IVEY, Ga. — Lake Tchukolako still sits dry since its dam gave way the first time back in 2020.
While the water has dried up, people's hopes to bring it back have not.
However, Lake Tchukolako didn’t always look like a dried-up swamp.
"That's all I could see was a pretty lake sitting out there, and that's what I want back is that pretty lake,” Clark Tanner said.
He moved to Ivey in the 60s at the age of 12. He says that’s when the lake was the place to be.
“The beach down here was full – it stayed full,” Tanner said. “There was always people here."
When the original owner of the lake passed away, he says things began to decline at the lake. At one point time, he says folks were coming to Ivey for the lake.
“We need this lake. This lake needs to be here,” Tanner said. “Like I said, hats off to Phil. He's doing the very best he can do.”
Phil Mills has led the dam reconstruction efforts for the past three years. By last December, they had been fixing damage from the second dam breach in March.
"Really we were just about finished up here,” Mills explained. “We left a little bit up on the end, and we already closed up an end up here."
Focusing on other projects, they didn't work on the dam for a few weeks.
“There was a cavity in it that we didn't know about. It was a foot deep, probably, and it was running through it, but we couldn't tell because it was going through the creek on the back side,” Mills explained.
By the time they finally realized the problem, the work they'd done washed away.
“Watched it until it fell in and it was pretty sad,” he said.
However, Mills says his glass is half-full. They already have solutions.
“We shouldn’t have any issue with it because we've got access to get water out now way more and way quicker than we've ever had,” he said.
Mills says he gets asked why he doesn't just give up? Well, he's got the answer.
“Somebody's gotta do it,” he said. “It's something the Lord's given me the ability to do. I just think it's a great opportunity for– the community needs it, the stores need it. It's just a place where people come through a lot. There's a big, main road going through it now. There's a lot of traffic and I think that's wonderful.”
In bringing back the lake, he hopes to bring life back to the heart of Ivey.
"He hasn’t given up on us yet,” Tanner said. “Without this lake, we're not nothing.”
Mills says they just need a week without rain and they'll be ready to seal up the dam again.
He says they could have it done in a month, good weather permitting. From there, they can wait for nature to do the rest.