An explosive device that “unknown persons” detonated early Wednesday destroyed a Georgia granite monument built under mysterious circumstances more than four decades ago and promoted by state officials as “America’s Stonehenge,” authorities said.
The monument, known as the Georgia Guidestones, which was built about nine miles north of Elberton, Georgia, had four granite slabs connected by a central pillar, with a capstone on top.
But around 4 a.m. Wednesday, an explosive device was detonated, destroying “a large portion of the structure,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. He is investigating the explosion along with the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office.
On Wednesday night, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released surveillance video that captured the explosion, which threw pieces of the monument outside and sent dust into the air. Shortly after, the footage shows a car leaving the scene, the agency said.
It said that “for safety reasons” the remaining pillars were “completely destroyed”.
For more than four decades, the Guidestones have towered over a field, fascinating and confounding many visitors. It’s unclear why the 19-foot granite slabs were there or what they meant, and only one person claims to know the identity of the benefactor who paid for them.
The man, Wyatt Martin, claimed that another man who called himself RC Christian paid for the granite slabs in 1979 after visiting the town in East Georgia.
“I made an oath to this man and I can’t break it,” Mr. Martin, who helped organize the memorial, told the New York Times in 2013. He added: “No one will ever know.”
The granite plaques, the department says on its website, display “a 10-part message supporting the preservation of humanity and future generations in 12 languages.” It also serves as an astronomical calendar: every day at noon, the sun shines through a narrow opening in the structure, illuminating the day’s date.
Despite the mysterious aura of the Guidestones, some locals said they didn’t care much for them. Some conspiracy theorists argue that the edicts of the stones — which include a call to “unite humanity with a living new language” and a recommendation to keep the planet’s population below 500 million — signify an elite plot to depopulate the globe.
“They built this monument calling for the forced depopulation of the planet,” Alex Jones, the far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist, said in a 2020 video.
In a post on Twitter, Candace Taylor, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, appeared to welcome the partial destruction of the monument, which she described as the “Satanic Guidestones.”
Mart Clamp, a local businessman who helped his father engrave the Guidestones when they were first erected, said he was “heartbroken” by the damage caused by the explosion.
“People were always making up some crazy stories about them,” he said of those pushing conspiracy theories about the plates.
“It’s unfortunate that we live in a society that thinks it’s acceptable to tear down things you don’t agree with,” Mr Clamp added. “I’m at a loss for words right now.”
He said many local businesses in the area, including his that engraves stone, have offered their time and resources to restore the structure.
“If we are allowed,” added Mr. Clamp, “we will restore them.”
Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.
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