An explosive device that “unknown individuals” detonated early Wednesday destroyed a granite monument in Georgia that was built under mysterious circumstances more than four decades ago and promoted by state officials as “Stonehenge of America,” the authorities.
The monument, known as the Georgia Guidestones, which was built about nine miles north of Alberton, Ga., Had four granite slabs connected to a central pillar, with a tombstone at the top.
But around 4 a.m. Wednesday, an explosive device was fired that destroyed “much of the structure,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. He is investigating the blast along with the Albert County Sheriff’s Office.
On Wednesday evening, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a surveillance video that captured the blast, which threw pieces of the monument outward and scattered dust in the air. Shortly afterwards, in the images you can see a car coming out of the place, according to the agency.
He said that “for security reasons”, the remaining pillars had been “completely demolished”.
For more than four decades, the Guidestones have risen over a field, fascinating and confusing to many visitors. It is unclear why the 19-foot granite slabs were there or what they meant, and only one man claimed to know the identity of the benefactor who paid for them.
The man, Wyatt Martin, claimed another man named RC Christian had paid for the granite slabs in 1979, after visiting the city of East Georgia.
“I took an oath to this man, and I can’t break it,” Mr. Martin, who helped negotiate the arrangement of the monument, told The New York Times in 2013. He added, “No one will ever know.”
The granite slabs, the department says on its website, display “a 10-part message advocating the conservation 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 hole in the structure, illuminating the date of the day.
Despite the mysterious aura of the Guidestones, some local residents have said they have little interest in them. Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that the stone edicts, which include a call to “unite humanity with a new living language” and a recommendation to keep the planet’s population below 500 million, represent an elite conspiracy. to depopulate the world.
“They built this monument calling for the forced depopulation of the planet,” Alex Jones, the far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist, said in a video in 2020.
In a Twitter post, Kandiss Taylor, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, appeared to welcome the partial destruction of the monument, which she described as the “Satanic Guide Stones.”
Mart Clamp, a local businessman who helped his father record the guides when they were first erected, said he was “heartbroken” by the damage caused by the blast.
“People always thought with a kind of crazy story about them,” he said of those who pushed conspiracy theories about slabs.
“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. “I’m speechless right now.”
He said many local businesses in the area, including his own, which engraves the stone, had offered their time and resources to restore the structure.
“If we are allowed to,” Mr. added. Clamp, “we’ll rebuild them.”
Eduardo Medina contributed to the report.