The Backstory: Hometowns That Vanished Overnight

We know over the course of decades, centuries, and millennia landscapes change... sometimes dramatically. But how can entire towns literally disappear overnight?

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, it's Patty Steele, and on Instagram, it's Real Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting to think about. Right where you

Speaker 1: and I are standing, or swimming or working, they're likely

Speaker 1: was once a whole different civilization living its everyday life.

Speaker 1: Sure we know that over thousands and even hundreds of years,

Speaker 1: the landscape changes, Buildings go up and come down, roads

Speaker 1: are built. Technology changes things. But imagine if everything you

Speaker 1: know suddenly changed almost overnight because of where you live.

Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele Vanishing home towns gone on purpose. That's

Speaker 1: next on the backstory. The backstory is back, all right.

Speaker 1: Imagine standing on the shore of a beautiful lake. The

Speaker 1: water is calm, Boats drift across the surface, Families fish

Speaker 1: from docks. Vacation homes line the shoreline. It looks really peaceful.

Speaker 1: But beneath the water lies something few people think about. Roads, foundations, churches, farms,

Speaker 1: entire communities, places where people once lived, worked, fell in love,

Speaker 1: raised families, and were buried. This is the story of

Speaker 1: the towns that vanished beneath America's lakes. Now imagine it

Speaker 1: was once your hometown. It's fascinating and a little eerie. Right,

Speaker 1: it's the early nineteen hundreds. America is growing really fast.

Speaker 1: Cities need drinking water, industries need power, farmers need irrigation.

Speaker 1: On top of that, as the population grows, flood control

Speaker 1: becomes a huge priority. Okay, the solution seems obvious, control

Speaker 1: the water supply by building dams. So engineers across the

Speaker 1: country begin to block rivers and valleys are flooded to

Speaker 1: create giant reservoirs. That's progress, right, But for thousands of

Speaker 1: people living in those valleys, progress means something very different.

Speaker 1: It means leaving home forever, never to return, and nothing

Speaker 1: left to remin member it by. One of the most

Speaker 1: famous examples is Lake Lanier, created in the nineteen fifties

Speaker 1: after the construction of the Buford Dam. The reservoir eventually

Speaker 1: became one of the most visited lakes in the United States.

Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Before the water arrived, the area

Speaker 1: looked totally different. There were farms and roads, there were

Speaker 1: small towns with general stores, schools, churches, and cemeteries more

Speaker 1: on that. In the moment, thousands of acres simply disappeared

Speaker 1: beneath the rising water. The government bought the land from residents,

Speaker 1: often paying what the guys in control thought was fair value.

Speaker 1: But a lot of families disagree. I mean think about it.

Speaker 1: What if you and your family had lived there for generations.

Speaker 1: Is a government check really going to replace your family history?

Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine getting an official letter telling

Speaker 1: you that pretty soon your home, everything familiar to you,

Speaker 1: the landmarks that defined would just cease to exist, not

Speaker 1: because of war or a natural disaster, but because your

Speaker 1: government had decided to build a gigantic lake. For a

Speaker 1: lot of folks, that was reality. Families started packing up

Speaker 1: their belongings, in some cases trying to hold on to

Speaker 1: some semblance of normalcy. People literally moved their houses if

Speaker 1: it was possible. Others were demolished or simply left behind.

Speaker 1: Entire communities scattered in all directions. Neighbors who had known

Speaker 1: one another for decades suddenly were living miles apart. For

Speaker 1: these people, an entire way of life disappeared almost overnight.

Speaker 1: Now back to the cemeteries. Dealing with them was often

Speaker 1: the most emotional task. Hundreds of graves had to be

Speaker 1: relocated before the flooding got underway. Workers carefully dug up

Speaker 1: remains and moved them to new burial grounds. Problem is,

Speaker 1: not every grave was moved. Records from earlier eras were

Speaker 1: often incomplete. Some burial sites were overlooked. Of course, over time,

Speaker 1: stories started to make the rounds claiming that forgotten graves

Speaker 1: still rested beneath the lake, and those legends, true or not,

Speaker 1: became part of the lake's identity. So as the waters rose,

Speaker 1: roads vanished, bridges disappeared, fields transformed into green but eerie

Speaker 1: underwater landscapes. Everything that had once been taken for granted

Speaker 1: as familiar stomping grounds for folks became an artificial lake

Speaker 1: stretching for miles, and beneath it all remained traces of

Speaker 1: that old world. Divers still occasionally report seeing underwater roads

Speaker 1: and foundations, and Lake Lanier isn't alone. In some reservoirs

Speaker 1: around America, droughts have temporarily lowered water levels enough for

Speaker 1: remains of lost towns to reappear. Stone walls emerge, old

Speaker 1: building foundations become visible as fragments of the past briefly

Speaker 1: returned to the sunlight before the water reclaims them. It's

Speaker 1: almost as if the lake, along with some old time residents,

Speaker 1: refuses to completely forget. Lake Lanier developed an especially mysterious

Speaker 1: reputation over the decades. There have been a lot of

Speaker 1: boating accidents, drownings, and tragedies there As you can imagine,

Speaker 1: people start searching for explanations. Local stories have spread about

Speaker 1: underwater structures, hidden hazards, and what seems like restless history

Speaker 1: beneath the surface, and the legends continue to grow. In reality,

Speaker 1: massive reservoirs can hold underwater obstacles, sudden drop offs, and

Speaker 1: dangerous conditions for swimmers and boaters, but that doesn't stop

Speaker 1: the stories. This same story has happened in dozens of

Speaker 1: places where small towns were claimed by the powers that

Speaker 1: be to bring water and power to developing areas. In

Speaker 1: some cases, entire downtown districts vanished under the water, and

Speaker 1: each reservoir tells the same story from a different angle,

Speaker 1: a sacrifice made in the name of progress. In fairness,

Speaker 1: the dams pretty much have done exactly what engineers promised.

Speaker 1: They generate electricity, control flooding, provide drinking water and irrigation,

Speaker 1: and they've created recreational areas that millions of people enjoy

Speaker 1: every day. Modern cities depend on infrastructure built during these

Speaker 1: massive projects. Problem is, the benefits came with a cost.

Speaker 1: It's a cost measured not only in dollars, but in memories.

Speaker 1: When a town disappears because of fire, war, or disaster,

Speaker 1: the destruction is obvious, but the land remains. When a

Speaker 1: town disappears beneath a lake, something stranger happens. While the

Speaker 1: place isn't entirely gone, it's forever hidden. Lying beneath layers

Speaker 1: of water. Roads are still where they were built, Foundations

Speaker 1: and walls still mark where houses used to stand. It's

Speaker 1: all down there, but the community is not. It's a

Speaker 1: sort of underwater ghost town, haunted by fading memories. These days,

Speaker 1: folks speeding across the surface of Lake Lanier see it

Speaker 1: as a playground of water boats and summer recreations. But

Speaker 1: they're floating above a vanished landscape. Below them are the

Speaker 1: traces of farms where children once played, churches where families gathered,

Speaker 1: roads that once connected neighbors, and homes where ordinary people

Speaker 1: lived ordinary lives. Yes, the lake brought electricity, water, and

Speaker 1: prosperity to millions, but it also we raced communities that

Speaker 1: had taken generations to build. And that may be the

Speaker 1: most fascinating part of the story, because beneath some of

Speaker 1: America's most beautiful lakes lies a hidden world, a world

Speaker 1: that didn't disappear by accident, It disappeared by design. And

Speaker 1: you know what's amazing. If the water could suddenly drain

Speaker 1: away tomorrow, entire pieces of forgotten history would emerge from

Speaker 1: the depths, waiting exactly where they were left behind. It

Speaker 1: kind of does want to make you explore now. Hope

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Speaker 1: to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram

Speaker 1: Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a

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Speaker 1: Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Mike Pieseglia. Our writer

Speaker 1: is Jake Kushner. New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday,

Speaker 1: and feel free to reach out to me with comments

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Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't

Speaker 1: know you needed to know