GAINESVILLE, Ga. — The proposal to rename Lake Sidney Lanier and Buford Dam has now been halted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The recommendation to change the name of the popular lake, which accompanies a massive space that includes Hall, Forsyth, Dawson, Gwinnett, and Lumpkin counties, was previously made by the Department of Defense's Naming Commission.
The report listed the two together since they are conjoined, also citing the Buford Dam, which appropriates Lake Lanier, and is named for the City of Buford. The Naming Commission listed the city as the namesake of LTC Algernon Sidney Buford, who played a role in the Civil War by serving in the Virginia Militia.
However, that is not the same "Sidney" that Lake Lanier is named after -- the lake is named after poet Sidney Lanier, who also served in the Confederate States Army as a private.
Georgia state Rep. Andrew Clyde (R - 09) released a statement after the renaming project was put on pause, calling the plans to rename the lake a "severely misguided proposal."
"The USACE's decision to pause its efforts is a tremendous victory for Northeast Georgians, as these renamings would have attempted to rewrite history, impose massive burdensome costs on our community, and create unnecessary mass confusion," Clyde said.
This comes after The William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 created a congressional Naming Commission to replace the "names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia that honor the Confederate States of America."
The decision on the proposal will await further direction from the Department of the Army.