Hikers remember lake’s namesake

He followed his heart, writing poetry about the natural world and the Southern experience of the late 1800s. He died at 39, succumbing to a disease he contracted as a prisoner of war and never dreaming the largest lake in Georgia would be named for him.

On Feb. 1, a few days before the 183rd anniversary of his birth, seven hikers and a guide commemorated Sidney Lanier, namesake of the body of water lapping below the woodsy trail. “He had such an impactful life. We remember him every day when we look out on this beautiful lake. I think he would be honored it was named for him,” said Michaela Weis, naturalist at Don Carter State Park.

The hike leader at the only state park on Lake Lanier guided participants on the .75-mile Huckleberry Trail on a cove overlooking the sparking water. Along the way she related the life and times of the poet whose best-known poem, “Song of the Chattahoochee,” foreran the flooding of the “valleys of Hall.”

Tripp Taylor, of Flowery Branch, was among hikers seeking to learn something about the lake’s namesake. “I really had no idea who Sidney Lanier was,” Taylor said. With lake views as backdrops, Weis illuminated participants about the 19th century author:

• Sidney Lanier was born in Macon on Feb. 3, 1842, son of a lawyer and his wife. His creative and intellectual abilities emerged early. At age 14 he could play five different musical instruments. Also at 14, he started college at Oglethorpe University when it was in Milledgeville and later graduated top of his class.
• Upon graduation the university offered him a full-time position, but he was summoned in 1861 to join the Confederate Army. He was captured by the Union and imprisoned for five months. As a prisoner of war, he contracted tuberculosis, which plagued him the rest of his life. Released in 1865, he walked back toward Georgia and dabbled in several vocations, including authorship of his sole novel, the partly autographical Tiger Lilies. He married, moved back to Macon, passed the bar exam, and went to work with his father.
• Alas, music and poetry pounded in his heart, seeing him through the highs and lows of life. He told his father he must follow his calling and immerse himself in the arts and academia. He wrote his first popular poem “Corn” in 1875, displaying besottedness with forests and farm fields. He wrote “Song of the Chattahoochee” in 1877, never imagining the “lordly main” would be dammed to form a lake that would bear his name and become the main water source for metro Atlanta, as well as a recreational and economic hub for Northeast Georgia.
• Lanier and wife, Mary, had three sons that he supported by publishing poems in magazines and playing music gigs, mainly as a flautist. He eventually taught at John Hopkins University, where he wrote his last poem “Sunrise” in 1880 within a year of his death in 1881 from tuberculosis.

In the 1940s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began exploring construction of a dam of the Chattahoochee River at Buford. The dam was created in 1956 and the resulting lake was named as a tribute to the poet whose verses extol the beautiful southern river. The Chattahoochee still flows freely from its origin near Helen before it swells into the 38,000-acre lake crossing into Hall County. The Chestatee River, with headwaters in Lumpkin County, merges with the Chattahoochee near the Hall/Forsyth/Dawson County line to fill in the lake. Combined flow from the north Georgia rivers escapes below Buford Dam en route through Atlanta and southeast Georgia to the gulf.

A potential renaming of Lake Lanier sparked controversy in 2023 when a Department of Defense Naming Commission sought new name recommendations due to Sidney Lanier’s service in the Confederate Army. The commission was directed “to remove the names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor the Confederate States of America,” according to a Corps announcement. Any action on a name change was later halted.

Sidney Lanier photo: courtesy Wikimedia Commons; Outdoor photo: by Jane Harrison.