"...from Stone Mountain of Georgia"

Finalmente! as Mozart would have said. We finally got to Stone Mountain, a famous monadnock just east of Atlanta. A what?! I'm not sure that 'inselberg' or 'kopje' is much better. All those words describe a small mountain or hill that rises out of a gentle slope or plains. Think Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

This one is mistakenly referred to as the largest exposed piece of granite in the world. It is not, but it does have the largest bas-relief in the world - of three leaders of the Confederate States of America. Click on the photo to see it bigger:

The Confederate leaders, from left to right are: President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall' Jackson. They're seated on their horses, 'Blackjack', 'Traveller' and 'Little Sorrel' respectively. Just to give you some perspective, the carving of General Lee is 9 stories tall. Yep - we're that far away in this photo.

Stone Mountain today is like a Six Flags. You pay to park and then you have to pay for all the attractions, a scenic railroad, an antebellum plantation, shows, a giant jungle gym. The one thing I was interested in was the SkyRide, a Swiss-type cable car that takes you 825 ft.to the top.

Of course, I deeply appreciate the history to this rock, which is in this case a very troubled history. Turns out that it was at Stone Mountain that the Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915. The Confederate carving was determined three years earlier, but the connection was deep and the KKK heavily influenced the Confederates-only depiction. Turns out the the Klan's philosophy and followers were emboldened by one of the first great movies, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. Also by the lynching of Leo Frank, to date, the only Jewish person lynched in America. He was a factory manager who was accused of the murder of a 13 year old worker, Mary Phelan. He was convicted, then had his sentence commuted - only to be lynched on August 17, 1915. One of my next posts will have more about that.

Troubled history aside, it's apparent that Stone Mountain is an important cultural touchstone in Atlantans lives.

When we got to the ticket counter, they were telling everyone that the SkyRide was closed due to high winds - a total bummer. We traipsed through the park, taking photos, stopping at every gift shop there was. Finally, while I was waiting by the third gift shop, craftily positioned next to the empty SkyRide ticket booth, a cry rang out - "winds are down! SkyRide's open!'. I jumped up, got my family, grabbed tickets and we were in the first gondola up the mountain. It was four minutes getting up there and three minutes coming down. And it was spectacular.

That's Atlanta behind our heads and the rounded edge of the rock face about 200 feet behind us. It was totally worth it. More on Stone Mountain to come.