Lake Town

In 1912, racial violence drove the Black residents of Oscarville, Georgia, from their homes. Decades later, the ruins of their community disappeared beneath Lake Lanier. Today, the lake is one of the Southeast’s busiest tourist destinations. Almost no one talks about what lies below.

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Sheriff Daniel Hale has spent years searching for answers after his wife and daughters vanished on the lake. Investigative journalist Maya Torres arrives with evidence that disappearances have followed the same pattern for decades, clustering around holiday weekends. At the shoreline, historian Dr. Isaiah Brooks tracks the falling water with sonar and watches the buried town begin to emerge.

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When a young man disappears over Memorial Day weekend, the search brings up more than a body. Divers find him inside a stone room still standing forty feet underwater, part of a community that was never erased. Only submerged.

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As fireworks break over the marina and tourists celebrate above, Hale looks into the dark water and understands what the lake’s economy has always depended on: Oscarville staying buried.

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It won’t.