Did you know that the present location of Buford dam was not the only site the government was considering? A number of areas were studied before the Corps decided to place the dam where it rests today. One such place was near Roswell, 29.6 miles downstream from the present site. Lake Lanier's normal pool elevation rests at 1071.0. If the Corps had decided to build the dam at Roswell, the normal pool would have been 982.0 which was one of the reasons they chose not to construct the dam at that location.

The low elevation which provided a less regulated flow downstream, the high cost of relocating such a large urban area, plus the cost of extensive highway and railroad relocations were all factors that made the Roswell location less attractive than the Buford site.

The name Lake Sidney Lanier was not officially given to the lake until shortly before the project was finished. For many years newspaper and magazine reports called the soon to be created lake, Buford Lake. This was not an uncommon practice, even today, to name the dam and lake after the same person. When the government finally got around to giving the lake a name there was no shortage of ideas. It seemed that everyone had an opinion on the subject. Some people believed that then Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield should have the honor. Others felt that Senator Richard B. Russell's name should be synonymous with the lake. It was even reported that there was a move to have the lake named after Georgia

Tech Football Coach Bobby Dodd. This idea may have had legitimate merit until someone noted that the name Dodd Dam might be an inappropriate phrase to make over the airwaves.

There was even a suggestion by a geologist that the lake bear the name of American humorist Will Rogers who was a descendent of Cherokee Indians who had lived near the dam site. Eventually the second session of the 84th Congress, under Public Law 56-457 passed on March 29, 1956, officially named the reservoir created by Buford Dam as Lake Sidney Lanier.

When work on the main earth dam at Buford began, the old Chattahoochee River bed was cleared all the way to it's foundation of granite. Many strange items were probably found in the earth of the old river bed, but none stranger than when construction crews found an old ship's anchor. Officials were not exactly sure how the anchor got so far upstream. The Chattahoochee River this far north was not navigable, at least not for ships that would use such an anchor. It was somewhat of a mystery but the project's resident engineer at the time, Mr. Charles Jackson, theorized that the anchor probably came from one of the many barges that had been used in the early years to survey the river.

www.lakelanierhistory.com