Thirty-two kilometers east of Atlanta, there rises, 513 meters above the plain of the Georgia Piedmont, the world's third largest monolith.¹ Used as a landmark and sacred meeting place since prehistoric times, Stone Mountain, the world's largest exposed piece of granite, is also now the site of the world's largest bas-relief. The story of this unique geological feature and its 'owners' and exploiters is a record of the migrations, ambitions, and sheer stubbornness of the people who have lived in its shadow. Its story reaches from the time when now-vanished tribes gathered at its summit, to the day when the Reverend Martin Luther King said: 'Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia!', and beyond. The beginning of this story takes us 3000 years into the past.

Native Americans in the Georgia Piedmont

Around 1000 BC, the Woodland tribes began to develop permanent settlements in what is now the Southeast US. They built a rock wall encircling the top of Stone Mountain, which they used as a meeting place². The remains of two Moundbuilder villages have been discovered near the base of the mountain.

When Spanish explorer Juan Pardo came upon the mountain in 1567, he named it Crystal Mountain. Pardo failed to find the Moundbuilders there, as had De Soto, whose path he was retracing; instead, the Creek Indians had taken up residence near what they called Lone Mountain.

On June 9, 1790, Colonel Marinus Willett met there with chiefs of the Creek to arrange a meeting between them and George Washington in New York City, then the capital of the fledgling United States.

European settlers moving west along the Hightower Trail used 'Rock Mountain' as a landmark to lead them to the safety of Fort Daniel and away from Indian territory.

In 1821, the Creek ceded the mountain and surrounding land to the state of Georgia, and within twenty years all Native Americans, Creek and Cherokee, were gone from the region, pushed out by settlers and gold-seekers, and driven out by government order.

A Useful Mountain

In 1822, Stone Mountain was made a part of Dekalb County, Georgia. A post office was established in 1834, and by 1836 there was a hotel along the old Augusta Road. Two years later, a businessman named Aaron Cloud built 165-foot Cloud's Tower at the top of Stone Mountain as a site for tourists. The tower was swept away during a windstorm in 1851, and replaced by a smaller tower.

Atlantans at this period traveled by excursion train to visit the mountain and the village at its base. During the Civil War, the village was destroyed by the Union Army, and in November of 1864, Sherman's men tore up the railroad tracks on their March to the Sea.

The mountain began to be quarried in the 1830s, but serious quarry work only began after the Civil War. In 1887, the mountain was bought by the Venable Brothers in Atlanta, who quarried therefore 24 years. (The Venable family would play a significant role in the later history of the mountain as well.) In 1929, the Stone Mountain Granite company began producing 'Stonemo' Granite Grit, a product which increased egg production in chickens.

The Confederate Mount Rushmore

In 1909, Helen Plane, a chapter president of what is now known as the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), came up with a idea to honour General Robert E Lee by carving his likeness on the granite side of Stone Mountain. The UDC contacted the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who later became world-famous as the creator of Mount Rushmore. Borglum's concept was to add an army of 750 men following the general.

The UDC realised that they couldn't afford the millions of dollars Borglum needed for this monumental carving, so they created the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Association (founded in 1917), and invited leading political and economic figures to join.

In 1924 US President Calvin Coolidge signed an act authorising the minting of 5 million Confederate Half Dollars by the federal government. Sold at one dollar each, the half dollars provided over a million dollars in profit for the carving project.

In order to execute the huge carving, whose design by now included Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E Lee's famous horse Traveller, Borglum developed a giant projector to throw the images onto the mountainside. Borglum began carving in 1923, and in 1924 unveiled the head of Robert E Lee on Lee's birthday, January 19.

However, Borglum fell out with the Association over a number of issues, including the use of the money raised by the Confederate Half Dollars. In 1925, he destroyed his models and fled Georgia. The Association replaced him with Augustus Lukeman, who dynamited off most of Borglum's work and began anew; however, he had completed only Lee's head and Davis' head, and outlined their bodies and the war-horse Traveller, when the Venable family reclaimed the property in 1928.

And there the half-finished monument stayed, to be admired by passing travellers for over 30 years, until the Georgia state legislature took over the property in 1958, reorganized the Memorial Association, and finished the carving in the 1960s. The park lost its Confederate focus and became a vacation destination.

The Ku Klux Klan

The Venable family, owners of Stone Mountain, were instrumental in the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which had become inactive since the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War. On November 25, 1915, Samuel Hoyt Venable participated in the official revival of the Klan atop Stone Mountain, and in 1923 he granted permission for the Klan to use the property for celebrations.

The state of Georgia now refuses permission for the Klan to hold meetings on Stone Mountain, but it was to that 1915 meeting that Martin Luther King referred to in 1968 in his famous I Have a Dream speech, when he said, 'Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia!'

A Modern Tourist Attraction

Today, nearly 4 million people visit Stone Mountain every year, either climbing to the summit on the walkup trail, or riding the skylift to enjoy the view of Atlanta and the surrounding countryside, and, on a clear day, even the Appalachians.

The mountain creates a unique ecosystem. The ephemeral freshwater pools that dot the summit after rainstorms are home to rare fairy shrimp, which die after laying eggs which will hatch during another rainy season. Rare flowers include the Confederate Yellow Daisy (Viguiera Porteri), which grows in the rock crevices.

Today, probably very few of the tourists who enjoy the amenities of the park surrounding the mountain that was once called 'the eight wonder of the world' pause to reflect on its long history of use as a meeting place and symbol.

If You Go...

Stone Mountain is located 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Atlanta. It is easily reached by car or bus. Ticket information can be found here and here.