Fuzzy
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2012
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- Location
- South Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee
Exploring on a motorcycle take me places I didn’t know exist and fills me with lots of interesting trivia. One recent find was Elberton, Ga the Granite Capital of the World. 20 Quarries in the area and 150 business making things from the granite including a quarter million tomb stones per year. Near the center of town is the Granite Museum with free admission.
Outside the museum is the Argo Spire, the tallest knows obelisk of granite. Originally carved for Argo trucking company it now stands beside the museum 40’ tall and weighing 20 tons. It has been moved several times.
The most popular item in the museum is Dutchy. He was carved by an immigrant from Pennsylvania to depict a civil war confederate soldier in the town square. Got his name because veterans thought he looked like a Pennsylvania Dutch union soldier. The carver had never seen a confederate soldier. This, the first statue crafted of Elberton Granite, did not please local Confederate Veterans who "lynched" him in 1900. He was toppled and buried on Elberton's Sutton Square. Records pointed to his location on the Square, and in 1982 he was carefully exhumed, and now occupies a place of honor in the Granite Museum.
Of course every southern town square in 1990 had to have a confederate soldier statue, so here is Dutchy's replacement.
Outside of town on the tallest hill around is the Georgia Stonehenge, or guide stones, Impressive, but not my favorite as the inscription starts with the statement to limit the human population to half a billion people. Does not suggest who should be eliminated to get down that number. I’m sure the author assumed it would be others eliminated, not him.
Outside the museum is the Argo Spire, the tallest knows obelisk of granite. Originally carved for Argo trucking company it now stands beside the museum 40’ tall and weighing 20 tons. It has been moved several times.
The most popular item in the museum is Dutchy. He was carved by an immigrant from Pennsylvania to depict a civil war confederate soldier in the town square. Got his name because veterans thought he looked like a Pennsylvania Dutch union soldier. The carver had never seen a confederate soldier. This, the first statue crafted of Elberton Granite, did not please local Confederate Veterans who "lynched" him in 1900. He was toppled and buried on Elberton's Sutton Square. Records pointed to his location on the Square, and in 1982 he was carefully exhumed, and now occupies a place of honor in the Granite Museum.
Of course every southern town square in 1990 had to have a confederate soldier statue, so here is Dutchy's replacement.
Outside of town on the tallest hill around is the Georgia Stonehenge, or guide stones, Impressive, but not my favorite as the inscription starts with the statement to limit the human population to half a billion people. Does not suggest who should be eliminated to get down that number. I’m sure the author assumed it would be others eliminated, not him.
