Old Hell Lake is a body of water in Long County, Georgia, United States, occurring at an elevation of roughly 15 feet above mean sea level.[1][2]
The lake is located approximately 11 miles from the city of Ludowici. Water flows from the lake into a tributary of the Altamaha River. The point where that short tributary flows into the Altamaha is known as Old Hell Bight.
There are a number of possible origins for the name. One suggests that it refers to the adjacent great "hellish" swamp. But the more likely source is thought to be from a time in Georgia history when timber rafts where a common sight on the Altamaha River.[3] It would be a "riverman's moniker" referencing the Bight as a particularly troublesome bend in the river, with associated dangerous currents, where a pilot and crew might lose "their wages, their timber, and occasionally their lives".[3][4] So it is most likely that Old Hell Bight was named first, then influenced the naming of the adjacent lake.