Tuesday, January 1, 2019

First Sunday Lecture: Lost and Drowned - What happened to the Landscape of North Georgia?

First Sunday Lecture
"Lost and Drowned - What happened to the Landscape of North Georgia?
Sunday, January 6, 2019
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Smyrna Public Library, Meeting Room

Presenter: Lisa Russell, author of Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia

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 dives into the history hidden beneath North Georgia’s lakes.

Speaker Biography:

Lisa Russell is a member of the Society for Georgia Archaeology, Bartow History Museum and Etowah Valley Historical Society. She earned her masters degree in professional writing from Kennesaw State University. When Lisa is not teaching at Georgia Northwestern Technical College or Kennesaw State University, she can be found exploring North Georgia through a micro-historic lens.

The First Sunday Lecture series is sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library and Smyrna Library.

FREE ADMISSION

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