Confederate carving not easy to topple in Georgia
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Some statues of figures from America’s slaveowning past have been yanked down by protesters, others dismantled by order of governors or city leaders. But the largest Confederate monument ever crafted — colossal figures carved into the solid rock of a Georgia mountainside — may outlast them all.
Stone Mountain’s supersized sculpture depicting Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson mounted on horseback has special protection enshrined in Georgia law.
Even if its demolition were sanctioned, the monument’s sheer size poses challenges. The carving measures 190 feet across and 90 feet tall.
The huge monument was conceived about 50 years after the Civil War ended but not finished until 1972. The sculpture’s creators used dynamite to blast huge chunks of granite away from the mountain, then spent years carving the detailed figures with handheld cutting torches.
Erasing the carving would be dangerous and expensive. Controlled explosions using TNT packed into drilled holes, said Ben Bentkowski, president of the Atlanta Geological Society. d in the mountainside would work, said Ben Bentkowski, president of the Atlanta Geological Society.
“With the logistics, the safety aspect of it, you’d have a budget certainly north of $1 million, I suspect,“Bentkowski said.
There’s also a sizable legal obstacle. When Georgia lawmakers voted in 2001 to change the state flag that had been dominated by the Confederate battle emblem, language to guarantee the preservation of Stone Mountain was included as a bargaining chip.
The law states that “the memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion.”
Ryan Gravel, an Atlanta urban designer, noted the law doesn’t mandate maintenance. He suggested allowing nature to take its course, letting vegetation grow over the sculpture from its nooks and crannies.