Gutzon Borglum vs UDC and the State of Georgia

This past summer my wife and I traveled to South Dakota. We visited Mount Rushmore and were awestruck by the magnificence of the sculpted mountain with the visages of Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt and Lincoln – all done under the skilled guidance of sculptor Gutzon Borglum. This was not Borglum’s first try carving heroes on a mountain face.

I knew little about Borglum until my wife purchased a book written by Rex Alan Smith. In chapter 4 of his book titled, The Carving of Mount Rushmore, I learned that it was Borglum who did the carvings on Stone Mountain in Georgia.

It is unclear who originally had the idea to carve a Confederate Memorial on Stone Mountain, but it is known that an Atlanta newsman, John Graves, made the first recorded suggestion, although nothing came of it until Mrs. Helen Plane, the 85-year-old national president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, decided to get a sculptor’s opinion. That sculptor was Gutzon Borglum who had previously carved the statue of General John B. Gordon.

On August 17, 1915, Borglum arrived in Atlanta and met with the local chapter of the UDC who proposed carving a 20-square-foot likeness of Robert E. Lee. They took him to the 2000-foot-long-high Stone Mountain to have a look. “Ladies,” he said after a while, “a 20-foot head on the mountainside would look like a postage stamp on a barn door! I’ll have to think about it.”

Why Stone Mountain? On Thanksgiving evening 1915, William J. Simmons and 16 other members of the recently revived Ku Klux Klan ascended Stone Mountain, igniting a flaming cross that could be seen for miles and proclaimed the re-birth of the Klan. The site soon developed deep historical ties to the Confederacy and white supremacist groups with annual cross burnings on Stone Mountain. Mrs. Plane expressed admiration or the Klan after seeing D.W. Griffith’s infamous film The Birth of a Nation. She even mused that Klan members might be included in the carving.

Spending three days examining the mountain, Borglum came up with a vision of a titanic grouping of the Confederacy’s greatest leaders surrounded by infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Upon returning to Atlanta, he told the ladies of the UDC of his vision. The ladies worried about the vast sums of money the project would cost, but Borglum, always self-assured, told them it would not be a problem, as the South would give massive support. He presented his plans at the UCD national convention in San Francsico and dazzled the ladies. Obtaining the permission of the local landowner, they gave Borglum verbal authority to proceed.

Borglum had to solve how to safely get men and equipment up the mountain’s sheer sides. He consulted with inventor Lester Barlow of the Brown Hoist and Machinery Company in Cleveland, Ohio, but the cost was $200,000, and the UDC had managed to raise only $2,000 so far, so that was abandoned. Borglum decided to use sling-seats suspended by cables attached to the top of the mountain. This was simple and inexpensive and worked.

Lack of money and World War I intervened and brought the construction to a halt. After the war, the UDC was still unable to raise sufficient funds and turned the promotion and financing to a committee, the Stone Mountain Monumental Association, comprised of the cream of Atlanta’s social and financial society. Borglum was rehired and restarted the work, financing the project out of his own pocket believing he would be reimbursed by the committee.

Late 1923 saw the emergence of Lee’s profile on the clif,f and the press took note. There was an unveiling on January 19, 1924, which was the general’s birthday, to publicize the project and spur donations. Mrs. Plane, now 94-years-old and dressed in an 1860s’ costume, was carried to the rostrum, and with her signal, two large American flags were parted revealing Lee. A modest but steady stream of donations began to flow to the association.

Work progressed, but so did problems. TheaAssociation treated Borglum as just their employee, and this lack of respect rankled the artist. His ego bruised and with little reimbursement, Borglum needed to do other projects to raise money to feed his family and was frequently absent from the project. He also questioned the way the association was handling the funds. The association tried to raise money by getting Congress to authorize the issue of special half dollar coins. Borglum got into an argument about his design for the coins and accused the association of trying to rig the affair to line their own pockets. He also claimed the association owed him $40,000, but they said they had already paid him $25,000 In fact, according to their books (which were suspect), they said he owed them $40,000. The association began to view as an obnoxious, money-hungry Yankee from Connecticut and a Republican to boot! The board even suggested an assistant sculptor be hired to continue Borglum’s work.

Borglum had a fit. He went to the site, grabbed his plans and sketches, took a hammer, and destroyed his models. Hearing of this, the association declared that the models and plans were their property and promptly had an arrest warrant issued. Borglum received the news of the warrant and before the sheriff arrived, jumped into an automobile and raced 120 miles crossing into North Carolina and out of jurisdiction.

The Sate of Geo,rgia filed a $50,000 damage suit against Borglum and called for his extradition. They were unsuccessful. They tried to ruin Borglum’s reputation, but again were unsuccessful. The national press sided with Borglum and, while conceding he was a hard man to get along with, said that the models and sketches were his and he had a right to destroy them. Public opinion began to side with the sculptor and soon the lawsuits were dropped.

The Stone Mountain project was abandoned until after World War II. The carvings of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis on their horses were finished in 1972. Borglum, meanwhile, went to the Black Hills of South Dakota to carve another mountain.

Today, Stone Mountain and the surrounding park remains a large tourist and recreational attraction and requests from the Ku Klux Klan for cross burnings there have been denied,

Sources:

Smith, Rex Alan, The Carving of Mount Rushmore, New York, Abbeville Press, 1985.

https://stonemountainpark.com/activity/history-nature/memorial-carving/