Stone Mountain State Park

Oct 29, 20001

The day was bright and clear and warm as we headed out of Atlanta to Stone Mountain Georgia. Stone Mountain is located just 16 Miles east of downtown Atlanta on Highway 78. I didn’t need to worry about directions since I had a chauffeur. My friend Joe was in the drivers seat and he already knew the way.
The first thing I spotted after I entered the park was huge Christmas Tree even though it was only October.

The scenery in the park is breathtaking even without the carving on the mountain.

Speaking of the carving, the story behind it makes it hard to believe it ever got done in the first place. In brief, the idea of a monument to honor the leaders of the Confederacy was first conceived in 1895 by Helen Plane. Plane was a widow of a confederate soldier who fought with General Robert E. Lee and was killed at the battle of Gettysburg. Plane served as President of the Atlanta Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy eventually becoming president of the national organization as well. She felt it was the duty of this organization to preserve the memory of the confederate veterans who served during the war.

She conceived the idea of a carving of General Lee on the side of the exposed granite of Stone Mountain. The mountain was owned by Sam Venerable and he recommended American Artist Gutzon Borglum (We will meet up with Mr. Borglum again during the South Dakota trip) but Borglum and Plane did not get along, partly because Plane considered Borglum a Yankee since he hailed from the Idaho Territories.

The work was originally stalled because of the 8 million dollar estimate for the panoramic carving of General Lee, Jefferson Davis, 5 additional generals, and 65 staff officer all followed by a group of cavalry. Borglum eventually agreed to downsize his vision to just the central figures of Lee, Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Joseph E. Johnston.

Not much of the carving had been completed when the US entered World War I in April 1917 and stalled the work further. After Word War I fundraising became a problem so work continued to be stalled.

In January of 1924 General Lee’s head was unveiled in front of 5000 people however following that a crack in the granite delayed the carving and political infighting delayed it more. About this time, Borglum received the commission to carve Mount Rushmore which did not sit well with his Atlanta employers and they decided to fire him. As a result, Borglum destroyed his work and then fled the state when Georgia charged him with malicious mischief. Eventually the charges were dropped but Borglum was out of the picture now for good.

To replace him Venerable turned to another Yankee , this time from New York by the name of Augustus Lukeman. Lukeman changed the design and in May 1928 finally blasted Borglum’s work from the face of the mountain. This upset Sam Venerable who still owned the mountain and he refused to renew the lease, halting the work again.

The carving sat unfinished for the next 30 years.

Interest in the project resurfaced from time to time, especially around 1940 with the success of Gone With The Wind but as before global concerns , this time with the outbreak of World War II, derailed any plans to resurrect the project.

Finally in 1960 the State of Georgia took over the project, purchasing the mountain from the remaining Venerable heirs. They hired another “Yankee” artist, this time from Gloucester Ma.

Artist Walker Hancock began his turn on the project in 1963. He eliminated the tangle of horses hooves from the bottom of the sculpture and utilized newer technology but stayed true to Lukeman’s vision even using Lukeman’s system to transfer the image to the mountain.

Finally on May 9,1970 the carving on Stone Mountain was dedicated and in 1972 the carving was officially declared complete!.

It was a long and often painful journey from start to finish but now the carving is the centerpiece of the Stone Mountain State Park.

More tomorrow J