50 States of Wonder
7 Stone Spectacles in Georgia

Engravings on these 20-foot-tall stone tablets offer guidelines on everything from population control to respecting nature. Who exactly ordered the erection of this mysterious monument is unknown. The structure was commissioned in 1979 by a man who went by the pseudonym R.C. Christian (and wanted his actual name and the people he represented kept a secret) and now bears an inscription that identifies its sponsors only as “A Small Group of Americans Who Seek The Age Of Reason.” (Read more.)

Exploring the winding depths of Ellison’s Cave is for experienced spelunkers only. Along its 12 miles of dark limestone passages lies a pit that plunges 586 feet. Aptly named the “Fantastic Pit,” the cave’s drop is the deepest in the continental United States. A pit-lover’s dream (and acrophobe’s nightmare), Ellison offers several other spectacular shafts you can descend. (Read more.)

Tucked behind the Calhoun Seventh Day Adventist Church is a miniature world of wonders. Crafted from materials including stones, shells, and glass, this rock garden’s 50 sculptures include small re-creations of everything from the Colosseum to the Notre Dame cathedral. Look closer and you’ll see small porcelain people inside the rooms of castles, as well as animals along the landscapes. (Read more.)

A tombstone-like monument stands in the courtyard outside Emory University’s Math and Science Center. The monolith is a remnant of millionaire Roger Babson’s war against gravity, which he blamed for his sister’s death by drowning. Babson founded the Gravity Research Foundation, which once issued these small monuments to its grantees. Erected in 1963, Emory’s stone is meant to remind researchers “of the blessings forthcoming when science determines what gravity is, how it works, and how it may be controlled.” (Read more.)

Most airport runways boast similar scenes: planes, maintenance workers, and carts towing baggage. But Runway 10 at Savannah/Hilton Head Airport has a rather unique feature: two gravestones embedded in its tarmac. When the airport was being built, developers were unable to secure permission to move the graves of Richard and Catherine Dotson. The Dotsons’ descendants believed they would’ve wanted to remain buried on their land. The airport kept the Dotsons in place with one change: They erected flattened headstones into the runway so planes could glide atop the graves. (Read more.)

An 855-foot stone enigma snakes its way through a portion of Fort Mountain State Park. There are many competing origin stories for the cyclopean-style barrier known as the “Ancient Wall.” Some say it was built by the local indigenous population in the sixth century, while other theories suggest it was erected much later, by Spanish conqueror Hernando de Soto. Much of the wall has fallen, but visitors can still admire the portions that remain. (Read more.)

In 1937, a man discovered an unusual rock along a river in North Carolina. It bore inscriptions signed by Eleanor White Dare, the mother of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the “New World.” The stone told of the deaths of Dare’s husband and other daughter, Elizabeth, on one side and of the movements and deaths of fellow colonists on the other. Some believed that the stone held a clue to what happened at Roanoke Island, but the fate of North Carolina’s “lost colony” remains a mystery. After being purchased by the president of Georgia’s Brenau University, the Dare Stone is on display in the school’s library. (Read more.)