OCILLA, Ga. (WALB) - Crystal Lake water park was a South Georgia staple in the 1980s. But what happened to it?

Decades after its closure, the once beloved Crystal Lake is now a hunting club. Beyond metal gates was once a tourist destination that now lives on through memories.

Picture it: Irwin County in the ’80s and Crystal Lake is the go-to hangout spot to enjoy water activities and have some fun in the sun.

Brian Brown, the creator of Vanishing Georgia, spent time as a teen at Crystal Lake and reflects on the glory days.

“It didn’t just attract visitors from Irwin County or Ben Hill or Tift. It attracted people from all over. Kids drove from Valdosta, Albany, and all over to go there. I think it just had widespread appeal,” Brown said.

Centuries before Crystal Lake became a summer hangout, it was known as Bone Pond and was owned by a miller named Willis Bone in 1859. Bone had a reputation in town for opening his home to social outcasts like escaped prisoners and a runaway slave named Toney Young during the Civil War.

“When they found out he was harboring this man, a local judge named Walker came to the site to try to retrieve the slave. In the process, he and Willis got into an argument, and Mr. Bone struck the judge on the head with a rock, killed him, and buried him in a shallow grave near the grist mill he was operating,” Brown said.

When Judge Walker never returned home, locals stampeded Bone Pond, found the judge in a shallow grave, and hanged Willis Bone on his own property.

Legend has it that a sink hole later formed in the pond, and took Bone’s grist mill into it. The rumors of Crystal Lake being haunted stem from the story of Willis Bone.

“A lot of the mythology grew out of that — about it being a bottomless pit and the devil being there and everything. And people really believed that for many years,” Brown said.

Crystal Lake closed in the ’90s. Decades later, locals like Melissa Snathers reminisce on what the park used to be.

“Crystal Lake was always a safe place. This new generation would absolutely love it because they don’t have any innocent places to go anymore. It doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of activities for them. I would love to have the money to buy it and reopen it,” Snathers said.

Even though the attractions that gave Crystal Lake its allure are no longer there, the memories made at the lake, and the hope of its resurgence lives on.

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