Designed and dedicated in 1930 by Colonel Sam Tate of Georgia Marble Company as a tribute to General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia, this 38-foot monument was attended by Governor Lamartine G. Hardman and other prominent dignitaries, carved by James Watt from locally quarried Cherokee marble, and first placed 10 miles east on Mount Oglethorpe (Grassy Knob), the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail until 1958, before being restored and moved here in 1999.