Georgia is home to the granite capital of the world, the city of Elberton. Elberton is about 100 miles east of Atlanta, and 33 miles east of Athens, close to the South Carolina border. More granite is quarried for monuments in this city than anywhere else in the world. While there are hundreds of granite monuments and attractions throughout the state of Georgia, there are several that have particular significance.
According to the Georgia State Tourism Board, Stone Mountain Park is one of Georgia's most visited attractions. The park is open year-round, and its main feature is the mountain itself, an enormous granite stone five miles in circumference at the base. Visitors can walk up to the top of the mountain, or take the Skyride, the mountain's cable car tram to the top. Taking the Skyride allows you a close-up view of the large bas-relief carving on the side of the mountain of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Every night, a laser light show illuminates the figures and tells the story of the Civil War.
The Georgia Guidestones, completed in 1980 in Nuberg, Ga., are the work of an artist known only as "R.C. Christian," who according to the town's website came to Nuberg with $50,000 and a plan for the monument in a shoebox. The four giant monoliths are each 19 feet tall, and a granite slab lies atop them, connecting the four. On each are Christian's own "10 Commandments" (his ideas on civil living, not related to the Biblical 10 Commandments) written in several different languages. The Georgia Guidestones have stirred up a lot of folklore, intrigue and interest, and put the tiny town of Nuberg on the map.
The first recorded granite monument created in Elberton, Ga., was Dutchy, intended to pay tribute to the Confederate soldiers, but the residents of the town thought the statue looked like a Yankee soldier. The 8-foot statue was unveiled in Elberton's town center in 1898. According to the Elberton Granite Museum, one resident said the statue looked like a "strange monster, . . . a cross between a Pennsylvania Dutchman and a hippopotamus." It was this comment that led to the statue's being nicknamed "Dutchy." It stood in the square for less than two years, when a town mob came and knocked it to the ground, burying it under the town square. In 1982, the Elberton Granite Museum had Dutchy exhumed, and he is now on display at the museum.
