The Stone Mountain Carving is a memory of the Confederates States and the Civil War.The Stone Mountain, often known as a pink granite dome, is a dome monadnock located in the east of Atlanta. Even though the mountain is primarily known as the largest piece of exposed granite, it actually ranges in composition.Not only granite, but the composition and the minerals of the rock also include quartz, microcline, plagioclase feldspar, muscovite, and small quantities of tourmaline and biotite. Over time, the igneous rock of the mountain has been exposed due to erosion, and granite intrusion gave rise to Arabia Mountain and Dekalb Mountain in Dekalb County. Stone Mountain granite has been desirable for the construction of building structures for a long time. It has been used for building many significant structures in America. In recent years, the granite sample of Stone Mountain was sent for the construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. The Stone Mountain Carving started in 1916 when it was owned by the Venable Family, but it was completed under the ownership of the state of Georgia in 1972. The final carving is 160 ft (48.8 m) wide which is around six times less than the largest stone carving of the world, The Statue of the God of Longevity. At present, many have voted for the removal of the Stone Mountain carving, but it is quite cumbersome to remove the carving of such a grandeur so easily.The mountain and the park that has developed around Stone Mountain are the most visited tourist sites in Georgia.Importance Of The Stone Mountain CarvingsThe Stone Mountain Carvings have some historical significance that relates to the Confederacy and their prowess during the Civil. It celebrates the brave generals of the Confederacy.The Stone Mountain Carving is a Confederate memorial carving that tributes three of the greatest leaders of the Confederacy, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee.The Stone Mountain Confederate Hall functions directly under the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, is a museum that educates its visitors about the Civil War by showing a small historical documentary on the Battle of Georgia. The Confederate Memorial Hall also preaches about the spectacular geological features of the place.During the Civil War, Jefferson Davis led as the President of the Confederates States of America. He was imprisoned by the Union leader after Robert Lee surrendered to the Union General in 1865 and ended the Civil War.Robert E. Lee was the legendary commander of the Army of North Virginia during the Civil War. He served as a military advisor of Davis, and his forces got a major victory in several battles before Lee surrendered to the Union in 1865.General Thomas J. Jackson or Stonewall Jackson served under General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. He was known as the brave general and became a revered figure due to his feats on the battlefield. Stonewall Jackson died in 1863 due to an injury caused accidentally by a man of his army.The mountain not only focuses on the three greatest Confederate leaders, but Atlanta’s Stone Mountain Carving gives us information about the favorite rides of the great leaders as well. Davis is observed to ride Blackjack, Robert Lee rides Traveller, and Stonewall Jackson is carved riding Little Sorrel. These army generals preferred riding their respective horses in their battles.The first person to conceive the idea of carving the Confederate leaders in the Stone Mountain area and turning it into a Confederate Memorial is long debated. It is said that a 19th-century poet, Francis Ticknor, mentioned it in a poem in 1869. The memorial was suggested publicly in 1914 in an editorial for the Atlanta Constitution.Stone Mountain Park was inaugurated on the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1965. The site was marked with four Confederate flags.Roy Faulkner, after completing the carving on the Confederate Memorial in 1972, opened the Stone Mountain Carving Museum to commemorate the carving’s history. It is now closed by the government.Stone Mountain Park has several types of attractions for tourists.Apart from the Confederate Hall Museum, Stone Mountain has another open-air museum consisting of 19 buildings built between 1790-1875. It represents a pre-Civil War Georgia, and the monuments are stuffed with contemporary furniture.The Historic Square Farmyard contains many historic breeds of sheep, goats, and pigs.A cable car takes visitors to the summit while passing the carving on the mountain in Stone Mountain Park.Stone Mountain displays a spectacular laser show consisting of fireworks and laser lighting displays during summer evenings. Stone Mountain unveiled the laser show in 2011.The Stone Mountain Memorial Lawn consists of 13 terraces commemorating each Confederate State. Each terrace flies the flag of a particular Confederate State.The Robert Lee Riverboat sank in Stone Mountain Lake. Since then, the riverboat has offered a scenic tour of the lake.Who carved Stone Mountain?Gutzon Borglum, the popular and skillful sculptor, was hired to carve Stone Mountain at first. After he was fired due to misunderstandings between officials, Augustus Lukeman was given the responsibility but he failed to complete the work within the anticipated time. Ultimately, the state took the initiative of carving the mountain and hired Roy Faulkner to complete the work.According to the historians of Stone Mountain, the Venable family, who was in the business of rock and quarry, owned technically owned Stone Mountain.In 1916, the Venable family handed over the right to the north side of Stone Mountain to Helen Plane, one of the founders of the United Daughters of the Confederacy or UDC.The Venable family permitted Helen to construct a fitting monument in remembrance of the Civil War and gave her 12 years to complete the project.Helen Plane of the UDC took great initiative to set up the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, and the project advanced a great deal under her. She was the one who chose the sculptor Gutzon Borglum for the project.Borglum chalked out a complete plan to carve the sculptures in the Stone Mountains; however, technical problems and finances slowed down the entire process.Gutzon Borglum was hired in 1915, but he could not start working until 1923 due to funding problems.Borglum completed sculpting the head of Lee within one year, but soon differences started to appear between him and the management team. This caused the sculpting process to be stalled again.In 1925, Borglum was fired by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association because of continuous conflicts between the Association and Borglum.When Borglum left the work for Stone Mountain carving, he left most of his ideas and sketches for carving the Confederate monuments and destroyed the rest.Gutzon Borglum was later hired for sculpting Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.After Borglum left in 1925, sculptor Augustus Lukeman was hired for carving Stone Mountain. He took over Borglum’s work in 1925.Lukeman effaced Borglum’s creation from the surface and started from scratch. He forged the three figures of the Confederate leaders riding horses, but the deadline enforced by the Venable family got in his course of work.Lukeman gave his best to carve the Stone Mountain by using pneumatic drills, but since the work already started late, the deadline caught up with him.The Venable family reclaimed the northern region of the mountain, and the artwork took a haul for almost three decades until the state finally assumed ownership of the mountain around 1950.The state of Georgia took over the ownership of Stone Mountain in 1958 and immediately started searching for artists who would finish the carving. Walker Kirkland Hancock of Gloucester was chosen by the Association to complete the work in 1963.The Chief Artist of Hancock, Marine Roy Faulkner who was also a skilled sculptor and well trained with cutting edges and thermo-jet torches, was chosen to fulfill the prolonged carving works.Nearly 50 years after its start, the carving was finally finished in 1972 by Faulkner. A member of the Venable family was recorded saying that if Borglum completed the carving, its beauty would have exceeded what is there presently.Measurements Of Stone Mountain CarvingsThe frame created by Gutzon at first is larger than the actual size of the Stone Mountain carving. The size of the carving is around 160 ft (48 m) in width and 76 ft (23.1 m) in height.The circumference of the base of Stone Mountain is more than 5 mi (8 km) in length. This large rock structure is home to the world’s largest quarry of exposed granite. Estimating the weight of the granite quarry, it is believed that it weighs more than a trillion pounds.Only one-third of the actual mountain can be seen normally. The mountain extends up to 7 mi (11.2 km) into parts of North Carolina too. If you plan to visit the mountain on a clear sunny day, more than 45 mi (72.4 km) of land can be seen from the top of the mountain.The Stone Mountain trails expand more than 10 mi (16 km), and they include both walking and hiking trails.The Cherokee Trail of Stone Mountain is a National Recreation Trail stretching for 8 mi (13 km). It runs primarily through an oak forest, but frequent sights of lakes, streams, and the mountain are common.The scenic Nature Garden trail lies right at the entrance to trails, and the Songbird and Habitat trail are two short loop garden trails that are built for watching native shade-loving plants.Stone Mountain is carved across a huge space on the mountain. The carving itself covers an area of around 300 ft (91. 4 m) wide and 190 ft (57.9 m) high. However, the entire space carved was not used for sculpting the Confederate monuments.Only 20% of the total space carved is used for sculpting the Confederate army generals with their horses. The actually carved monument is around 160 ft (48.8 m) in width and 76 ft (23.1 m) in height. The rest of the carved area is just rough.When Gutzon Borglum started working on the Stone Mountain Carving, he had a plan of using the entire 160 ft (48 m) wide canvas for sculpting the whole figures. However, as the sculptors changed, the ideas of construction also changed.The highest point of the carving on Stone Mountain is Robert Lee’s face which stands at a 16 ft (4.8 m) height. According to Borglum’s construction plan, Robert Lee’s face would be 24 ft (7 m) high.Many works of literature have dubbed Stone Mountain as the largest piece of granite in the world. The Stone Mountain Carving is said to be larger than the one in Mount Rushmore, but this is a topic of long debate.The overall size of Mount Rushmore is smaller than the actual frame that was carved by Borglum. By this measure, Mount Rushmore’s structure is smaller than the Stone Mountain Carving.However, the final sculpture of the Stone Mountain carving is much narrower and smaller than the size assumption given by Borglum.Mount Rushmore’s scale is much larger than the Stone Mountain carving, even though Stone Mountain depicts the whole body along with horses instead of just faces.Ownership Of Stone MountainThe Memorial of the Confederacy is owned by the state of Georgia currently, but the Venable family owned the mountain from 1887-1958.The Spanish explorers learned about the shiny and unusual stone mountain for the first time in 1567. At that time, Native Americans, such as the Creek and the Cherokee tribes, inhabited Stone Mountain.No one knew about the nature of the rock at that time, so no one tried to own the mountain for a long time after its discovery. Till the early 19th century, Stone Mountain was simply called Rock Mountain.It was a common recreational park for visitors who would ride horses to take a tour of the mountain after the Dekalb County was found.The practice of granite quarrying in Stone Mountain was not started until the 1830s, but the industry spurred majorly after its significant contribution to completing the railroad.Over the years, granite quarrying from Stone Mountain was used for the construction of many significant structures such as locks that are part of the Panama Canal, the Imperial Hotel of Tokyo. The East Wing of the US Capitol also has steps leading to it built from here.In 1887, this source of granite was purchased for the first time by a quarry company. The Venable Brothers of Atlanta purchased Stone Mountain for 45,000 dollars and quarried it for 24 years.When the UDC decided to carve the Stone mountain in 1916, the Venable family gave the north face of the mountain to them on the condition of completing a sizable Civil War monument by 12 years.The Venable family had ownership of Stone Mountains from 1887-1958. After 1958, the State of Georgia took the initiative to make Stone Mountain a state-owned property.By 1960, the government took full ownership of Stone Mountain from the Venable family. It is currently governed by the Herschend Family Entertainment under the state of Georgia.The Stone Mountain Memorial Association is a state authority of Georgia that manages Stone Mountain Park. The Association even now has the right to cancel or reject any project proposal that seems unfit or harmful for the park.The Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation operates the recreational park that has developed along Stone Mountain of Georgia. They have a long-term agreement with the state to operate the park attractions.In 1999, the state of Georgia reached an agreement with the Herschend family, they had to pay 11 million dollars annually to the state to retain governance of the park.In 2012, the CEO of the Herschend family company announced publicly that the state had extended the contract to operate the mountain and nearby spots for the next 35 years.The park is the largest attraction that operates under the Herschend family, but they own several other attraction spots.
The Stone Mountain Carving is a memory of the Confederates States and the Civil War.
