Stone Mountain, GA news and local guide

By the 1820s Rock Mountain, as it was then called, was a major travel center with an inn. A stage line to the state capital at Milledgeville began in 1825, and others ran to Athens, to Dahlonega from 1828 and to Macon, and hundreds of people visited in summer. A post office opened on the old Augusta Road in 1834, and Andrew Johnson, called the founder and first mayor of the town, then named New Gibraltar, built a hotel there in 1836; the town limits were drawn around his house. About 1839 Aaron Cloud built a 150-foot octagonal wooden observation tower with a restaurant on the summit, which a storm destroyed in 1849, and Thomas Henry built a smaller tower with telescopes in 1851. Rail service arrived in 1845, and by 1850 the mountain was a popular excursion for Atlanta residents. In August 1846 New Gibraltar hosted Georgia's first state fair. Granite quarrying was the area's lifeblood for decades, employing thousands. Stone from the mountain was used in the locks of the Panama Canal, the roof of the gold depository at Fort Knox and the steps of the east wing of the U.S. Capitol. Sources Wikipedia: Stone Mountain, Georgia