not bad. Definitely one of the better lakes to live on.
By RLC3
May 31, 2007 9:34 AM | Link to this
I love all the complaints about development. Without it where would you live?
People want to move to Atlanta and then try to make sure no one else does? It’s so dumb.
You could move somewhere else if you think that too many people live here. But where ever that is development will have to have occurred there too, you have to have a place to live, right?
By Brad
May 31, 2007 9:35 AM | Link to this
Bottom line is, when you have a mega-reservoir right next to a major metro area the lake is going be crowded. Add the rampant development all along it’s shores and there will be runoff and pollution (not to mention the poultry effluvium from upstream off the Chattahoochee and Chestatee). A lake can only take so much and still purge itself to be relatively “clean”.
It’s happening on a smaller scale to these smaller mountain lakes as well (carters, Blue Ridge, nottely). We just have so many more people now with so many more boats.
By Rob
May 31, 2007 9:38 AM | Link to this
Hey publius- what the hell does crime in south Gwinnett have to do with an article about Lake Lanier?
By Rob
May 31, 2007 9:40 AM | Link to this
Hey publius- what the hell does crime in south Gwinnett have to do with an article about Lake Lanier?
By TBD
May 31, 2007 9:42 AM | Link to this
I also grew up on Lake Lanier. My family moved to the lake in 1970 and we were one of very few families that lived there full time. I’m quite sure that I have lake water running through my veins but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I have so many memories of time spent on those waters. I’m sad to say though that now it has become the playground for the illegals so if you can’t enjoy the lake from a private home then you probably won’t be able to make the same memories that I have.
By Nautidawg
May 31, 2007 9:58 AM | Link to this
I too spent many wonderful and memorable summer days on Lake Lanier growing up and wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. Today I have a place on the Chestatee River and it isn’t nearly the same. Lots of people, lots of boats, lots of traffic and of course, lots of new development. When my daughter graduates from high school we’ll be relocating to another less crowded lake.
By Grant Parker
May 31, 2007 10:11 AM | Link to this
An excerpt:
” When my daughter graduates from high school we’ll be relocating to another less crowded lake.”
That sentiment is precisely why this region suffers from immense sprawl. Folks, we need to learn to live side-by-side, and that includes vacation spots.
By gttim
May 31, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this
Compared to other lakes, Lanier is very clean. I still do open water swims there and find the water OK. We swam early Memorial Day, before the crazies all hit. It was great. By the time we were leaving I watched an idiot on a PWC go bouncing over wakes from a larger boat. His child was seated in front of him, and from across the lake I could see the child’s head violently snap up and down repeatedly. Then the man buzzed through a gaggle of geese. Nice! Wouldn’t it be great if we could just outlaw stupidity?
By 10 o’clock, when we were leaving, there was no more parking anywhere near the damn. It was amazing how large the crowds got. The Rangers were working far to hard to control parking. My hats is off to them.
By Bushwacker
May 31, 2007 10:18 AM | Link to this
Susan,
I did not know Lake Lanier was only 50 years old. My friends and I spent many many weekends at the lake in 70’s and 80’s camping,fishing,skiing,etc. Like you I love the water, but while most people like the ocean, I am a lake and river person, something about sharks in the ocean, although I’ve seen some catfish pulled out of Lanier that were as big as a small shark.
What’s with all the negative comments, I bet most these people have never been to the lake.
I think standing on top of Buford is one of the most scenic places I have ever been whether you look out over the beautiful blue/green water with the mountains in the background or south of the dam down the river.
By Dan
May 31, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this
The lifespan of these manmade lakes are limited and Lanier may have at least 50 years left before it becomes full of sediment. The demise is hurried on by pollution.
By Lyric
May 31, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this
Didn’t it use to be a graveyard? I hear it is haunted.
By Flo Jean
May 31, 2007 11:15 AM | Link to this
It’s always nice to sit on the shore of a quiet lake and watch the sunset. However jet skis and large motorboats ruin it for everyone else. People who use jet skis don’t care about anyone else but themselves. We have a cottage on a lake in upstate NY and we banned PWB’s. It has been much quieter since then.
By zombieboy
May 31, 2007 11:27 AM | Link to this
Lake Lanier is nice, congrats on hitting 50!!
Now, if the drunks and non-swimmers could please STOP drowning themselves….it would be nicer.
What can you do, not much. Especially if those that drown are drunks or were never taught to swim……
By Lyric
May 31, 2007 11:41 AM | Link to this
The Village in the Lake (Lake Lanier)
It is not a natural lake, It was made for pleasure’s sake: For speedboaters, and those who swish On waterskies. It’s stocked with fish. Its waters are not clear, but brown. Every summer, children drown, Or teenagers, addled with beer And showing off, along a pier, Push each other in, or dive, And are not seen again alive. Even sober grown-ups taught In scuba-diving can get caught In a submerged tree or vine, Or tangled in old fishing line.
There are those who tell me down At the bottom is a town, Flooded years and years ago: Houses, and a Texaco. Somewhere a cemetery lies. How could it be otherwise? Yet I wonder of those dead, (All that water overhead) Who were buried underground. Can ghosts swim? Or are they drowned, Sinking slowly in the mud, While in the treetops fishes scud, And through the murky heavens floats The shadow of the pleasure boats? A. E. Stallings
By AW
May 31, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this
We’ve had our boat out at Lanier for the past 11 years. We scuba dive the lake once a while and find neat old glass bottles from the 50’s. While we are experienced divers, we respect the lake and know the dangers of fishing line wrapped around underwater forests. Other than that, I agree that there should be a size restriction on boats with certain size motors. Our dock neighbor has a 50 footer for pete’s sake—way too big for a lake. We also Jetski but again most new craft are 4 stroke which makes them cleaner and quieter than your typical car. Of concern is the rapid development around the lake. 10 years ago Friendship Rd was a 2 lane country road, now it’s got the typical retail strip malls and the traffic that goes with it. Pollution bothers me and I only see the Lake getting worse with more growth. Happy 50th!
By Sonny
May 31, 2007 12:39 PM | Link to this
Effective immediately we will have to restrict how often anyone/everyone can have sex. Those with an odd birthyear may only have sex during an odd numbered year. Those with an even birthyear on even numbered years. Restrictions will have to be further tighened if growth and development do not drop to acceptable levels. This applies to everyone and every sexual orientation so as to not discriminate. regards, the GUV.
By BET
May 31, 2007 1:03 PM | Link to this
“This applies to everyone and every sexual orientation so as to not discriminate”
Unless of course you are here illegally.
By By
May 31, 2007 1:38 PM | Link to this
We love camping at Lake Lanier. There are awesome hidey-holes and coves where boaters and Jet Skiers can’t reach. We definitely have our favorite spots. We’ll be there in a few weeks for some R&R. Happy 50th!
By River Rat
May 31, 2007 1:48 PM | Link to this
We used to keep a boat at holiday on lanier but it got to be so crowded on the weekend when we could go that it wasn’t much fun. Now we have a “cabin” on lake Jackson and keep a boat there for fishing and pleasure, This is still America and we’re free to do pretty much as we please, but at the same time if you look at what we’ve done to Lanier over the last 30 years it’s simply a shame I used to love Lanier. Theres too many mega marinas to much developement way too many boats of all sizes From battleship sized houseboats to jet skis and canoes. The water is so polluted most of us wouldn’t allow children to swim in it.Jackson’s not heaven either but it’s cleaner and closer.
By Bob
May 31, 2007 1:51 PM | Link to this
Some of you need a life. Lanier is a great lake. We spend quite a bit of time there every summer. We have a camper, a ski boat and two jet skis. There is nothing wrong with the fun of a lake.
Now yes some parents are jerks, some teens dont know the dangers, but this is life people. Its hot here. I do say keep the high speed boats and the double wammy motors off the lake. But all in all, Lanier is a lot of fun and safe for the entire family if treated with respect.
By Don L Maney
May 31, 2007 2:11 PM | Link to this
I have wonderful memories of the lake abnd the idel days I spent on my first Houseboat. It was a little thing, just 30 feet but it was so much fun. I reemember the first day I took her out. I was afraid to back out of the slip so the neighbors took the ropes off and pushed me out. It was one of those sink or swim trips. It came a really bad thunder storn and we got lost and ended up in one of the old yacht clubs on the upper end of the lake. After the storm the lake was like glass and so peaceful. Then as the years passes we got a bigger boat and the lake got more busy. The weekends and holidays were so busy you could not enjoy the lake so we sold the boat and miss it a lot. Great memories that can never be recovered, just remembered.
By yesido
May 31, 2007 2:26 PM | Link to this
I have a log house on Lake Jackson & love the way the lake is progressing with beautiful new homes. There’s not many “shacks” left and the lake is only getting more beautiful every year. I’ve had my place 6 years now & wouldn’t go anywhere else given the choice. The only downfall is our property value went up 100k over last year and i’m dreading the tax bill in December. The price of having lakefront property is high but living on it daily gives you quite the natural high.
By Burt R.
May 31, 2007 2:29 PM | Link to this
Back beofre the dam was completed, I used to canoe one of Lanier’s less recognized tributaries, the Cahoolawassie. One time we had some locals take our cars down to Aintry where our canoe trip was to end. Unfortunately, there was a lot of shenanigans on the trip that us city slickers weren’t prepated for. We lost one of the members of a party that year. So, if you ever see the skeletal hand of a corpse sticking up out of the water, it may be my long lost buddy.
By susan gast
May 31, 2007 3:13 PM | Link to this
Hey Burt, I believe I hear some dueling banjos….
susan
By LJ
May 31, 2007 4:02 PM | Link to this
Susan…”I think standing on top of Buford is one of the most scenic places I have ever been whether you look out over the beautiful blue/green water with the mountains in the background or south of the dam down the river.”
Aaahhhh yes, I can understand your passion for areas which have the qualities you truly love. When I read your comment above, I replaced the area you described with such passion with “look up at the pristine white mountains, brushing the heavens above, skirted in deep, deep green of the Cascade, Olympic and Rockie Mountain ranges. Places where no tourist would bother to roam (no restaurants, quick stops or souvenier shops).
Rather the sounds that meet your ears and fill your senses are not those of people crushing together to “enjoy the outdoors” or screaming, undisciplined children herded about by complaining parents, but rather you hear only the wind coursing through the dense forests of evergreens (NOT pines), the rush of ice cold water from the “snow melt”, cascading down the canyons and coursing through the boulders finally ending in a pristine lake, untouched by boat (either powered or not). To quietly sit and listen to the cries of the eagles and hawks, songs of the birds, and watch the wildlife as it moves silently about. To walk along the animal trails and enjoy the beauty of the profuse Rhododendrons, Lilly of the Valley, Bleeding Heart and inumerable other wildflowers.
The beauty of such a place is you have to really want to be there.
Thankfully, the majority couldn’t bother.
May the tourists never find the majestic, high mountain ranges appealing enough to want to move there. May the high ranges always prove to be too difficult, too wild to be tamed into submission and turned into yet another playground for the bored. Only to be used up, trashed and then discarded as the ever amusement-hungry hoard marches on to yet another unspoiled “vacation spot”.
When I look at photos of the beaches in the NE I wonder if there is any sand underneath all those bodies. Why in the world would anyone leave their own backyard only to go to a “beach” where you cannot possibly get anywhere close to the water…..?
By James Elliott
May 31, 2007 5:19 PM | Link to this
Lake Lanier is like a health spa…Thank god everybody with a membership doesn’t show up. Can you imagine the bedlam==not to mention the gunplay!
By Jim Chapman
May 31, 2007 7:51 PM | Link to this
Happy birthday Lake Lanier! Your the next best thing to being by the ocean!
By WLP
May 31, 2007 8:53 PM | Link to this
Lanier is awesome, any lake water north south east west doesn’t matter houses no houses. we live in America and illegal or not fast or just fat and watchin more power to you. lanier is awesome. day am night. when the h2o is too warm in aug you can hot the river, a little chilly. USA!
By Jonny
June 1, 2007 8:44 AM | Link to this
So, you’re going to move somewhere less crowded only to spoil yet another lake? Nice.
By JJ
June 1, 2007 8:58 AM | Link to this
I was on Lanier on Monday with friends on their boat. We got on the water at 10:30 a.m. and pulled out at 4:30. Where we were wasn’t very crowded, didn’t see one single cop, and we were able to tube and water ski. We pulled into a couple of coves and had the entire cove to ourselves. Anchored the boat, took out the rafts, and lazed on the lake for hours!!!!
Now, I myself will not get into the water, but I will drive the boat. Put up the canopy, pop out a beer, and well, that’s the life!!!
I live 5 minutes from Buford Dam, and go there often, at least once a week. My daughter and I like to get Publix deli sandwiches, grab the doggies, and head over to one of the parts that allows dogs, and have ourselves a little picnic dinner, right on the lake. It just doesn’t get much better than that!!!
By yoye
June 1, 2007 9:18 AM | Link to this
Motor boat speed is limit on the Lake but it is not reinforced. Every time the sun is out, you see and hear the noise coming from high-speed motorboats. I, once more, request Hall County and Lake Lanier authorities to reinforce the speed limit and reduce the air and sound pollution. Other than that, sailing on Lanier is one of the best ways to enjoy weekends in ATL.
By kristin
June 1, 2007 9:42 AM | Link to this
The real problem wih Lake Lanier is the runoff of dirt from the near by consrtuction (silt). Lake Lanier is litterally being refilled with dirt and experts predict that because of this the lake’s life span will be shortened dramatically.
News flash teenagers have been horseplaying for a few years now (esp. boys in front of pretty girls)
By Joan
June 1, 2007 9:42 AM | Link to this
yoye How on earth do you think they can control the speed of boaters on the lake? It can’t be done with drivers on the local roads who speed… Do you call the police, once again, for road speeders?
By lakemonster
June 1, 2007 9:43 AM | Link to this
Sorry yoye, you’re wrong about the speed limit on the lake. There is none. I think the only problems are the mega yachts (Do you really need a 50 footer with a radar arch on the lake?) and the idiot tubers who will do circles in front of your dock for hours and don’t watch for other boats. You’re not the only one on the lake fool!
By FarmerG
June 1, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this
Hey people…the main reason for Lake Lanier is DRINKING WATER for a large portion of Atlanta.
Building houses on the shore on spetic tanks, allowing thousands of huge boats/jet skis/ski boats etc. and allowing your drinking water source to be the playground of inconsiderate people who are willing run triple engine cigar boats or 125’ houseboats is insane.
Lake Lanier is overused for recreation, polluted and nasty. How much do we spend cleaning out drinking water out of the lake to it is tolerable?
And the same people who live on the lake and drive their monster boats are worried about the state of the art treatment system putting their cleaner than original water back in?
Crazy.
By publius
June 2, 2007 11:24 PM | Link to this
“Gwinnett homicides double ‘06 pace”
Hey Rob, when are you going to stop ignoring the problem? Everything is trivial compared to the crime problem in Gwinnett.