The so-called "Chestatee Ghost Boat" has been removed from the Chestatee River arm of Lake Lanier after two decades.
According to a press statement from the Lake Lanier Association, the steel hulled houseboat gained its nickname due to the folklore surrounding its appearance. Old chairs and household other items left behind made the sunken vessel look as though it had been lived in, but an owner was never found.
Removing the boat required multiple steps and crews took it apart in pieces. Workers with Marine Specialties, Inc. used heavy equipment, a barge and dock floats to remove heavy debris and the remaining portion of the steel hull. The deteriorated top shell of the boat was dragged into the barge for removal. Workers placed the dock floats under the hull so it could be pushed to a boat ramp for removal.
After all of the pieces were removed, they were taken to the landfill for disposal with assistance from Lumpkin County.
"For years it was rumored that Lake Lanier was haunted, though those that frequent the lake know this to not be true," said Lake Lanier Association Executive Director Jennifer Flowers in the statement. "Now that the Chestatee Ghost Boat is in the landfill, we have removed any ghosts that were rumored to have inhabited Lake Lanier."
The "Ghost Boat" is the eleventh houseboat removed from the lake as part of the Lake Lanier Association's Abandoned and Derelict Docks and Boats program.
Money allocated by the Department of Natural Resources for bringing abandoned and dillapidated boats out of Lake Lanier, as well as partnerships with the Army Corps of Engineers, funded the "Ghost Boat" removal.
