stone mountain holiday

i hadn't climbed stone mountain in forty years, but i decided (as did 10,000 other people) to do so today --- it has been a tourist attraction since the 1830s, when it was called cloud's mountain because a guy named jacob cloud built a wooden observation tower and charged people a nickle to use it --- my first memory of the place must have been around the time the state acquired the mountain from the ku-kluxing venables, which was 1958 ---

as a natural wonder it has been much abused, from quarries to cross burnings, radio transmission towers, the stupid chair lift and big-ass visitors center on top of the mountain ---

but is still a purty amazing place ---

people have been marching up and down the west slope of the mountain for thousands of years --- the first people built rock walls up there, which were destroyed around the time this plaque was installed

lots of old petroglyphs, which i don't remember seeing as a kid --- oldest date i saw today was 1879, but there's got to be older stuff ---

now i just need to go back on some miscellaneous weekday and not on a holiday when it's covered up with other people