In 1916, Gutzon Borglum was hired to be carving sculptor for the memorial. He envisioned 7 figures and an "army of thousands" behind. Unfortunately, WWI stopped work on it until 1923. Borglum finished Lee's head by January of 1924. But conflicts between Borglum and the association caused him to walk away, taking all of his model and sketch work with him to work on Mt Rushmore.
The second sculptor destroyed all of Borglum's work and started new. But by the deadline, once again, only Lee's head was complete and the donating family took back the property. All work stopped for 36 years.
In 1958 the state of Georgia purchased the mountain and surrounding land and started a new association. Work resumed in 1964 with thermo-jet torches for carving. The dedication ceremony was on May 9, 1970 and all finished touches were completed by 1972.
The carving is much larger than it appears. Workers could seek shelter from the rain in the ear of the horses!
Neat the base of the mountain on both sides are other memorials with famous quotes carved into paving stones.
Sorry about all the pics, but I have a thing for quotes...
They were also preparing for their winter attraction: Snow Mountain. A man-made sledding slope complete with man-made snow...
One day at Stone Mountain was not nearly enough time. Everything closed early for the off-season bu there was still so much more we would have liked to have explored and seen... :(
No comments:
Post a Comment