Photo Credit: Quentin Melson – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
[NEWSROOM] – (MTN) The rural town of Elberton, Georgia was rocked by a large explosion at 4 AM, which caused significant damage to the Georgia Guidestones, sometimes referred to as America’s Stonehenge. The Guidestones was commissioned in 1979 by an unknown eccentric. After its installation in 1980, the site has been an oddity, a tourist trap, and an increasing focal point of QAnon and New World Order conspiracy theorists.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a statement indicating agents had found evidence that explosives were used to damage the site.
“The preliminary information indicates that unknown individuals detonated an explosive device at around 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 6th. Elbert County Sheriff’s Office personnel responded to discover the explosion destroyed a large portion of the structure.”
July 6, 2022 – Georgia bureau of investigation
The Georgia Guidestones were commissioned by a man using the alias of R. C. Christian. He worked with an area banker to buy up farmland in rural northeastern Georgia and commissioned Elberton Granite to produce the monument. As the Cold War with the Soviet Union simmered, Christian wanted to create a “guide” for the survivors of a post-nuclear apocalypse world.
Inscribed on four massive granite slabs, were ten recommendations for the post-nuclear survivors, written in English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, and Russian. The instructions carved into the stones were simplistic.
- 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.
Elberton Granite wasn’t interested in the project, and allegedly provided a quote four times higher than the normal cost. To the company’s surprise, Christian agreed. The property where the Guidestones were placed was owned by Wayne Mullenix. Mullenix and his children were given lifetime grazing rights to the five-acre site as part of the purchase agreement.
The site was considered an oddity by most, and as the threat of the Cold War faded away, so did the understanding of why the stones were commissioned in the first place.
The idea of leaving messages behind for a post-nuclear war society wasn’t unique to a cow pasture in Georgia. In 1981 the Human Interference Task Force recommended that nuclear waste sites have warnings at their perimeter that could survive 10,000 years. The proposed stone pillars would be carved with glyphs that a more primitive society could understand. They would contain a message that the area they surround has no value, is dangerous, and should not be disturbed for any reason.
Conspiracy theories about the stones started multiplying on the Internet in 2008. Theories included they were created by a shadowy cabal who want to build a “new world order,” a manifesto to create a tribal global government, to a Satanic monument calling for the death of billions of people. the site was vandalized in 2008 with the message “Death to the New World Order,” written in red paint. The stones were defaced again in 2014. In 2015 a documentary claimed the stones were created by white supremacists connected to the Ku Klux Klan.
The rise of QAnon and the COVID-19 pandemic caused conspiracy theories to spread faster. In darker corners of the Internet, the sharing of theories morphed into calls for action.
During the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial primaries, Republican candidate Kandiss Taylor made the destruction of the Guidestones a pillar of her platform. On her campaign website, she posted a video on Rumble explaining Executive Order #10, “Demolish the Satanic Georgia Guidestones.”
Taylor celebrated the bombing, tweeting, “God is God all by Himself. He can do ANYTHING He wants to do. That includes striking down Satanic Guidestones.”
The site is owned and cared for by Elbert County. Government officials have repeatedly expressed no desire to remove the stones as public pressure has increased. Elberton is called the Granite Capital of the World and business leaders consider the post-nuclear war instructions free advertising. Almost 25% of Elberton residents live below the federal poverty line with a median household income of $23,250 a year and the town’s population has been declining since 1960. Whether people travel two hours from Atlanta to visit the site because they love it or hate it, tourism has become a critical source of income for Elberton’s 4,600 residents.
WSB-TV Channel 2 Reporter Richard Elliot spoke with Christopher Kubas, a representative of the Elberton Granite Association, after the explosion.
“It’s sad,” Kubas said. “Not just for Elberton and Elbert County, but I’m sad for the United States and the world. These were tourist attractions, and it was not uncommon for people from around the world to be up here at any given time.”
Kubas said the site has security cameras and expressed hope that they would help identify the suspect or suspects.
