The Georgia Guidestones EarthCache

When you arrive, you’ll find yourself at the highest point in Elberton County, staring in amazement at the massive Granite monument in front of you.

Granite is a massive, hard and durable intrusive igneous rock (magma slowly cooled inside the earth) made up mostly of three different minerals. These minerals are Feldspar, Quartz, and Biotite.

Where did Granite come from?

Once upon a time (325 million years ago) the earth’s crust melted and became a mass of magma (molten rock) that reached temperatures of 1300-1400 degrees Fahrenheit. This all happened about 11-12 miles below the earth’s surface. Then the magma started to rise (oh, no - really, it’s ok) and stopped about 9 miles beneath Elberton. To me this sounds really, really deep, but this is considered extremely close to the earth’s surface in geological terms. There the granite is formed through the very slow cooling and solidification of the magma. I do mean very, very slow, it took over a million years! Since then the granite has been pushed upward, and the land above it has been removed by erosion. Now the granite lies right at the surface where it can be easily and safely quarried (if you know what you’re doing).

Yes, yes and yes! Granite weighs 160-220 pounds per cubic foot. It weighs more than Concrete (70-100 pounds per cubic foot). Its weight is comparable to marble and weights only 1/3 of the weight of Steel (400-500 pounds per cubic foot). Granite is heavy and hard because it is loaded with mineral grains and within those minerals are tightly packed atoms.

The Mohs Scale of Hardness measures the resistance to scratching between minerals. There are 10 classifications for hardness. Number 1 on the scale indicates the softest and number 10 is the hardest. Elberton Granite is a rock (made up of minerals) with a hardness of 6-7. The hardest material on earth is the diamond (a girl’s best friend) and has a hardness rating of 10. It cannot be scratched except by another diamond. Some examples of the minerals and their hardness are:

HardnessMineral

Each classification will scratch the one preceding it; Diamonds (10) will scratch Glass (5) and Elberton Granite (6-7) will scratch Steel (6). Hardness can be used to determine what it can be used for; from jewelry to building materials. Elberton Granite is very hard (6-7) and very tough to break due to the strength of the bonds between the atoms in Quartz and Feldspar grains.

The Granite referenced as the Elberton Granite actually covers 5 counties in Georgia, including Elbert, Oglethorpe, Wilkes, Greene, and Madison. The Granite deposit is a HUGE mess…oops, I mean MASS that is roughly 35 miles long, 6 miles wide, and probably 2-3 miles deep. Yes, that big and can fill the Rose Bowl (you know…the football stadium) almost two million times! Did I mention it was HUGE?

I’ll keep this part short and sweet. You know Stone Mountain; it’s also a Granite mass, but not part of the Elberton Granite mass. Its way smaller, being less than 1% of the volume of the Elberton Granite. Check out the above map to see the location of both masses and compare them.

How does Elberton Granite differ from other Granite?

I’m sure you’ve noticed the gazillion different colors Granites come in. Most of them contain the same kinds of minerals as the Elberton Granite (Feldspar, Quartz, and some form of Biotite). So, why are they so different? Here it comes, wait for it…other granites differ in: • The Size of Mineral Grains • Evenness of Grain Sizes • Color of the Minerals • Amounts of the Different Minerals See the Chart below to compare the differences:
Cutting it into slabs reveals different patterns. You can also take two pieces of Granite from the same quarry and the same vein and they can have totally different patterns and colors. The patterns and colors are determined mainly by the different variations and arrangements of the different minerals (during that slooooow cooling down process).

Both of the above pieces of Granite were found at the same quarry, but the one with the Orangish (is that a word?) color will not be used for monuments due to the vein and coloring. The bluish Granite pictured can be used for monuments due to the consistency of the grains throughout the piece. The Elberton Granite is mainly made up of white Feldspar, gray Quartz and black Biotite these minerals gives it the blue-gray color.

A quarry is usually a large man made pit (no tunnels) used for extracting various natural materials, in this case stone aka Granite. Take a look at the picture (look down…nooo, not at your feet, the next picture).

Quarries tend to be clustered in certain areas. The closer the quarries are together, that’s where it is closest to the surface and easier to excavate and get to the good stuff (Granite, of course).

The Granite is excavated by breaking it into large rectangular blocks. There are many methods of cutting the Granite: • Using Channel Bars • Jet Burner • Drilling and Blasting • Hydrojetting • Diamond Wire Sawing

These two pictures show the excavation of the Guidestones.

Once the Granite is freed then it will be cut into smaller blocks and removed from the pit by derricks or large mobile cranes and loaded on trailers to be taken to the manufacturing or finishing plants, also known as monument plants, for processing.

The dominant commodity, accounting for 90% production, is for monuments. Only about 50 percent of the granite quarried is used for finished monuments. It’s also considered the perfect building material. The rest is likely used for commercial applications like counter tops, signs, street curbing or is discarded in waste piles also known as grout piles. You would think that some of the discarded granite in the waste pile could be used as gravel…that would be a BIG no-no, because of the sharp angles that could cut tires and nobody wants a flat tire!

Some of the ‘waste’ granite was used to build The Granite Bowl. You should check out The Granite Bowl cache GC5EQ6K if you’re in the area!

The Georgia Guidestones where unveiled on March 22, 1980. It is a massive granite monument proposing the conservation of mankind and future generations. The sponsors (more about that can be found at the Elberton Granite Museum & Exhibits) expect these granite giants to endure and pass along their message for hundreds of years. Long after you, me and our kids and their kids and their kids…you get the idea. The Guidestones, also known as the American Stonehenge, sits on 5 acres of property owned by Elbert County.

• One central stone (Gnomon stone), that has astronomical representation.
• Four huge stone panels (representing North, South, East, and West) that radiate out from one central stone, and a capstone. They have etched into their hard Pyramid Blue Granite stones a simple message to mankind. It is presented in eight different languages (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian) so the majority of mankind may be able to understand its message.
• The capstone sits on top of the four panels and the central stone. It is engraved with four different ancient languages (Babylonian Cuneiform, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs). The engraved message translates to: “Let These Be Guidestones To An Age Of Reason”.

• Guide Reproduction Wisely - Improving Fitness And Diversity
• Unite Humanity With A Living New Language
• Rule Passion - Faith - Tradition - And All Things With Tempered Reason
• Protect People And Nations With Fair Laws And Just Courts
• Let All Nations Rule Internally Resolving External Disputes In A World Court
• Avoid Petty Laws And Useless Officials
• Balance Personal Rights With Social Duties
• Prize Truth - Beauty - Love - Seeking Harmony With The Infinite
• Be Not A Cancer On The Earth - Leave Room For Nature - Leave Room For Nature

• The four large upright blocks pointing outward are orient to the limits of the migration of the Moon during the course of a year.
• An eye-level, oblique hole is drilled from the South to the North side of the center, Gnomon stone so that the North Star is always visible, symbolizing constancy and orientation with the forces of nature.
• Gnomon ~ Definition: (a) The raised part of a sundial that casts the shadow. (b) An early astronomical instrument consisting of a vertical shaft, column, or the like, for determining the altitude of the sun or the latitude of a position by measuring the length of its shadow cast at noon.
• A slot is cut in the middle of the Gnomon stone to form a 'window' which aligns with the positions of the rising Sun at the Summer and Winter Solstices and at the Equinox so that the noon Sun shines to indicate noon on a curved line.
• The capstone includes a calendar of sorts where sunlight beams through a 7/8" hole at noon and shines on the South face of the center stone. As the Sun makes its travel cycle, the spot beamed through the hole can tell the day of the year at noon each day. Allowances are made because of variations between Standard time and Sun time to set the beam of sunlight at an equation of time.
• The site was chosen because it commands a view to the East and to the West and is within the range of the Summer and Winter sunrises and sunsets. The stones are oriented in those directions.

Can you tell what time of day it is? How about the day of the year? Me…uh, no. I’ll stick with the calendar on the wall. And no, this isn’t the qualifying questions for your Smiley!

Elberton has a huge welcoming sign and monument display from local plants as you arrive into town. There is only one way to miss it and that’s if you are traveling North on 17 towards College Avenue/Elbert Street-it’ll be on the right. But now that you know this, I’m sure you won’t! You can probably catch it in your rear view mirror as you drive thru the light (only on green). There are currently 45 Granite Quarries and 85 Granite Plants. The sign also states that “Elberton produces more Granite monuments than any other city in the world”. They actually produce 1/3 of the Granite monuments in the world!

1. How would you describe the color of the Granite at the Guidestones?
   1. White/Gray
   2. Blue/Gray
   3. Pinkish/White
   
   
2. How would you describe the grains in the Granite?
   1. Fine & Even Grained
   2. Medium & Even Grained
   3. Course & Even Grained
   
   
3. How many different textures of Granite did you find at this location? (No multiple choices here, I want to see what you come up with!)
   
   
4. And just to be sure that you actually visited…How many Video Cameras are watching?

If you decide to head to Elberton, you’ll start seeing lots of signs and monuments along the road that are made from local Granite.

The Elberton Granite Museum & Exhibit has lots of history (of course it does, silly). You’ll find more information on the history of mining granite from the first tools used to the finished products. They even have a short info video to watch. My thanx goes out to John Flemming at the Elberton Granite Museum for finding the Elberton Graniteer Spring 1980 publication that was used to provide some of the information for this EarthCache!

***Special Thanx goes out to Chris Kubas, Executive Vice President of the Elberton Granite Association for giving his consent and providing additional information for this EarthCache!