Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

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Mar 14, 1995

*City official name :Stone Mountain
*Founded date :
*Location :GeorgiaState
*Elavation :? ft (? m)
*Area :Approximately ? square miles (? km²).
*Facts :Stone Mountain is suburb of Atlanta. Stone Mountain is famous for the granite dome. It is one of the the world's largest exposed pieces of granite, after El Capitan in Yosemite National Park and Stawamus Chief in British Columbia, and one of the largest monoliths in the world, behind Mount Augustus in Australia and Peña de Bernal in Mexico. At its summit, the elevation is 1683 feet or 513 meters AMSL. It is well-known not only for its geological status, but also for the enormous bas-relief on its north face, the largest bas-relief in the world. Three figures of the Confederate States of America are carved there: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. The mountain was the site of the founding of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915, and the Klan was intimately involved in the design, financing, and early construction of the monument. However, they were not the originators of the idea.

The carving on the mountain was conceived in 1909 by Helen Plane, United Daughters of the Confederacy Atlanta chapter president. Designs varied, but at times included Robert E. Lee on a horse, Lee with 750 men riding behind him, Lee alone, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Stonewall Jackson, and an unidentified soldier.

Delayed until 1923, work began on the largest project of its kind under American artist Gutzon Borglum. Borglum quit amid a good deal of controversy on both sides. According to one story, he crossed the border to South Carolina just ahead of the police.

Augustus Lukeman tried to create a new sculpture, but a limited timeframe ended his attempt. Borglum's work was removed from the mountain by blasting and a new carving begun. After three years of work, the mountain was incomplete and the property reverted to the Venable family, the previous owners.

The state expressed an interest in the carving, the mountain and surrounding land but it was not until April 11, 1956, that the Venable family gave the land encompassing Stone Mountain to the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial, Inc.

The carving project resumed on July 4, 1964. Dedication services were held for the carvings in Stone Mountain on May 9, 1970, although the work continued through 1972.

The carving was considered complete on March 3, 1972.

Ku Klux Klan activities at Stone Mountain are deep-rooted, although the original conception of the memorial pre-dates the 1915 revival of the Klan. Proposals for a Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain can be dated to 1869, which however were not taken seriously due to lack of funding. However, the idea had resurfaced in 1909, when many Americans were celebrating the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Associated newspaper editorials in 1914 helped stir interest in the project. Mrs. C. Helen Plane of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was the prime mover in the creation of a monument at Stone Mountain. Sam Venable asked Gutzon Borglum to speak to Plane. Borglum had a preliminary model finished by 1917, but World War I distracted potential patrons.

The revival of the Ku Klux Klan was emboldened by the release of D. W. Griffith's Klan-glorifying film The Birth of a Nation, and by the lynching of Leo Frank, who was accused of the murder of Mary Phagan. On November 25, 1915, a group of robed and hooded men met at Stone Mountain to create a new incarnation of the Klan, which had been dormant since it was suppressed by the federal government during Reconstruction. They were led by William J. Simmons, and they included a group calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan. A cross was burned, and the oath was administered by Nathan Bedford Forrest II, the grandson of the original Imperial Grand Wizard, ex-Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, and was witnessed by the owner of Stone Mountain, Samuel Venable. (In reaction to this history, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech includes the line "let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.")

Fundraising for the monument resumed in 1923, and in October of that year, Venable granted the Klan easement with perpetual right to hold celebrations as they desired. Because of their deep involvement with the early fund-raising and their increasing political clout in Georgia, the Klan, along with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, were able to influence the ideology of the carving, and they strongly supported an explicitly Confederate memorial. Gutzon Borglum became a Klan member himself in the course of his association with the Stone Mountain project. Of the $250,000 raised, part came directly from the Ku Klux Klan, but part came from the federal government, which in 1924 issued special fifty-cent coins with Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on them.

With an unrealistic three year time limit imposed on the project, Borglum set to work, and by General Lee's birthday in 1924, a formal unveiling of Lee's finished head was attended by a large and appreciative audience. In 1925, Borglum became involved in disputes with his patrons over the coin money and his support of D. C. Stephenson, and his contract was canceled in February. Before he left Georgia, Borglum smashed his preliminary models in rage. He went on to carve Mount Rushmore.

In April 1925 Augustus Lukeman was hired to complete the work, and three years later Borglum's finished work was dynamited from the face of the mountain. Funds ran dry, however, and he had only completed Lee's head when the project was cancelled due to lateness and insufficient funds in 1928. When Lukeman died in 1935, the uncompleted project had not been worked on for several years.

In 1958, at the urging of Governor Marvin Griffin, the Georgia legislature approved a measure to purchase Stone Mountain for $1,125,000. In 1963, Walker Hancock was selected to complete the carving, and work began in 1964. The carving was finally completed in 1970 by Roy Faulkner, who later operated a museum (now closed) on nearby Memorial Drive commemorating the carving's history.

The Klan held a major meeting at Stone Mountain in 1975, and at Venable's invitation, the Klan held annual Labor Day meetings on Venable's nearby property, where 60-foot crosses were burned.

In order to remove the perpetual easement granted to the Klan, the state took the highly unusual step of condemning its own land. Once condemned, all legal rights to use the land lay only with the state, and the state subsequently reestablished the park. Since this action, no Klan meetings have been held on the property.

During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Stone Mountain Park provided venues for Olympic events in archery, tennis, and cycling. The 8200-seat tennis stadium was a permanent venue and the venues for Archery and Cycling were temporary.

On September 16, 2003, a small airplane crashed around dusk into the back of the mountain, a remote cliff area which is not normally accessible. The pilot, the airplane's only occupant, was confirmed dead, and although the official accident report notes no probable cause, a witness "stated that the accident pilot threatened on multiple occasions when she knew him to commit suicide by flying into Stone Mountain." Firefighters had to take the Skyride up and then rappel more than halfway down to the site of the wreckage. According to George Weiblen's annotated calendar for Monday, 7 May, 1928: "Mail plane crashed on mountain at 8:00 P.M." The only other known crash on the mountain was in 1957.

Stone Mountain is 1,683 feet above sea level, and 825 feet above the surrounding plateau. The mountain is more than five miles in circumference at its base. The summit of the mountain can be reached by an attractive but steep walkup trail, which leaves from near the Confederate Hall and park entrance. Alternatively the summit can be reached by the Skyride (see below).

The top of the mountain is a surreal landscape of bare rock and rock pools, and provides views of the surrounding area and the skyline of downtown Atlanta, often Kennesaw Mountain, and on very clear days even the Appalachian Mountains. The clear freshwater pools of the summit are formed by rainwater gathering in eroded depressions, and are home to unusual clam shrimps and fairy shrimps. The tiny shrimps appear only during the rainy season, and it is believed that the adult shrimp die when the pools dry up, leaving behind eggs to survive until the next rains.

The mountain's lower slopes are wooded. Amongst the trees found here is the rare Georgia oak, which was first discovered here. Several specimens of which can be easily found along the walk-up trail and in the woods around the base of the mountain. In the fall, the extremely rare Confederate Yellow Daisy (Viguiera Porteri) flowers on the mountain, growing in rock crevices and in the wooded areas. The top of the mountain is sometimes covered in a heavy fog, causing a limited sight up to only a couple of feet away.

The carving depicts Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis on horseback, apparently riding in a group from right to left across the mountain side. The lower parts of the horses' bodies merge into the mountainside at the foot of the carving. The three riders are shown bare-headed and holding their hats to their chests. Originally, the carving was to include the armies marching behind them.

The entire carved surface measures three acres (12,000 m²) and recedes 42 feet (13 m) into the mountain. The carving of the three mounted figures is 400 feet (120 m) above the surrounding plain, 90 feet (27 m) high and 190 feet (58 m) wide. At its deepest point, Lee's elbow extends 12 feet (4 m) from the mountain surface behind it.

A laser light show has been projected on the carving nightly in the summer since 1983. The show is 40-45 minutes long and culminates with fireworks. The show runs nightly from Memorial Day to Labor Day, on Saturdays from mid March through October, plus Fridays in May and August. A short Christmas laser show is shown multiple times a night through December.

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Photos

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain, Georgia - United States of America

Comments

[anonymous]

tis is good