Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1918 — GREAT EAGLE OF STONEWORK [ARTICLE]

GREAT EAGLE OF STONEWORK

Quartz Rock Bird, Work of Indiana, Measures 120 Feet From Tip to Tip of Wings. Conflicting stories are told concerning a large stonework eagle which is situated on the broad top of a stony rain-gullied hill in middle Georgia. The one point that seems to be certain, observes a writer, is that the Indians left the eagle as a legacy to the state. A hundred years from now it will probably be found lying on Its back, with outspread wings and tall, even as it lies today. For it is made of quartz rock so cunningly placed that it would require a pick in a strong man’s hands to displace any one of them. The rocks lap and overlap in such a manner as to represent feathers. No cement holds them in position, and the stones vary in size, weighing from half a pound Ho three or four pounds. The Image rests on a very firm foundation, for the stonework extends several feet into the ground. Once, perhaps twice, treasure-seek-ing vandals dug into the breast of the eagle; but the work must have proved too laborious, for the diggers gave up before they had reached the bottom layer of overlapping stones. Rough but fairly accurate measurements of the bird show the length of the eagle from the middle of the tall to the head to be 102 feet, , and from tip to tip of outspread wings 120 feet. The length of the beak is 10 feet, and the height of the body at the center of the breast is 10 feet. The eagle lies with its head to the west Tradition does not give any satisfactory explanation of the age or the meaning of the great stone mound. It may have had religious significance to the Red men who built it and it may be the burial place of some great chief. It is a most mysterious and interesting prehistoric monument