Stone Mountain

Stone Mountain is a large granite rock at Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. He is according to some data the largest exposed granite rock in the world and, after Mount Augustus, also the second largest monolith. The popular Uluru (formerly called " Ayers Rock" ) would Stone Mountain, although actually refer in size to third place, but, contrary to popular opinion, not a monolith.

Stone Mountain is not only known as a geological feature, but also for the enormous bas-relief on its north face, the largest bas-relief in the world.

  • 2.1 emergence
  • 2.2 Stone Mountain and the Ku Klux Klan

Description

The summit of the rock is 513 m above sea level and about 250 meters above the surrounding plateau, about a quarter of the survey also made of granite rock El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The at the base of a range of more than eight kilometers containing rocks can be climbed on foot or by cable car.

The surface consists of bare rock with washouts in which rainwater collects, feeding small streams. In the crevices, some species of the genus live brine shrimp. The rare Georgia oak ( Quercus georgiana ) was first discovered on the rocky plateau.

Geology

When the rock is composed mainly of a granite intrusive bodies, which originated in the period of the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains around 300 million years ago, was pressed as magma from the earth's crust in near-earth layers and crystallized there. Then the existing material from steadier rock was gradually exposed by erosion processes. According to the type and number of xenoliths are S-type granite ( from molten sedimentary rock ). It has a flow texture in east-west direction.

Relief

The relief on the north side of the rock shows three figures of the Confederate States of America: President Jefferson Davis and Generals Thomas " Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee. It is located about 130 meters above the base of the rock and has a total of about the size of a football field. It's sold about seven feet deep in the rock. The group of figures measures about 30 x 60 meters and is cut about four feet deep at the deepest point. For 25 years, a laser show is projected onto the relief at night.

Formation

1909 Centenary celebrations were held to commemorate the President Abraham Lincoln in the United States. On this occasion, first came on the idea to build a monument to the memory of the Confederacy. Mrs. C. Helen Plane of the "United Daughters of the Confederacy " gave the first impetus. She spoke to the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, and this created until 1917, some preliminary models; because of the First World War it was difficult to find sponsors.

1923 Borglum was $ 250,000, which had been collected in large part by the Ku Klux Klan, and he could start working, but received an unrealistic timing of 3 years. The following year, the relief of Lee's head was unveiled before a large audience at General Lee's birthday. However, the relationship deteriorated to Borglum and his contract was terminated in February 1925. Borglum left Georgia, not to smash without his previous models, and began work on Mount Rushmore. In April 1925 Augustus Lukeman was obliged to continue the work and three years later Borglum's work was blasted from the mountain with dynamite. But then the money ran out, and died as Lukeman in 1935, the work had been resting on the mountain for several years.

1958 bought by the State of Georgia the mountain for over $ 1 million. The Stone Mountain project was resurrected in 1963 and Walker Hancock was selected to complete the sculptors work. Only in 1970 the relief was finally completed by Roy Faulkner.

Stone Mountain and the Ku Klux Klan

A central role in the history of Stone Mountain Memorial comes to the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan has many links to the monument, where it has held many ceremonies.

The connection began with the dramatic rebirth of the Klan, triggered by the movie " The Birth of a Nation" by DW Griffiths, who romanticized the activities of the original Ku Klux Klan in the period after the Civil War. On November 25, 1915 a group of men met in long robes and hoods at Stone Mountain to burn a cross, and "Colonel" William Joseph Simmons, a Methodist preacher, an oath as " Grand Wizard " of the Ku Klux renewed clans. The oath was taken from him by Nathan Bedford Forrest II, the grandson of the original " Imperial Grand Wizard " Ex- General Nathan B. Forrest; acted as a witness Samuel Venable, owner of Stone Mountain. In October 1923 Venable granted the KKK a perpetual easement with the right to hold celebrations there at will.

From the beginning, the KKK tried to new members; so he could recruit Gutzon Borglum. Because of its strong involvement in the financing of the monument and its strong political influence in Georgia was the Klan - together with the "United Daughters of the Confederacy " - ideologically influence the design of the monument, so that the monument glorifies the Confederacy. In contrast, the population of the suburb Stone Mountain is now almost 70 % of African Americans.

Stone Mountain Park

The Confederate Monument is surrounded by Stone Mountain Park features a golf course, glockenspiel, airport, etc.. A cable car takes visitors to the top, from where they can look down on Atlanta; often can be seen Kennesaw Mountain, and on very clear days, the view up to the Appalachian Mountains. Even walking the path to the top is easy to deal with. On the mountain there is also a small radio tower that broadcasts three noncommercial stations.

Stone Mountain Park is one of three privately operated state parks of Georgia. Currently, the park and its rides are operated by the Silver Dollar City Company. The park is also the tennis competitions, track cycling and archery at the 1996 Summer Olympics were held.

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