7-10-19 Stone Mountain & Atlanta, GA

Stone Mountain

Lindy - Queen on the royal mountain!

Rob atop Stone Mountain

We are camped at Stone Mountain Park and you will learn why it is named that in a minute.  There was all this heat and lava and stuff and then there was cooling and bubbling up of liquid rocks and dirt.  That’s the billion year synopsis.  A great big granite ball formed in this area but mostly it was miles underground back then.  Erosion blew away the top soil and there it was, this monster granite rock which is still 90% underground but to us humans, the 10% that is showing is a mountain.  It is amazing.  So what did humans do?  They created a business and charge us money to go up God’s mountain, what else?! 

Gondola up Stone Mountain

We rode the gondola to the 1,683 ft. summit (above sea level) and along the way, passed the Confederate Memorial Carving, 400 feet above the ground.  It was begun in 1923 by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore.  He had a problem with management, as we all do, and walked off the job, as we all don’t.  Augustus Lukeman took over the job and razed Borglum’s original work and began anew carving out Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson on their horses.  Then, funding dried up.  In 1958, Walker Hancock took over and finished the job.  To avoid painstaking detail, the three men are depicted wading through the river rather than carving out the horses legs. 

Confederate Memorial Carving

The sculpture is actually bigger than Mt. Rushmore.  It measures 17,100 sq. ft. and 42 feet in depth.  It is so huge that a grown man can stand up in the horse’s mouth.  In the 1920s, a huge dinner party was held on Robert E. Lee’s shoulder.  See it now before offended snowflakes sandblast it!

Stone Mountain granite is famous for its beauty, density and strength.  Chunks of this granite have been shipped as far away as Italy and Japan.  So, if I understand that, guys on ships were saying to each other, “I think we’re taking a load of rocks over to Italy.”

Atlanta state capitol

We bagged another capitol building today, # 45 on our bucket list, Atlanta, GA.  Georgia became a state in 1788, the 4^th state to ratify the US Constitution, and the capital finally landed in Atlanta after several iterations.  This capitol building was not completed until after the Civil War.  The dome was originally plain black metal but folks wanted it to be a shining beacon, gilt in gold.  The citizens of Dahlonega panned in the river, donated coins and nuggets and the women chipped in their gold jewelry.  All of this was shipped to Atlanta to be used to create the gold leaf to cover the dome.  It was applied in small thin slips (about the size of a sticky note) that are placed on a layer of adhesive and feathered with a paint brush and roller. 

Slip of gold gilt and application tools

The chest used to ship the gold to Atlanta belonged to William Few, one of the signers of the US Constitution.  The lady atop the dome is “Miss Freedom.”  She was installed in place in 1887, stands 22 ½ feet tall and weighs 1,250 lb.  (A chick that weighs more than me!  Finally!)  This beautiful capitol building, with its original furniture in the two legislative chambers, is still functional for the executive and legislative bodies. 

Rob, Senate Majority Leader

Rob and William Few, signer of
the US Constitution (William, not Rob)

William Few's chest used to
deliver gold to Atlanta

The fourth floor is a museum.  Memorabilia and historical collections are on display here but one that caught my eye was a football and a picture of 18 year old Richard Von Gammon, starting quarterback for U Georgia.  He sustained a concussion at a game, October 30, 1897 and died the next day.  The legislature immediately submitted a bill to Gov. Atkinson to outlaw football in Georgia.  The boy’s mother interceded.  She said, “Grant me the right to request that my boy’s death should not be used to abolish the most cherished object of his life.”  The Governor vetoed the bill and football at UGA, Georgia Tech and Mercer was saved.  Rosalind Von Gammon is known as the woman who saved Georgia football.

Richard Von Gammon

Jeepster on Washington King's
covered bridge

Later, back at the park, we took a ride on an open-top tour bus which then loaded us onto a boat to see the views from the lake.  You may remember that Horace King, a freed slave, was the architect of the spiral staircase in the Montgomery capitol building.  “The acorn don’t fall too far from the tree!”  Horace’s son, Washington W. King, is the architect of the covered bridge that connects the mainland to Indian Island.  It was restored and moved here from Athens, GA where it had fallen into disrepair.  The robust construction used big dowels as attachments rather than nails.  Covered bridges were protection for travelers caught in storms, romantic lovers’ hideaways and an aid to robbers who would hide in the rafters and jump down on unsuspecting victims.  It is plenty sturdy to drive upon and a fun stop on our way home after a long, busy day.

Covered bridge to Indian Island

Rob at Washington King's covered bridge