The claim to fame of Stone Mountain, Georgia is that it is apparently the largest high-relief sculpture in the world. And it is impressive.
Well, that and, apparently, in 1915 following the release of the movie "Birth of a Nation" and the lynching of Leo Frank, the Ku Klux Klan was reborn.Surprisingly enough, there aren't a lot of monuments or markers about that.
Leaving aside the modern-day sensibilities about Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, the carving is really impressive. It was started by Gutzon Borglum (but not finished by him), who later went on to carve Mount Rushmore.
The mountain is one HUGE, gigantic piece of rock and it is enormous. The largest of its kind in the world. We took the cable car up and took the walk down (well, some of us did, at least) and for those reasons (the natural beauty and the immensity of the human achievement of the sculpture), it's worth a visit.
Unfortunately, the attraction of the sculpture has now been surrounded by an amusement that I would describe as kitschy. It's got "fake snow," which I guess is fun if you've never seen snow as was the case for some people we met there from Florida.
It had the standard shops and shows and crafts, but to met, it felt like a sad effort to commercialize something that should stand on its own.
Of course, it could be a commentary on the state of our society and what we value.
This was the end of our trip so our team was pretty much tired and we took it pretty slow.
Worth a visit and glad we did it. Still, worth managing expectations if you do go.
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