Stone Mountain Park is located just east of Atlanta, Georgia and is the site of a large dome-shaped rock made of granite. A large carving depicting three Confederate military leaders is carved into the North side of the mountain.
With all of the controversy and political issues surrounding this issue, the removal of other Confederate monuments there was some worry that Stone Mountain’s sculpture would be removed from the face of the mountain. Luckily, a law was passed sometime ago that prevents any defacing of the carving.
After visiting Stone Mountain and not only seeing the sites but sitting through some documentaries, it became clear that our country’s history, good or bad, shaped us into who we are, just like every person alive. By removing these remembrances of a darker time we are, in effect, removing a hard-learned lesson. That everyone deserves freedom and it something worth fighting for. Oppression is ugly, no matter who is the target.
Okay, enough soap box stuff. Let’s get to the fun part. Our visit.
There are two choices for getting to the top of Stone Mountain, you can hike or take a ride on a gondola. With John’s bad knee, we decided to take the ride.
This turns out to be a good choice as we get up close to the carving. It is the largest high relief sculpture in the world. The carving was imagined by Mrs. C. Helen Plane, a charter member of the United Daughter of the Confederacy, in 1912. In 1916, Gutzon Borglum was appointed the carving sculptor in 1916. He did not begin work on the carving until 1923 because of funding problems caused by World War I.
Gutzon Borglum left the project in 1925, due to a dispute with the management, and took all his sketches with him. He later went on to carve Mount Rushmore, so I guess he did all right for himself.
Augustus Lukeman resumed work on the carving after first removing Borglum’s work. By 1928, only Lee’s head was completed and the project was out of money. For years the carving was untouched.
In 1964, work resumed and was completed by Walker Kirkland Hancock of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Using modern techniques, tons of stone was able to be removed in one day. Using thermo-jet torches the carvers were able to etch fine details like eyebrows, fingers and even strands of hair.
Whew, what would the figures look like without eyebrows!?
The carving depicts Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee on his favorite horse Traveller and Stonewall Jackson.
After a quick exit from the confined space of the gondola, we made our way through the gift shop and out on to the mountain.
The views from the top of Stone Mountain are impressive, of course.
Here you can see a tan color to the gray granite. This is a type of plant and is only present in the areas of the mountain where people do not walk.
The small pools of water that collect in eroded depression contain unusual clam shrimp and fairy shrimp. I always wondered where fairies came from. Now I know.
You are supposed to be able to see the Appalachian Mountains on a clear day. Guess we’re out of luck today.
This beautiful view is worthy of a foot picture. We took this while relaxing in the warm sun, looking out towards Atlanta. You can barely see the city outline.
The carving is larger than it looks. Workers can stand inside a horse’s mouth to escape the rain. It is 90 feet tall, 11 feet deep, spans 3 acres and is larger than Mount Rushmore. It gives a perspective as to the size of this one piece of granite. It is 5 miles in circumference at its base, 1,686 above the ground, and continues underground for 9 miles.
We continue our tour of this area by visiting a true bridge to nowhere, it leads to a parking area, turnaround kind of spot. I like covered bridges, they have a romantic feel to them. This bridge is not original to the site, it was moved here. No, matter, it is still cool.
No trip to a big huge rock is complete without some rock-hounding. In this case, we were learning about long ago rockhounders.
There is a fun walkway from the road to the actual quarry.
Springtime brings lots of sweet-smelling flowers. We had this type of azalea back home in PA. Who knew it grew wild here in Georgia.
We learned about the different types of stone cuttings and the variety of uses for different cuts.
Quarrying of Stone Mountain ended in 1978
This rock weighs more than the RV, it was the only way I convinced John that it had to stay. He couldn’t take it with him.
Though there isn’t much evidence of the mining, other than the big chunks missing from the mountain, there are plenty of pictures depicting how the granite was quarried.
We particularly enjoy looking at the pictures of the men working the rock pile.
How many of today’s youth would work a job like this to put food on the table?
Not many we think.
