GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Federal officials are pausing a plan that could result in new names for Georgia’s Lake Lanier and Buford Dam after locals objected to changing the nicknames of landmarks now named after Confederate soldiers are.
The US Army Corps of Engineers issued a statement Friday announcing the pause pending further guidance from the Department of the Army.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican representing much of northeastern Georgia, said he called the Corps of Engineers on Friday to voice his opposition. He said the hiatus was “an enormous victory” and that “rebranding has attempted to rewrite history, imposing massive onerous costs on our community and creating unnecessary mass confusion”.
Lake Lanier is a massive reservoir that spans nearly 90 square miles and dams the Chattahoochee River northeast of Atlanta. It was named after the poet Sidney Lanier when it was built after World War II. Lanier served as a private in the Confederate Army and later wrote Song of the Chattahoochee, a poem about the river.
Buford Dam is named for the nearby town of Buford, which takes its name from Lt. Col. Algernon Sidney Buford, who served in the Virginia Militia during the Civil War. The Georgia city is named for Buford because he became president of a railroad that helped found the city after the war.
Hours before the pause in the renaming process was announced, The Times of Gainesville reported that the Corps of Engineers’ Mobile District issued a press release, revealing a website searching for contributions that aims to select new names by the end of the year. The corps said it is following a 2021 federal law regulating the renaming of military bases christened for Confederates, including Fort Gordon and Fort Benning in Georgia. Fort Gordon becomes Fort Eisenhower while Fort Benning becomes Fort Moore.
The Mobile District said it would continue to solicit public comments on new names for the lake and dam, but said the choice of names was a matter for Congress.
US Rep. Austin Scott, a South Georgia Republican who served on the commission that proposed new names for military bases, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the commission never intended to rename Lake Lanier.
Officials in the Gainesville area also oppose the change.
Clyde Morris, a board member for the Lake Lanier Association advocacy group, told the Times on Friday that the ties between the Confederacy, Lanier and Buford were “really too distant” to warrant a name change, saying every man is better for something other than his known time in the military.
