Stone Mountain

This article is about the Stone Mountain in Georgia, USA. For other uses, see Stone Mountain (disambiguation).

Stone Mountain is a granite mountain located in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. It is the world's largest exposed piece of granite and one of the largest monoliths in the world, behind Mount Augustus in Australia, and larger than Haystack Rock on the Oregon coast. Only a third of the massive rock is exposed at the time. 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.

Geology

Stone Mountain is an igneous intrusion exposed when the surrounding softer rock eroded away, a feature known as a "pluton". Primarily composed of granite, the dome of Stone Mountain was formed some 300 million years ago, during the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains. It was formed by a weak upwelling of magma from the aesthenosphere that remained well below the earth's crust, forming an uplifted dome. Analysis shows that the magma was made up of mica, quartz, feldspar, microcline and muscovite, with smaller amounts of biotite and tourmaline. Embedded in the granite are pieces of gneiss and amphibolite.

The exact geological history of the formation is still a matter of some controversy. Most geologists believe that the entire Piedmont region was higher than the mountain and that over time, erosion of softer overlying sedimentary strata eventually exposed the present mountain of more resistant igneous rock, in processes similar to those that have shaped Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Another theory suggests that the granite was intruded into overlying metamorphic rocks during the last stages of the Alleghenian Orogeny, which was the time when North America and North Africa collided. It is believed by some to have become exposed by uplift, while others believe erosion or a flood was the cause.

History

History of the memorial and the Ku Klux Klan

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 edition 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.

Recent history

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 Kirkland 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 property, where 60-foot crosses were burned.

Guides at the monument originally wore Confederate gray, but in recent years the state has changed the mountain into a state park and a commercial attraction involving a laser show and nature walks, and the park's web site does not mention the Ku Klux Klan at all.

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.

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 skylift 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 today

The mountain

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 skylift (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 carving

The carving depicts Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis on horse-back, 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.

The park

Stone Mountain Park surrounds the Confederate memorial, and is one of three Georgia state parks which are privately operated with Arabian Mountain in Lithonia being another. The park is owned by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, a Georgia state authority, but the Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation currently has the contract to operate the park and its attractions.

Other attractions are operated by the commercial operators, and include:

The Skylift, a Swiss built cable-car to the summit of the mountain, passes by the carving on the way up.
The Scenic Railroad, a full scale railroad which circles the entire circumference of the mountain in a loop, giving views of the mountain en route. For years the railroad utilized three authentic steam locomotives to pull trains, however in the mid-1980s the steam locomotives were retired in favor of diesels, due to maintenance costs.
The Riverboat offers a scenic cruise aboard a reproduction Mississippi riverboat on 363-acre Stone Mountain Lake.
The Antebellum Plantation and Farmyard is comprised of original buildings, built between 1790 and 1845, which have been re-erected here to represent a pre-Civil War Georgia plantation.
A 732-bell carillon that originated at the 1964 New York World's Fair, provides a daily concert.
A covered bridge, dating from 1892, which originally spanned the Oconee River in Athens, Georgia.
A grist mill, dating from 1869 and moved to the park in 1965.
"Crossroads", a recreation of an 1880s southern town.

The transmitter

The short broadcast tower on the top of the mountain transmits three non-commercial stations: FM radio station WABE, television station WGTV channel 8, and weatheradio station KEC80.

References

Golden Ink (1994-2003). About North Georgia: Stone Mountain. Retrieved July 29, 2005.
Stone Mountain Memorial Association (2005). Stone Mountain: Ecosystem. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

External links

Stone Mountain Park website, from the state authority that owns the park.
Stone Mountain Park website, from the commercial operator of the park.
Images of personalities and events connected with Stone Mountain, from the University of Virginia.
Timeline of Stone Mountain history
Stone Mountain carving, from the University of Georgia.
Stone Mountain photo gallery, also from the University of Georgia.
Stone Mountain article, from the Georgia Encyclopedia
Stone Mountain web page, from Lostworlds.org
Stone Mountain Virtual Tour, from Southern Digital Solutions.
Satellite image, from Google.
Image with terrain mapping from Google Earth
1925 Stone Mountain, Georgia Memorial Commemorative Half Dollar
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