Stone Mountain

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

Stone Mountain

Close up of the carving

Stone Mountain is a granite dome located in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. It is the world's largest exposed piece of granite, and the third-largest monolith in the world, behind only Mount Augustus in Australia and Peña de Bernal in Mexico. At its summit, the elevation is 1,683 feet (513 m) amsl and 825 feet (251.5 m) above the surrounding plateau.

It is well-known not only for its geology, 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.

Description

Stone Mountain is 1,683 feet above sea level, and 825 feet above the surrounding plateau. The mountain is more than five miles (8 km) in circumference at its base. The summit of the mountain can be reached by a steep walkup trail, which leaves from near the Confederate Hall and park entrance. Alternatively the summit can be reached by the Skyride.

The top of the mountain is a surreal landscape of bare rock and rock pools, and it provides views of the surrounding area and the skyline of downtown Atlanta, often Kennesaw Mountain, and on very clear days even the Appalachian Mountains. On some days, however, the top of the mountain is covered in a heavy fog, and visibility can be limited to only a few feet. The clear freshwater pools of the summit are formed by rainwater gathering in eroded depressions, and are home to unusual clam shrimps and fairy shrimp. The tiny shrimp 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.

Leaves of the Georgia oak.

The mountain's lower slopes are wooded. The rare Georgia oak, was first discovered at the summit, and several specimens 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.

Beginning at the top of the mountain is a small wooded trail. It starts of to the side of the main trail and leads down to the road and railroad tracks. The only acknowledgement of the trail is a hard to find carving on the edge of the mountain.

Geology

Stone Mountain is a pluton, a type of igneous intrusion. 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 formed as a result of the upwelling of magma from within the Earth's crust. This magma solidified to form granite within the crust below the surface.

The granite is composed of quartz, feldspar, microcline and muscovite, with smaller amounts of biotite and tourmaline. Embedded in the granite are (xenoliths) or pieces of foreign rocks entrained in the magma. The xenoliths of the Stone Mountain granite are composed of two types of metamorphic rocks; gneiss and amphibolite xenoliths of the country rock torn from the conduit as the granite ascended through the earth's crust. These xenoliths are generally angular, display a foliation, have feathery black amphibole and have a reaction rim of pale yellow orthoclase around them.

Other xenoliths are composed of restite and are generally rounder, lack the amphibole and reaction rims and have weaker foliation. These are cognate inclusions and were presumably the rock which the granite melted from. The presence of abundant metamorphic xenoliths and restite infers that the granite is an S-type granite formed from melting of sedimentary metamorphic rocks.

The granite displays an east-west foliation and abundant muscovite. The muscovite is probably metamorphic in origin. Late metasomatic veins of black tourmalne, K-feldspar, and amphibole are present through the granite and manifest as pale feldspar-filled fractures, often with large fans of amphibole.

The granite intruded into the metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont region during the last stages of the Alleghenian Orogeny, which was the time when North America and North Africa collided. Over time, erosion eventually exposed the present mountain of more resistant igneous rock, in processes similar to those that have exposed Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

Carving

Closeup of carving.

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.

The entire carved surface measures three acres (1.2 ha) 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.

History

Carving and Ku Klux Klan

The carving on the mountain was conceived in 1909 by Helen Plane, United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) 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.

William J. Simmons founded the second Ku Klux Klan atop Stone Mountain in 1915.

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. 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, 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.")

File:Confederate-soldier-coin.jpg

The other side reads "memorial to the valor of the soldier of the South."

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 was commissioned to do the carving, and he became a Klan member 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 a 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 held. 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 because of lateness and insufficient funds in 1928. When Lukeman died in 1935, the uncompleted project had not been worked on for several years, 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.

File:Visitors Prepare for Laser Show.jpg

Visitors prepare for laser show.

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 completed by Roy Faulkner, who later operated a museum (now closed) on nearby Memorial Drive commemorating the carving's history. The carving was considered complete on March 3, 1972.

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 (18 m) tall crosses were burned.

In order to remove the perpetual easement grant to the Klan, the state condemned 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.

Plane crashes and Other Incidents

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, May 7, 1928: "Mail plane crashed on mountain at 8:00 P.M."

The only other known crash on the mountain was in 1957.

In 1997, Jason Burroughs was attempting to do an extreme parchute jump known as base jumping from the mountain when a gust of wind pushed him onto the sculpture of Robert E. Lee. Miraculously, Burroughs was not injured. He managed to hold onto Lee's nose for some six hours until rescuers could reach his location. Since that time Park Officials have bannned parachute jumping (and Jason Burroughs) from the mountain.

Present

Stone Mountain walk-up trail.

Carillon At Stone Mountain Park

Park

Stone Mountain Park, which surrounds the Confederate memorial, is owned by the state of Georgia and managed by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, a Georgia state authority. The Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation currently has a long-term contract to operate the park and its attractions.

During the 1996 Summer Olympics, Stone Mountain Park provided venues for Olympic events in archery, tennis, and cycling. The 8,200-seat tennis stadium was a permanent venue, and the venues for archery and cycling were temporary.

The Confederate Hall, operated directly by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, is a museum that educates park guests and local students on the geology and ecology of Stone Mountain, together with the history of the war in Georgia.

There are several hiking trails including a 1.3 mile trail from Confederate Hall to the top of Stone Mountain and a 6 mile trail around the mountain. The park also offers camping,fishing,picnic sites and golfing.

The mountain top and Skyride

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

• The Skyride, a Swiss built cable-car to the summit of the mountain, passes by the carving on the way up.
• The Scenic Railroad, a standard gauge railroad that circles the entire circumference of the mountain in a loop, provides views of the mountain en route. For years the railroad utilized three authentic steam locomotives to pull trains and a diesel-powered trolley nicknamed "The Dinkey". However in the mid-1980s the steam locomotives and the trolley were retired in favor of diesel locomotives, because of maintenance costs.
• The Riverboat offers a scenic cruise aboard a reproduction Mississippi riverboat on 363-acre (147 ha) 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 1872 southern town including a modern 4-D movie theater which currently features an exploration of the history of some folk stories.

Transmitter

The short broadcast tower on the top of the mountain transmits two non-commercial stations: television station WGTV channel 8, and weatheradio station KEC80. FM radio station WABE was located on this tower from 1984 until 2005, when it was required to relocate to accommodate WGTV's digital conversion.

References

• James W. Loewen (1999). Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. New Press. ISBN 1-56584-344-4.
• Deborah Yost (1997). Georgia's Stone Mountain Park. Aerial Photography Services, Inc. ISBN 1-880970-11-2.
• 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 article, from the New Georgia Encyclopedia
• Stone Mountain Park website, from the state authority that owns the park
• City of Stone Mountain, Georgia, from the City of Stone Mountain
• "Bird's Eye View" of Stone Mountain
• [http://www.stonemountainvillage.com/ Main Street Stone Mountain

33°48′21.40″N 84°8′43.52″W