The Day we saw the Georgia Guidestones

Because we are drawn toward weirdness sometimes, we took a trip to the Georgia Guidestones. This mysterious monument is stuck in a remote cow pasture near Elberton GA. There is also a bit of controversy as well. Like a lot of things that involve human effort, you have to walk around it to understand it. The only way to do that is to go up there and look at it personally.

A mysterious fellow, identifying himself as R. C. Christian, walked into the office of one of the granite companies in Elberton, and ordered six huge granite stones, cut and engraved very precisely. All of this happened in 1980.

Update: Since we visited the guidestones in 2021, The Georgia Guidestones have been destroyed. Click this post for the latest information.

The Georgia Guidestones Investigation

Directions to The Georgia Guidestones

At the end of the driveway turn left. At the middle of town, 441, take another left. Follow the signs to Athens, until you get to Loop 10. Follow Loop 10 until you get to the east side of town. At that point, turn on GPS. There are a couple of different routes, each of which will wind you through the countryside up there.

The trip will take you about 90 minutes if you don’t stop for corned beef hash at Five Points in Athens.

cored beef hash from J Christophers five points

The Georgia Guidestones

Here is the story. A mysterious fellow, identifying himself as R. C. Christian, walked into the office of one of the granite companies in Elberton, and ordered six huge granite stones, cut and engraved very precisely. All of this happened in 1980.

There were apparently 27 pages of instructions, and the manager, who didn’t really want anything to do with the project, quoted a price many times higher than the cost, and the guy accepted it.

When complete, the monument was assembled in a cow pasture north of town.

The monument consists of five huge base stones, four of which precisely measured at 16 feet tall, 19 inches thick, and 7 feet 4 inches wide. There is a center post, which is about 18″X18″ square, and a capstone. The capstone has messages in Greek and Egyptian Heiroglyphs.

The Georgia Guidestone Weirdness

There are several elements of mystery about this. First of all, the builder swore everybody to anonymity, and never revealed the names of his out-of-state partners.

The site selection, Elbert County, was evidently the home area for someone’s grandmother. The site itself was purchased from a local farmer, in the middle of a cow pasture.

At some point the site was deeded over to Elbert County. One of the first mysteries is whether or not they felt good about this. They have a white elephant that it costs money to maintain. Apparently there is a trust fund to cover the cost of the security cameras and lawn mowing.

Pasture in Elbert County were the guidestones sit

The Georgia Guidestone Weird Message

The Georgia Guidestone weird message is as follows, per Wikipedia:

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
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 message is highly inflammatory to certain groups of people because of its underlying suggestion of population control and world government. The choices of languages, and the location on the stones, are apparently deliberate as well. The message (supposedly) is translated into 8 languages, inscribed on the faces of the main stones.

The Georgia Guidestone Conspiracy Theories?

Since we try to avoid this sort of content, I will link below a few articles that describe some of this, and let the readers decide.

Predictably, there is talk of cult activity, and also, this has bled into the conspiracy theorist community. The R. C. has been thought to mean “Roman Catholic”. People in this area draw conclusions based on that. There have been a couple of acts of vandalism over the years. At the time we were there, about noon on Wednesday, there were a couple of carloads of curious South Carolinians. That is because this lonely spot is only about 20 miles from the state line.

Mysteries of the Georgia Guidestones

The first mystery, of course, is “why?”

Why would someone spend an abundance of money on a hopefully permanent monument in the middle of a cow pasture?

The second one is, if you want cattle to graze here, why do you not have a gate? This place doesn’t have a gate.

There are a few other odd things. Why Swahili? I guess it still is the most widely spoken language in Africa. Spanish and American English are on opposite sides of the same stone. Hebrew and Arabic are also on the opposite sides of the same stone. Cyrillic Russian? I suppose at the time it was built, 1980, the world was a little different place. “Chinese” does not suggest a differentiation between Cantonese and Mandarin, which there is.

At this point, Hindi and “Chinese” could just as easily be put on opposite sides. I suppose the Russian still works, but in another generation or two, Portuguese might be more widely spoken. The creators were going out on a limb by making some assumptions that the world in 1980 was more stable than it was.

Why were the dimensions expressed in inches, rather than some “new world order” system of measurement?

The figure for the ideal population of Earth, 500 million, was not pulled out of a hat. This is an estimation of the human population, pre-fossil fuel, in about 1000 AD. So, there may be a subliminal message about fossil fuel consumption.

More Weirdness

There are holes and slots cut into the central post, the faces of which are aligned north/south and east/west. A slab is, a few feet away, with a description of the dimensions and weight of this thing. There is some missing information.

There is very little explanation other than a little marker that is off to the side, made by someone else, and the slab.

A further mystery is why there is no food truck or ice cream place. Maybe most of the year it is boring.

The Typo

Here it is:

Since it was noonish, the photo doesn’t do it justice. It says “Author R C Christian (A pseudonyn)”.

Do you have to assume that it’s a typo? Do you have to assume that it was put in deliberately?

There is a reference below, written by some people with a lot of spare time, that suggests that this is some kind of anagram, with a clue to the identity of the builder.

The word “untarnished” appears in this mess, which, apparently, when unscrambled becomes “Ted Turner.”

A time capsule is buried beneath the stone, and the inscription says “to be opened on.” The stone doesn’t have a date. The plot thickens.

Alternate explanations

The builder was a pretentious idiot with too much money and did the whole thing as if he were serious, but it is all stupid.
The whole thing is a spoof, and the builder is sitting in someplace like New York laughing at the tourists trying to figure it out on security TV.
The builder was actually a brilliant, but very mysterious character, and there is an eerie paranormal aspect to it., and a lot of hidden clues.
The builder wanted to attract tourists to Elberton.

I guess the above alternate explanations are not mutually exclusive.

The Reality

It’s a calendar and a clock.

There is a hole drilled into the central post, that is at 34 degrees, and drilled (crookedly) to point to the North Star.

There is a slot and hole drilled into the east-west axis. At dawn, on the equinoxes, the sun shines directly into the hole. The resulting sun image is circular. At other times, it is less circular. On the solstices, summer and winter, it disappears altogether because the slot is less than 68 degrees wide (the monument is at 34 degrees north latitude).

The main slabs also are aligned so that during the equinoxes, shafts of light can go through the monument. If you’re standing in the right place, at dawn or dusk, this could be cool. The rest of the time, the monument casts a solid shadow.

The Clock

The clock is the most fun. Because of the slot in the capstone, a little shaft of light illuminates the center stone. There is a smooth place carved in the center stone for that reason.

We were there at about 12:30, which is 11:30 solar time. The little light shaft would have lined up with the center of the stone had we waited a few more minutes.

Also, because it was a little after the Summer Solstice, we missed out on extra coolness. The little shaft of light that shines through the cap should make a perfect circle, right in the middle of the center stone.

So, if we were Druids, we would like this place. It’s in a field because the builder wanted it to be someplace that wouldn’t have buildings built around it for awhile. If a rich guy wants to build Stonehenge, what’s the harm?

The “commandments” are relatively harmless. The word “shall” never appears. They’re only suggestions. We sort of want to go through the work of translating the languages to make sure they all say the same thing. It is possible that the message is different in Russian than it is in Mandarin.

There are a few grammatical errors, but that is because the builder didn’t pay attention in composition class.

The further question comes up: Did the builder ever show up on the solstice or equinox to see if his gadget worked properly? Surely no one would build this thing without testing it.

So now what?

Well, we can add this to our collection of weirdness. We have the Conyers Apparitions, the Nuwaubians, and now this, for our “road trip of weirdness” originating from the Firefly, pretty Bed and Breakfast near Madison GA.

You may put CNN HQ on this list as well, if you have a certain set of beliefs. We do not discriminate against Druids either, and if you want to come to our place on the solstices or equinoxes to check this out, we would love to have you.

It’s hard to believe anybody is that well organized, especially in 1980.

Have we told you that we are experienced Backroad Travelers? This is a thing, it gives you an understanding about how people live, and you pick up some interesting stories.

Be there in the square.

Post Script

7 feet 4 inches, the width of the base stones, is exactly 5.25 inches less than the distance from the throwing line in a regulation dart board setup. What mysterious dart cult may have been responsible for this connection?

On the other hand, that’s 88 inches. According to the reference below, 88 is a number that symbolizes an analytical approach to an efficient business. Spooky.

Also, the angled hole drilled to the North Star is best viewed if you are about 5 feet 8 inches tall. How tall is Jane Fonda?