Over 951 cubic feet of granite make up the 11 pieces of the monument.
The overall height is 19 feet 3 inches from the surface of the ground to the top of
the capstone.
There are slots and holes in the center stone that have astrological significance because
they have been cut at precise angles to permit accurate readings of the sun and moon at various
times of the year.
Standing on the highest point of Albert County, the Georgia guide stones have raised
a lot of questions.
Four upright stones more than 16 feet high, with support stones totaling almost
238,000 pounds.
And there's a message sandblasted in 12 languages in letters two inches tall.
The sponsors of the mysterious project are said to be an anonymous group of out-of-state
Americans promoting the concept of the conservation of mankind.
Here's the mystery, though.
Albert and granite businessman Joe Finley was contacted to build the project by a man using
the fictitious name of R.C. Christian.
United City Bank President Wyeth Martin served as intermediary, handled the escrow account
for all funds, and says he'll carry the secret of who R.C. Christian is to his grave.
The mere fact that it is a mystery as to the identity of the people will lead others
to come and look at the stones and wonder who put those stones there.
What do you want to know?
In 1979, a mysterious stranger appeared in the sleepy town of Elberton, Georgia, a city
that claims the title, the granite capital of the world.
The man referred to himself as R.C. Christian.
He claimed to represent a small group of concerned Americans who desired to erect a
monument for the benefit of mankind.
Written upon the granite structure are what are sometimes called the Ten Commandments
of the New Age.
Some believe they hold a sinister meaning.
I've seen published tracts saying those ten gods are the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.
The most disturbing is the first, to maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetual balance
with nature.
With the world's population at well over 7 billion people, that would mean that many
would have to die.
What is the advocating doing killing everybody else in the world?
They interpret that as meaning favoring abortion and or genocide.
The only way to get us down to 500 million people is of course the extinction of millions
upon millions, billions of innocent people.
Since 1980, when the monument was first revealed, clouds of suspicion have lingered
over the Georgia Guidestones and those who built it.
Conspiracy theories abound along with accusations of genocide, globalism and a new world order
agenda.
Does it create sort of a dark cloud over Elberton?
The short answer is yes.
A lot of people have used the word scared to describe their feeling when they come
out here.
Somebody would say well they're going to have a sacrifice and they're going to have
one of your cows up there.
We heard some witches have been out here.
Yet despite the ominous overtones, the defenders of the Guidestones argue that R.C.
Christian had no sinister intention when he designed the monument.
There's been a lot of misinterpretations of the whole thing because of a few things
in the wording of that monument.
But who was this mysterious figure and what was his true intention?
A stone plaque written by the author tells us that the name R.C.
Christian was just a pseudonym.
For more than 30 years, researchers have speculated about the stranger's identity.
Suspected candidates have included media mogul Ted Turner and Scientology founder
L. Ron Hubbard.
But now, for the first time in history, the secret identity of R.C.
Christian can finally be revealed.
That is a letter right there from Mr. R.C.
Christian.
You're kidding.
And we have other letters that actually connect to the R.C.
Christian that built the Georgia Guidestones.
This is a double life.
If there ever was, I'm astonished.
My uncle was a very intelligent man.
Having pulled this is not a real surprise.
Our journey began with fellow producer Dr. Mike Bennett.
We went to seek out Wyatt Martin, the only living person said to know the real identity
of R.C. Christian.
While we knew that Mr. Martin was committed to secrecy, we hoped to at least gain some
insight into the strange monument he helped to create.
We're in Greensboro, Georgia, and we're getting ready to conduct an interview with
Wyatt Martin, the banker who helped make the financial arrangements for the construction
of the Georgia Guidestones.
And according to official published reports, maybe the only person who knows the true
identity of R.C. Christian.
Let's go inside.
How do you feel being part of the history?
I don't even know it anymore.
I'm just making it.
I get up every morning and say, Lord, I thank you.
I was able to put my feet on the floor today.
The one thing I assured him, I would never divulge who that family was.
So don't ask me that question.
I'm not going to divulge who he was or what his occupation was.
Because he used the name of R.C. Christian, he told me, because he was a Christian.
We may ask you a little bit about your experience.
Yeah, that's fine.
You know, and why, because that's obviously curiosity people have.
Why would he use that name and things?
Well, you see, if it was not kept as a great secret who the people were who put
it there, people would soon get over going up and reading those 10 precepts.
And you have to remember this was done during the time when Russia and the U.S. were
threatening each other with nuclear missiles in the time of the Cold War.
According to Wyatt Martin, the original purpose of the monument was to provide
guidance for humanity in the event of a nuclear holocaust, one that might require
rebuilding civilization.
I can remember in the days in the 60s going down to Florida there and you'd see
fallout shelters build along the areas of the lakes there where I was fishing.
And people at one time had a great fear of that occurring.
We had to elicit the services of people that, like from the University of
Georgia, to show us how to drill the hole up through the Norman Pole where
you could look at night and see Polaris, the northernmost star.
Because if this worldwide calamity had arisen, you could have gone back and
found the northern star again with the sun coming through the slots drilled
down through the Norman Pole.
When the sun rises on the shortest day of the year, it shines at a different
angle through there, so you can tell the shortest day.
On the longest day of the year, it'll shine out the other way.
And you can therefore establish the calendar again.
So you could reestablish the compass and the calendar.
Wyatt Martin became closely acquainted with many details of the Guidestones
because of his working relationship with R.C. Christian.
But how did he first meet this mysterious stranger?
We asked him to explain how it all began.
Well, I was president of the bank, the Granite City Bank, which no longer exists
there in Elberton, and also president of the Chamber of Commerce for two years.
And one Friday afternoon, a customer of mine called me and said,
there's some kind of kook over here in my office wanting this crazy monument,
and that we're busy with payrolls.
Could you talk with him?
I said, you're trying to put one off on me.
He said, no, I want you to talk with him.
The man on the phone was Elberton businessman, Joe Findlay.
Joe Findlay, who is now deceased, owned Elberton Granite Finishing
Company.
Mr. Findlay says that late one afternoon, a man came into his office,
told him he wanted to buy a monument.
Well, this is a fairly common occurrence here in Elberton.
People passing through from all over the country,
they think they can buy a cemetery memorial cheap
because they can get it wholesale.
And so it's a fairly common thing for people to stop and say,
I want to buy a monument.
And of course, we say, well, we don't sell them to the public.
We sell them to monument retailers.
We're wholesale manufacturers.
And by the time you paid the freight to get it north,
you'd come out cheaper to buy it locally, plus the service aspect.
But anyway, this man said he wanted to buy a monument.
Mr. Findlay, it was late.
He said he thought, well, he said, well, sir,
we are wholesale manufacturing company.
What kind of monument?
He said, oh, I want one 20 feet tall, and here we go.
And this man told him, said, I'm not going to tell you my real name,
but I'm a Christian, and I'm going to use a pseudonym.
It's R.C. Christian.
He said, I represent a group who wants to put up a monument espousing
these rules for mankind.
And of course, Mr. Findlay said he was interested.
He became more curious and more curious.
Findlay died in 2005.
But decades later, his son still recalls that first meeting
he had with a stranger in 1979.
My name is Joe Findlay, Jr. My dad, Joe Findlay, Sr.,
was the gentleman who come and built the Guidestones back in 1979, 1980.
What was the scope, the total thing he was responsible for
with the Guidestone Project?
The granite came from our quarry.
We owned a quarry at the time, pyramid quarries,
off Highway 72.
Mr. Christian had spoken for the anonymous group, said, Mr. Findlay,
I want to buy a monument.
And he gave them the sizes, and they were huge, as you can tell.
And he kept on and did it, said, I'd better listen to this man.
He got some sense.
So after he talked for some time, Mr. Christian said, Mr. Findlay,
what are you buying?
Daddy told them the name of both banks in Elberton at the time.
We only had two.
He says, we will establish a bank account under my name,
and the project will be funded through this bank account.
Before beginning the project, Joe Findlay
had to be certain that the stranger would
be able to afford the cost of such a massive undertaking.
The quarrying of large blocks of granite,
along with the process of sandblasting the letters
into multiple languages, would require a serious amount
of financial capital.
That's why Findlay sent R.C. Christian to see
bank president Wyatt Martin.
So in a few minutes, this well-dressed gentleman
with a suit and a tie on came into my office
and introduced himself as R.C. Christian
and started telling me that he wanted to put up a monument.
And I said, well, we can do it here in Elberton.
Being president of Granite City Bank, a lot of our customers
were granite people.
And so I said, why don't we walk up to the square here,
and there's a monument that was the Granite Association put up
in 1976.
We had a big celebration in 1976 here.
So we walked up and looked at it,
and I said, I think you can see from this,
we have skilled people here who can do anything
that you want to do with stone.
Prior to the building of the guide stones,
the granite industry was the backbone of Elberton, Georgia.
Monuments are found throughout the city,
and there is even a museum dedicated to preserving
much of its rich history.
As far as Elberton goes, Elberton's
been here for over 100 years producing granite.
The best advertisement we got for Elberton Granite
is Old Duchy back here, the Confederate statue
that lay buried for 80 years down on the square.
And when they dug him up and turned the water hose on him,
it became just as clean as almost the day
he was put in on it.
There's also the lion that's in the granite museum,
and that was supposed to give the granite industry good luck.
So those were worthwhile to go and see.
Yet none of these monuments have
seen the kind of attention that's
been given to the Georgia guide stones.
There are several structures in town
that are worth seeing.
However, I don't know that any of them
have any of the mysterious qualities that this does.
Once R.C. Christian was convinced
that Elberton Graniteers could handle the work,
he enlisted Wyatt Martin to manage the finances.
And he said, you know, what I need
is someone who would be the intermediary
between me and whoever I choose to build a monument
that I could send the money to.
And he said, you being the bank president,
I would trust you and I can send the money to you
and you would pay them as they needed funds.
And I said, well, I can do that,
but you said your name is not actually R.C. Christian.
I wouldn't do it unless you tell me who you are.
I don't, because I didn't know whether it was for real
or not either then.
And he said, well, I will on the basis
that you agreed to never divulge who we are.
Exactly why the stranger chose the town of Elberton
is not completely known.
According to Wyatt Martin, the man's appearance
seemed to come from out of nowhere.
He had rented a car, flown into Atlanta, rented a car
and was just driving down what I call granite row.
And he stopped at what he thought
was a reputable looking company
and went in and introduced himself as R.C. Christian.
I said, how did you get interested?
And he said, well, during World War II,
at the beginning of that, it was Army Air Corps
and I actually took my basic training
in the state of Georgia.
And the best of my memory is that his grandmother
was originally from Georgia.
He was not from Georgia.
But he was a person with a very honest,
honorable occupation
and that any community would be glad
to have him as a citizen.
Yes, yes he was.
When he came into Mr. Finley's office
that Friday afternoon, he actually had
a little wooden scale model of what he wanted.
I don't know what ever happened
that Mr. Finley's daughter I talked with once last year
and she thinks that they took all that stuff
that he had there, the papers and everything,
and they burned them and that may have been burned
in the fire, she didn't know.
At their meeting, R.C. Christian would begin
to give Wyatt Martin some insight
into the philosophy behind his mysterious monument.
He said, I've been to all places in the world
in the very poor countries like Bangladesh
and India at that time.
And he said, I have looked and it's been
about a 20 year project in my mind
that I wanted to do this for the betterment of mankind
and at that time I still didn't know
what was going on in the stones.
I said, well I have no problem.
If you divulge who you are
and I feel comfortable with you, I'll agree to do that.
He said, just, he can call me when he needs money
and let him come to the bank and you give him the money.
Out of their account, I'll send the money to you.
I said, that's fair enough and that's really what I said.
But I'll tell you one thing,
I think as far as benefiting mankind,
you'd be just as well off to take the money you have,
just toss it out on the street down Friday afternoon,
let the traffic and the wind blow it around,
let the people pick it up.
It'll benefit a lot of these local people around here.
He said, oh, you don't understand the concept
of what I'm trying to do.
And so that's how we got started with it.
The next challenge was to find a location
for the monument.
Originally, the town of Elberton
was not the first choice for R.C. Christian.
R.C. Christian wanted the Godstones
to be in another location in Georgia.
He actually wanted it to be more correctly aligned
with the sun, it would have been in Hancock County,
which is the county south of us.
And he wanted it to be in Hancock County
and he told me that he had actually gone over to Athens
and chartered a little small plane over there
with some fella and flew over the area.
And he said, it's very wooded down there.
I said, yes, you need this in a point
where the sun shines through nice and clear.
And I said, you know, a lot of that land is timberland.
That's a sparsely populated county down there.
And I didn't want it to go down there either.
I tried to say, look, we can do it cheaper
if it's here in this county.
I was trying to get it to be a point of interest
in Elbert County, being the promoter that I was.
He came back at a later time.
He wanted me to pick out spots of land
that he might buy to put the monument on.
And I picked out about five places in the county
and carried him around to see those.
But now the reason this site was selected,
you're talking about big, big pieces of granite,
immense weight.
And during the discussion of where the location was to be,
the bottom line, freight, shipping it,
that'd have been quite a freight bill
to ship those big ones.
So you'd have to get, if you tried to go by truck,
you'd have to get DOT, special DOT clearance
on any state those trucks went in.
So they, I don't know, I forget how it developed,
but they suggested, well, let's put them up here.
The suggestion seems to have come
from a prominent citizen of Elberton, Frank Coggins,
pictured here with former first lady, Rosalynn Carter.
The Coggins family has a long and prosperous history
in the Elberton granite industry.
Frank Coggins was also the personal friend
and sometime employer of Joe Fendley.
Well, I was sort of Fendley's what we call
idea man, inspirational man.
And we were riding along one day in the car,
he was driving, said, I want to show you something.
And I said, fine.
He said that everybody thinks I'm gonna be crazy.
I said, well, I already know you're crazy.
And so I opened this thing up,
well, he got panic in it,
papers went everywhere out of his briefcase.
But it was a story of a guy that told me
what he'd done and beaten us to,
what's the man's name he met with?
RC.
RC, yeah.
Christian.
I never met, to my knowledge, RC Christian.
I may have seen him,
I may have met him under some other situation,
but not to my knowledge.
While Mr. Coggins may or may not have met
RC Christian, among the many strangers
who have visited the monument,
his company still maintains records
of the Guidestone's history,
including a painting that Mr. Coggins commissioned
from a local artist,
in order to inspire interest in the town of Elberton.
Doug Bernard was a congressman who served our district
and he visited the Rotary Club and gave the program.
And they presented him with one of the prints
that I just gave you.
My name is Shirley McNeely.
I was born and raised here in Elberton.
I've been employed by Mr. Coggins Company for 57 years.
And I sort of look after all of the finances
and I help him with real estate investments
and managing all of that.
So I'm just a administrator
and I'm president of all of the Coggins Companies.
And when I say all of the Coggins Companies,
we have a number of companies
and I act as president of all of them.
And he is chairman of the board of all of the companies.
Mrs. McNeely well remembers the period
during which the guide stones were built
since her company was indirectly involved.
She showed us a series of newspaper and magazine articles
that they collected over the years.
But in their records,
they also retained never before published correspondence
from R.C. Christian.
Now I have a letter that,
let me see here, let me read this to you.
This was dated in October of 79.
Let's see if we see this on the camera here.
Well, it certainly says it's initialed right here.
Yep.
And then on the following page,
I'll be glad to give you a copy of this.
That would be wonderful.
On the following page is where he makes reference
to the tract of land.
In particular, the instructions included details
about the grazing rights of the land
to keep it from becoming overgrown.
But I'd be glad to make a copy of that for you.
That would be wonderful
because there might be some other useful things here
in this understanding
because it talks about some notches,
specifications for notches.
Yeah, that's where the sun will shine through
on certain, on the equinox, the spring,
and the winter, and the summer, and the fall,
and all that stuff.
Right, yeah, notch in the capstone it talks about.
It's not yet completed its calculations.
He had a consultant for the design of the notch.
Oh, this will answer, this letter itself
will answer a lot of questions for us.
Excuse me.
Right here.
Well, great.
1979, to Mr. Wyatt Martin, and it's from R.C. Christian.
And this gives details of the design.
And he sent drawings for Mr. Fidley and Mr. Coggins.
Among the records were a series of handmade drawings
giving R.C. Christian's plan for the layout of the stones.
Exactly why these diagrams were sent to Mr. Coggins
is not completely known.
But his influence seems to have been
keeping the monument in Elberton County
to promote the town and the granite industry.
I guess, I'm by far the biggest promoter
of Elberton, Georgia.
Financial as well as my mouth, or whatever I can do.
Anyway, Spidley was talking about
what he's gonna do out there, Fidley.
It's got a lot more potential for Elberton
and Elberton County than just what you're dealing with.
This thing could be on the international stage.
And so we sort of proceeded on that line.
And he'd have meetings with people
that I wouldn't be involved in,
but I always, he would bring me up to date
and tell me everything.
And he wanted a site.
And I did not pick that site.
Some people said I bought it.
I understand I did not, but you know,
it wouldn't be such a could or could not have.
But he wanted a place down somewhere in South Georgia.
And I said, this is too valuable for Elberton.
We don't get rid of this.
So I was sort of the inspiration and guidance
to guide that, guide stones.
Coggins' guidance for keeping the monument in Elberton
was ultimately embraced by Joe Findley,
along with Wyatt Martin and R.C. Christian.
And they started a quote, site search.
And Wayne Mullenix, who was a rancher
and still lives out there near the guide stone,
he and Joe Findley were friends.
Mr. Findley owned the granite company.
He suggested a site out there near his home.
So they went out there and supposedly Mr. Christian said,
this is fine, this will do it.
Wayne Mullenix owned a construction company
and had already been hired by Joe Findley
to handle some of the work on the project.
Joe called and said he wanted me to give him a price
on putting a foundation in for a large stone.
And I told him when I got home
that I would look at his drawing
and work him up something.
During the meantime, he told me
that this was gonna be set down
toward the middle of Georgia or below Macon somewhere.
So I was trying to get a price put together for him
in order to bid the job.
Of course, when we got home, I went by Joe's office
because we have been close friends.
We're in the Masons and the Shriners together
and we've been friends for years and years.
Did he tell you anything about,
I would guess you'd probably wonder,
what in the world is this?
Who in the world wants this?
Did he tell you anything about that?
Well, a little bit, I guess you'd say.
I mean, he said that the gentleman had come in
to talk to him and that he had a fictitious name,
which was R.C. Christian.
And of course, Joe didn't tell me anything about the man.
I've never met the man.
Haven't met him till yet.
I guess being born and raised here in Elberton,
you know a lot of the other people
and word started spreading
and they was wanting to know what I knew
and what Joe knows.
And of course, we tried to keep everybody informed
of what we did know,
which wasn't a whole lot at the time.
Evidently this project involved you,
it got to involve you to a greater extent
than just simply working on it.
What transpired where it actually involved
possibly part of your property?
Because we didn't know where this project
was gonna be set.
That was one of the things
that I stayed on Joe pretty regular
and we had a deadline or a timeframe
that we had to get a foundation in the ground
so the concrete could cure
in order to set that heavier rock on it.
Do you have any other idea any more specifically
where this gentleman wanted him originally?
It was my understanding it was to go below Macon
somewhere toward the middle of the state
due to lining up with certain degrees
with the moon and the stars and the sun.
I never knew where,
I mean, we never had any idea
that Mr. Christian was looking for that location
and that he had been all up and down
trying to find what he wanted,
which was to be on the crown of a hill
with no trees surrounding it
and where you could see it from all points.
And he just did not find that location.
When I walked in Joe's office that morning,
of course, being friends like we were,
I didn't sit and wait to get to see him.
I just walked right in
and we were sitting there talking
and I said, Joe, we don't have but a week or two.
We've got to start this.
He said, well, let me do some checking.
And I said, you know, out there at my house,
you know, would be a good place.
And like I say, Joe and I are real close friends.
And he said, are you serious?
And I said, well, I think it would suit
the requirements that he is asking for.
And it wasn't just a day or two
that Joe called me back and said
that Mr. Christian was coming
and that he would like to look at that site.
And I said, well, if you need me, call me.
A short time later, R.C. Christian
had chosen the final location for the monument.
Up on the hill where it is there,
where on a clear day you can stand there
and see the mountains in Tekoa,
which is 50 miles away.
And he said, this is it.
Buy it by five acres from this man.
So he sent me the money to buy five acres of land
that is in a pasture there from this fella.
And he said, let him have grazing rights.
I got the phone call, said that's where he wants it.
So we set up out there with a surveyor
and looked at the property
and we surveyed out five acres of land.
I bought that five acres and he later called me one day
and he said, in thinking about this,
you need to deed it to the county
because that will be the most lasting organization
probably in this whole country, our county government,
and deed it to them and let them own it.
So I did that.
I deeded it to Elbert County
and they own that piece of property.
In March of 1980, R.C. Christian's dream
would be revealed to all the world.
Since that time, the guide stones with all their mystery
have inspired a host of apocalyptic ideas.
Meanwhile, those who were involved in witchcraft
and the occult have seen the monument
as a touchstone for the powers of darkness.
I have indeed heard of,
especially late at night after midnight seances
and other cultic type worship services going on out there.
So I've heard of them.
I've not witnessed them.
And one of the things in all the discussions I've had
with members of this community and this church,
people here are very reluctant
to acknowledge that type thing exists.
I thought witchcraft had passed away from this country
in the days of Salem
when they were killing these people,
these women for being witches.
And it was to my amazement,
I found that witchcraft is still very prevalent
in this country today.
Some people say the witches and warlocks
have had weddings up there.
Well, they're a person just like you and I,
if they want to have their wedding up there,
that's up to them.
I started getting letters from witches.
I started getting a monthly magazine
coming from the National Association of Witches.
And they were very far out
and they tried to take over the guide stones
for a period of time.
This is hearsay.
I heard some witches,
we heard that some witches had been out here.
We would see lights up there at night
and we would go check it out
and people would have thrown a rope across
from one side to the other
and climb up on there and light candles.
And just, I mean, you know,
I don't know what they're doing.
You never saw them while they were in an act
or some kind of ritual or something?
No, no.
It wasn't an interest to me.
The biggest thing that ever concerned us
is somebody would say,
well, they're gonna have a sacrifice
and they're gonna have one of your cows up there.
You know, that kind of disturbed me.
Now, why did they say they'd have a ritual here?
What is it about this place that they think is sacred?
I have no idea.
I think it just has, it's almost like an icon now.
It's just like something that pop culture,
something that's mysterious,
something they don't have in their town
or even in their state.
They can't afford to take it to go see Stonehenge.
This is kind of closer.
America has their own Stonehenge.
That's right, it has been dubbed
as the American Stonehenge.
And there's enough mystery and weirdness about it.
Of course, there's a slot that comes down.
The sun supposedly, there's a space
on that Norman Center stone that's dressed,
meaning smooth.
And the sun rays project at different times.
Now, the critics say that that slot
is based on the design of pagan altars.
And that's a drain hole.
And I'm not going into detail.
You can imagine what the theory behind that is.
One of the ministers there in Elverton
even said that he expected them
to actually kill somebody up there one day.
And just that really got things going
and caused all kind of wild thoughts
to come into people's minds.
I recall the old statues of the Incas and the Mayans
in Central and South America
where they performed human sacrifice centuries ago.
Only later did the Stonehenge come to my mind.
I figure as long as the monument sits here
in Elbert County someday,
that the people in Elbert County will have to face
the fact that probably sacrifice will take place there.
While there are no confirmed reports of human sacrifice,
the words of R.C. Christian
continue to stir the curiosity of critics.
What did he intend by his assertion
of maintaining a world population at a certain level?
He said from his research,
500 million people could live on this planet
with adequate resources and have a great life.
That's where he came up with it.
Because that was one of the detriments,
I'd say one of the things on the wording
that caused so many people to start getting angry,
alarmed, afraid of it,
was over the wording there of that 500 million people.
Did he happen to mention
how he would suggest how to maintain it?
Because that causes a lot of confusion with people.
How would you maintain it?
What would be your technique?
Did he talk about anything about birth control
or any of those things?
No, no.
Never did.
While R.C. Christian may not have revealed
many details to Wyatt Martin,
in 1986, some six years after the monument was finished,
he would explain the guide stones further
in a book titled Common Sense Renewed,
published under the name Robert Christian.
The book was reportedly sent
to every member of the U.S. Congress,
as well as to several thousand political officials
and shapers of public opinion throughout the world.
In this work, Mr. Christian left little to the imagination.
He clearly related the title
to revolutionary writer Thomas Paine.
Over 200 years ago, a perceptive Englishman, Tom Paine,
summarized his beliefs in a tract entitled Common Sense.
He appealed to reason as the proper tool
for resolving our problems peacefully.
Today, the world is confronted
by increasing portents of nuclear war.
It is essential more than ever.
Before that, we explore every means
for rational, non-violent resolution of worldly frictions.
Once again, we must look to common sense
to find new pathways to peace.
While preaching peace and the concept of reason,
his concerns quickly turned
to the subject of population control.
We live in a time of great peril.
Humanity and the proud achievements
of its infancy on Earth are in grave danger.
Our knowledge has outstripped wisdom.
We have controlled disease,
but have not regulated our numbers.
R.C. Christian went on to express his concerns
as a conservationist, and made it clear
that the real problems of the environment
were the fault of having too many people.
As the world enters the last decade of the 20th century,
public concern is being directed to environmental pollution.
The destruction of tropical forests, the greenhouse effect
and to impending shortages of many ingredients needed
for high material living standards.
These problems are only symptoms.
The basic cause is obvious to most educated people.
It is the human overpopulation that is already upon us.
Unless and until there is general recognition
of the evils of overpopulation,
we can make little progress
toward building an age of reason.
From his perspective, reproduction could not be left up
to the individual.
Controlling human numbers would require government oversight.
It is vitally important that each national government
have a considered population policy.
The need is urgent, and should take precedence
over other problems,
even those relating to national defense.
Overcrowding human beings in conditions of squalor
and ignorance is dehumanizing.
It is an evil which must not be tolerated.
Mr. Christian went on to recommend measures
currently taken by the communist government of China.
He said,
A few generations of single child families
will make possible dramatic improvements
in living standards.
Excesses in childbearing often result
in degradation and poverty.
A reduction in total numbers is essential
to maximizing the potential of every human being.
Perhaps most disturbing is the assertion
that having children might one day be seen
as criminal behavior.
Irresponsible parenting has always been wrong.
The increasing population pressures
will soon require society to regard it
as a punishable social crime.
The Georgia Guidestones monument encourages humanity
to establish a limit for human numbers.
Let us teach our leaders to achieve it.
Once Common Sense Renewed was published,
there remained little doubt as to the views
of R.C. Christian.
But with its radical message,
how are the Guidestones received
by the people of Elberton County?
They haven't had any effect on me or my life
or my thinking about Elbert County.
What do you think about the message
of the philosophy communicated?
Well, I like some of it,
but he waited a little bit too late
to tell us to keep our population
below several, how many minutes?
I assume he wants us to get back to that.
I assume so.
Well, I don't know what it would take.
It would take either a major flood
or a pretty big fire and there might be a few left.
How do the people of Elberton feel
about the Georgia Guidestones?
Are they proud of the monument?
You know, I've gotten a lot of mixed comments
since I've been working on this.
There's a lot of people who don't like them.
A lot of people have used the word scared
to describe their feeling when they come out here.
They don't want to have anything to do with it.
Do you think the Guidestones are a good thing
for the town?
It's a great tourist attraction.
As I said earlier,
there have been folks flocking out here today.
Does it create sort of a dark cloud
over Elberton by having its presence here?
Well, again, I think the short answer is yes.
I think there's no question that it does.
Some people believe it is very demonic,
it's influenced of evil,
that the person that helped put it,
or authorized its being erected
was someone who had spurious motives,
who was wanting to move the world
more to a new world order type of thing,
minimize population, one language, that type thing,
and they view it as totally heretical
and certainly not honoring to God.
Some have even seen spiritual forces at work
and suspect that the idea of depopulating the world
might foreshadow apocalyptic events
foretold in the Bible.
I think that the notion of getting us down
to 500 million people is not only ridiculous,
but also impractical and improbable and impossible.
In order for it to happen,
someone would have to rise from the,
some one person, like the Antichrist,
would have to rise from somewhere
and be able to influence it with a great delusion
all people groups on the face of the earth
to get them to follow.
And of course, the only way to get us down
to 500 million people is, of course,
the extinction of millions upon millions,
billions of innocent people.
In the Book of Revelation,
the Bible warns of a time
when there will be great bloodshed upon the earth.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth
and gathered the vine of the earth
and cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden without the city
and blood came out of the winepress,
even unto the horse bridles.
Revelation 14, 19, 20.
Perhaps one of the more disturbing details
of R.C. Christian's book is his reference to Thomas Paine.
Paine wrote the pamphlet Common Sense.
But years later, he would publish another work
titled The Age of Reason,
one of the phrases commonly used by R.C. Christian.
Let these be guide stones to an age of reason.
Well, as you read further,
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine,
you'll find that they seek an age
that is bereft of any Christian influence,
that the common Christian thoughts of closeness to God,
personal relationship with a living and supernatural God,
and the kind of influences that the Christian world
would have on the world,
a world that includes mercy,
that includes a value of every human being,
no matter how many human beings there are,
caring for those who are different
or maybe not considered productive members of society.
All of those things do not fit in the world,
in the age of reason.
Thomas Paine's Age of Reason
was a work that specifically denounced Christianity
and called for the abolishment of all religion.
It is strange that R.C. Christian
would make use of this phrase
while claiming to be a Christian.
Now, did he ever talk about his faith as a Christian?
No.
He just told me that he used that name
because he was a Christian.
So I accepted that and went on with that.
But he never elaborated during that, what do you think?
No.
We were always, the short periods of time
that I was with him,
we were always discussing the facts
about the guided stones and how to get them built.
Well, the reason that I mentioned,
I think the reason that a lot of people
think it's significant is because Thomas Paine's book,
The Age of Reason,
was really a denunciation of Christianity,
that he was saying that he believed
the stories of Jesus were a fable,
that the Bible was a corrupt book,
he's mocking the virgin birth of Christ and so on,
and the idea of the miracles of God and whatnot.
And saying that he thinks, basically,
that Christianity is no different
than the pagan mystery religions.
Boy, he's in a tough place today, isn't he?
Bad place, because I saw the Lord, I know he's there.
There's no doubt in my mind.
No doubt in my mind.
I feel very privileged that I was able
to see the Lord in this vision.
You know, not many people have ever had a vision
like that, and it was amazing to me that I was able,
that he revealed himself to me in such a manner.
And that influenced me the rest of my life
and that day forward.
I'll tell you, it strengthened my faith a lot.
I already had a pretty strong faith
from all the years I had been in church
and taught Sunday school and everything,
but when he revealed himself to me and talked to me,
there was never any doubt about where we were going
if we didn't live our lives right.
Because this is a short period of time
compared to eternity.
I wanna be able to spend that thousand years with him
when he comes back on this earth
and sets up his kingdom here.
Because the kingdom is what we're trying to achieve.
You know, this is a representative democracy
that we live in in this country today,
but it's quite different to the kingdom.
You know, and the kingdom is what we're trying to achieve.
What do you think Jesus, when he comes back,
he'll think about the God stones if they're still here?
You think he'll stick with those guides?
The only thing I know is that after a thousand years,
all of this is going to meld away the Peter tells us,
and he's going to make a new heaven and a new earth
after that thousand years, and we don't know.
One place in the Bible tells us
that the mysteries that God has in store for us
are just unimaginable, and I just, I don't wanna miss it.
I wanna be there and see it.
After hearing Wyatt Martin's testimony,
we began to wonder if he truly understood
the beliefs of the mysterious Mr. Christian.
Wyatt Martin is a very fine Christian man
by all appearances, a gentleman who also assumes
other people are gentlemen,
and he takes a man at his word.
The man says he's a Christian.
He believes he is a Christian, like many of us do.
I don't know if this is an example of a time
where maybe we all need to be a little bit
more discerning about issues like this,
because when we see the information directly here
on the guide stones, and with a little bit of research,
you find that there's more here than meets the eye.
In his writings, R.C. Christian
described the monument he created.
The monument has been named the Georgia Guide Stones.
It consists of four large upright blocks of granite,
each two meters wide and five meters high.
They are arranged to mark the limiting positions
of the rising and setting sun in summer and winter.
They surround a central stone,
which is oriented north to south.
A channel through this stone
is aligned with the celestial pole.
On its south face is a sundial
marking noontime throughout the year.
The capstone is inscribed with an appeal to reason
in four archaic languages.
The four languages on the capstone are Sanskrit,
Babylonian cuneiform, classical Greek,
and Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The languages are described on the stone plaque nearby,
along with a translation.
They read simply,
let these be guide stones to an age of reason.
The eight languages chosen for the four main slabs
are Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew,
Hindi, Swahili, Spanish, and English.
He had to pick the major languages
in the world to do that.
Incredibly, the translations were mostly done
through the United Nations.
We had a man who lived in Elberton at that time
that was from Pakistan.
And he was at one time a member
of the ruling group in Pakistan.
But people from all over the world
would drift in and out to the big parties
that he had there.
And one weekend,
the ambassador to the UN from Pakistan
came and spent the weekend with him,
and he called me and he said,
maybe if you talk with him,
you could get him to get these translations you need.
Because I had to ask him if he could translate them,
and he didn't know all the languages.
And I went up to his house and met the ambassador,
and he agreed he'd get the translations done
at the UN for me.
And we got them from the UN.
So the translations came directly
from the United Nations?
From the people there.
They translated the English over.
We had a young Chinese person who lived in Elberton
that translated the Chinese for me.
The rest of them came out of the people at the UN.
The 10 commands or guides that were provided
by R.C. Christian read as follows.
Maintain humanity under 500 million
in perpetual balance with nature.
Guide reproduction wisely,
improving fitness and diversity.
Unite humanity with a living new language.
Rule passion, faith, tradition,
and all things with tempered reason.
Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
Let all nations rule internally,
resolving external disputes in a world court.
Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
Balance personal rights with social duties.
Prize truth, beauty, love.
Seeking harmony with the infinite.
Be not a cancer on the earth.
Leave room for nature.
Because of its controversial message,
the Georgia Guidestones have attracted visitors
from all over the world.
Yet many have wondered where did the author
get the inspiration for these 10 guides?
He said he just came up with them
over a period of about 20 years.
And his thinking had been about doing something
after he had traveled through the world
and seen all these places
that he wanted to do something
that he thought would benefit mankind.
And he said, I came up with these principles like that.
Yet the mysterious nature of R.C. Christian
has given rise to a host of theories
about what or who is really behind the stones.
Yeah, just say your name
and say it's okay for us to film.
Dave, and what I've heard is these monuments
were put here by maybe the Illuminati,
Build-A-Bear, someone at Spectrum in there
where they wanna basically control the world.
I've been told it's like the Satanic 10 Commandments.
I've been told that it has all sorts of ties
to a group called the Illuminati's.
I've been told that there's another group
that was founded in Germany in the late 1500s.
People grasp for anything mysterious
they can get their hands on.
They grasp for any kind of government cover up
or anything like that.
This is not any of that.
This is just one man's view on things.
Mark Clamp is the caretaker of the monument today.
His company is responsible for removing the graffiti
and chemical stains from vandals who defaced the stones
believing they are a symbol for evil.
Now, what about this big pentagram over here?
Are you gonna be able to get that off?
Oh yeah, that's easy.
All the things that are painted on here,
that comes right off.
Mark Clamp is the son of Charlie Clamp
who is pictured here beside Wyatt Martin.
Charlie Clamp played one of the most important roles
in finishing the project back in 1980.
He was hired by Wyatt Martin and Joe Finley
to actually do the sandblasting
and put the lettering on the memorial.
Clamp still remembers working with his father
on the monument as a boy.
I actually helped a little bit
with putting those lettering on the area.
I was too young to really do anything
but take a mallet and pound the stencil down on the rod.
It is widely reported that Charlie Clamp
said he heard strange music and disjointed voices
as he was sandblasting the words
into the great blocks of stone.
We asked his son if he could confirm the story.
Strange music and disjointed voices,
is there any truth to that?
No, about the only thing my dad recalls hearing
is a bunch of men, workers that worked on this cussing
because it was so difficult to work on
but no, he didn't hear anything.
Nevertheless, strange tales about spiritual forces at work
have inspired some to see the monument
as an icon for occult activity.
There's plenty of YouTube videos of witches
doing all kind of crazy stuff out here
but if that's what they're into, great.
You know, as long as they don't damage a memorial,
hey, knock yourself out.
I just, yeah, I don't mind people coming out here
and if they wanna have a little ritual or something
and that's what they believe in, that's their belief,
I'm not gonna judge them.
We welcome them to come out,
just don't vandalize a memorial.
As far as a huge mystery or a huge government cover-up
or whether it's religious or who R.C. Christian was,
you know, you'll just have to come up
with that on your own.
All the men, I do, I will tell you this,
all the men that were involved in this
were good Christian men.
All of the men involved in this were Masons
and so as it, as far as it being something demonic
or satanic, I very much doubt that.
Because so many Freemasons were involved
in building the Guidestones,
some have thought that R.C. Christian
might have been a Mason
or that the monument is based on Masonic philosophy.
While Joe Fendley was a Freemason, Wyatt Martin was not.
We asked Mr. Martin about the involvement of Masonry
or other secret groups.
Was there any involvement with groups like that?
No, not that I ever knew of.
There was a Masonic lodge there in Elberton,
but they were never involved in it
and I don't think there ever were.
I never knew whether he was a Mason or not,
I never asked him.
Some people have thought that
and come up with a theory that Freemasonry did it,
but I don't believe so.
It also says there's a time capsule
buried under that flat,
it's a grave marker actually, you know,
that some people a number of years ago
used to put a solid slab of granite over the grave.
But there was never anything buried under that slab
as far as a time capsule.
I doubt seriously there's anything buried over here.
Here it says, time capsule placed six feet
below this spot
and you're saying the time capsule was never planted?
I would say it did not because there's no date.
They left a, it says placed six feet below this spot on
and there's a blank space to be open
and there's no to be open date.
So just my opinion, I would say it was never placed.
Oh, so they never did it?
You know, they may have placed it
and just never put the dates on there
just to keep vandals from coming out here
and digging the thing up.
But my opinion was probably never put down there.
Out there on the property,
since you put the foundation groundwork,
is there anything underground
that's not obvious above ground?
You talking about like the time capsule?
Well, that's one thing, if there is a time capsule.
I'm gonna let that stay a secret.
Oh, come on.
Well, if there's a time capsule,
usually there's a time to open it.
Did it say on there there was a time to open it?
No, there sure wasn't.
Okay.
Oh, come on.
This is our one time to know, to solve the mystery.
This is one thing.
And you are one person who would know.
That's right.
But like you say,
my date's not on the bottom of that tombstone yet.
I know, I know.
And there's a date, that's what made me think of it
because I remember that date is missing
on the time capsule
and everybody else tells us there's nothing in there
that never came.
But there's only one person who I believe that really knows.
So is there anything down in there?
I don't know.
Would anybody ever find out?
Yeah.
Really?
When that stone is removed, you'll find out.
Well, could we put in an invitation to be there?
Can we get a seat there for that?
I don't know when that's gonna ever be removed,
to be honest with you.
Is there something that has to happen
or somebody who makes that decision?
That I don't know.
Was that something specified by R.C. Christian?
Not to my knowledge.
Was that your decision?
No, definitely not.
Was that Wyatt Martin's decision?
Not to my knowledge.
Was that Joe Finley's decision?
Joe would be the only one who can answer that.
So.
And he's not here.
That's right.
Hmm.
So if it were to be removed,
someone would have to be the one to decide to open it.
Can you give us any hints
on who would be the person to do that?
I don't know.
While Mr. Mullinex was determined to keep silent
about the time capsule,
we discovered a clue that he had found
and discovered a clue at Coggins Industries.
Within the paperwork given to us by Shirley McNeely,
there was something that may provide insight
into the original purpose of a time capsule.
And at the same time,
offer an explanation for the mysterious name R.C. Christian.
What follows is from a strange document
that we found among the records.
The wording of it does not read
like the other writings of Mr. Christian
and seems to have been composed by someone else,
perhaps another member of the anonymous group
behind the guide stones.
The important parts of it read as follows.
To whomever comes upon this presenting,
contained herein are keys that have been awaited
to be placed here in proper sequencing
and in proper order to announce the return
and the activation of those events of prophecy
that signal these events.
Those who have guarded this great mystery
and who have guarded the evolution
of the human species itself are returning.
It has begun.
The document mentions keys
that were said to be contained herein.
Was this a reference to something placed
inside a time capsule?
But the writing continues
and describes the monument's mysterious designer.
This monument, known as the Georgia guide stones,
shall find threads unto the revelation of its mystery
in the name R.C. Christian,
otherwise known unto that contingency
that is responsible for the erection of this monument
as Christian Rosencrantz, 1378 to 1484.
This presentation of keys upon the finding of it
is to be delivered to the Elberton Star.
The Elberton Star is to deliver it
to the Atlanta Rosicrucian Society.
The document clearly associates the name R.C. Christian
with the mythical figure of Christian Rosencrantz,
who is alleged to have founded a secret society
known as the Rosicrucians.
The initials R.C. are often used
by the members of the order
in reference to their legendary founder,
who most historians seem to believe
was really the Count of St. Germain,
a famous alchemist and philosopher.
The Rosicrucians typically trace their beliefs
back to ancient Egypt
and combine the mysteries of the pagan gods,
symbolized by the rose,
with Christianity, which is symbolized by the cross.
The Rosicrucians are sometimes called
the most secret of the secret societies,
and their members traditionally remain anonymous.
Was R.C. Christian a Rosicrucian?
Could this explain why he chose
to maintain a secret identity?
We spoke with the Elberton Star newspaper,
who told us they know nothing about the message
and have never been given any mysterious keys.
We also contacted the leaders
of the Atlanta Rosicrucian Society,
who declined to provide any official comment.
Yet the Rosicrucian connection links the guide stones
back to Freemasonry,
the 18th degree of Scottish history,
The 18th degree of Scottish Rite Masonry
is known as the Knight Rose Qua,
or Rose and Cross.
Some believe the philosophies of these two groups
are nearly identical and promote confidence in man
rather than trust and faith in God.
There are clearly non-biblical concepts
within the theology of Freemasonry,
and clearly those connections can be seen
to the guide stones,
similar ideas of a utopianism
that goodness can be had
if we'll all just see things the same way.
When you look at the guide stones,
there are a lot of isms that are there,
and the biggest ism that I see is secularism,
that mankind has the solutions
to the problems of the world.
There is no question that R.C. Christian
believed his guide stones
would provide solutions for mankind
and usher in a kind of golden age.
In his writings, he said,
I am the originator of the Georgia guide stones
and the sole author of its inscriptions.
Stonehenge and other vestiges of ancient thought
arouse our curiosity
but carry no message for human guidance.
The guide stones have been erected
to convey certain ideas across time to others.
We hope that these silent stones and their inscriptions
will merit a degree of approval
and acceptance down the centuries,
and by their silent persistence,
hasten in small ways the dawning of an age of reason.
While Wyatt Martin was the one man
who knew R.C. Christian's identity,
he and Joe Findley were not the only ones who met him.
Hudson Cone was the editor
of the Elberton Graniteer Magazine,
a personal friend of Joe Findley.
Mr. Cone was director of the Elberton Graniteer magazine,
a personal friend of Joe Findley.
Mr. Cone was director of the Elberton Graniteer magazine,
and by Joe Findley, Mr. Cone was directly involved
in promoting the project on behalf of the granite industry.
He claims to have met R.C. Christian
some years after the project was finished.
I did meet Mr. Christian,
or a person purportedly Mr. Christian, several years later.
Mr. Findley called me and said,
would you like to talk to Mr. Christian?
And naturally curious, I said, sure.
He said, well, if you'll agree not to try to question him
about what his real name is,
and his background said he'll agree to meet with you.
So we met at a restaurant,
and I would have guessed that he was from the Midwest.
I mean, that was kind of the accent
that I thought he had.
And he said he represented a group
of like-minded conservative Americans
from this area where he was from,
which of course I didn't try to question to where,
because that was part of the ground rules
for me interviewing him.
He had a series of drawings of stones
similar to the pieces of the guide stones out there,
and he said they hoped to establish another like a ring
around the current stones, but money.
He said we would have to get money.
Apparently the cost of the project
was far greater than Mr. Christian anticipated.
In a letter to Wyatt Martin, he said,
Dear Mr. Martin, I have received your letter
giving price estimates for our proposed monument.
Naturally, I am quite disappointed
that the total figure is so much greater
than the estimates given me
at the time of my visit to Elberton.
Mr. Finley originally guesstimated
a total cost of 35 to $40,000 erected.
I will now have to make some changes.
I have eliminated the pyramidal top because of costs.
I believe any builder should be able
to build the foundation alone for less than $2,000.
I was once a concrete worker myself.
Among the papers from Coggins Industries
is another drawing showing the proposed outer stone circle.
This diagram also includes the mention
of a sunstone for the Atlanta Masons.
However, the money was never raised
for the additional stones.
And he ventured that they would try to go
to corporations or organizations
that were concerned about environmental things
such as overpopulation of the world
and that kind of thing,
and try to get them to give money
to finance the additional pieces
for the guide stone there.
I remember he said the reason he was down this way,
he'd been at the Joyce Kilmer National Forest,
and I believe that's in North Carolina,
and there was a virgin stand of a hardwood tree
that he was interested in.
And that's why he went to this forest.
And there were several other things that I picked up on
that made me believe he was like a botanist
or somebody interested in plant life
because he would use the scientific name
for trees and all, which I was not familiar with.
And instead of calling it like an old tree,
he would use a botanical name for it.
One other thing I remember distinctly,
he was very concerned about population control
and overpopulation of the world,
which would lead to catastrophic hunger, et cetera, et cetera.
And the reason I recall that particular part
was because he said that one of the foundations
that they would go to to try to get money
to put more stones up,
and he mentioned groups such as people
concerned with overpopulation of the world.
And being a Georgia conservative person,
I immediately thought about United Nations types.
But now people said, well, what did he look like?
Mr. Christian, I said, well, he was bald,
but like myself, if he had white hair up around here,
had real sharp features,
very sort of quiet type person, you know,
he was not a witch doctor, psychic,
fortune teller, voodoo type person at all.
I told him, I said, well, some people have said
that this is a point for us, a place for devil worship.
No, no, no, just the opposite.
And he, you know, he said there's nothing sinister
about it as far as any sort of satanic,
anything like that, you know.
I think anytime you have an air of mystery
about something and there's no explanation
as to what it is, people start adapting their beliefs
either for or against it.
While R.C. Christian maintained his secrecy
after the guide stones were completed,
it is reported by Joe Fenley Jr.
that at one point he wanted
to reveal himself to the world.
About seven years ago, I believe it was now,
Mr. Christian called Diddy one night at home.
Said, Mr. Fenley, this is R.C. Christian.
I'm ready to reveal myself, tell you who I really am.
Diddy said, I don't wanna know.
I've gone all this time,
you know who you were?
I don't wanna know who you are.
So, Diddy died not knowing, and I don't wanna know.
I don't really care.
This interview was recorded in March of 2010,
which would mean that the phone call
from Mr. Christian took place about 2003.
After the guide stones were completed,
the mysterious stranger continued his correspondence
with Wyatt Martin, who revealed to us
that the man who called himself R.C. Christian
had passed away some years before.
His son called me a few months ago
and told me that his father
had passed away several years ago.
His father and mother, he said, were both deceased now.
And I don't know what happened.
And I told him, I said, well, you know,
it's kind of amazing.
I had mentioned to my wife once last year
that I assumed they had probably passed away
due to the fact that up until that time,
once or twice a year, we would exchange letters
back and forth about how our families were doing
and what we were doing in life.
And I said, all of a sudden,
I didn't hear from him anymore.
And I assumed that he had probably passed on.
Can you tell us what year R.C. Christian passed away?
No, I won't discuss that.
That's a very private thing with his family.
And so I don't think I should discuss that.
It's been a few years ago.
Was it, can you say if it was after the year 2000?
Yes, it is after the year 2000.
Okay.
It is well known that Wyatt Martin is committed
to taking the secret of R.C. Christian to his grave.
But could there be any available clues to who he was
without getting a direct answer from Mr. Martin?
In 2009, a Wired magazine article reported
that inside Mr. Martin's garage was the hard-sided case
of an IBM computer stuffed with every document
connected to the guide stones.
Is it possible that Wyatt Martin retained possession
of this computer case?
It is the old IBM computer case
that I bought my first computer in 1983
was a pretty good-sized case.
And so I put everything in that old computer case
and it's stored.
How did the story get out?
Isn't it a part of the official story
that all of the paperwork was destroyed?
Well, from what Finley's daughter told me,
they burned all the stuff that her father had.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
So they burned Finley's stuff
but not necessarily your stuff?
And he told, Mr. Christian told me to destroy mine.
But I had an idea that I'd write a book about it
and just kept delaying it and never did.
I was going to be able to go back
and get certain dates correct and things of that nature
and I never did do that.
And now it's too long.
I'm too old now to do it.
Wow.
Now, have you got the IBM computer case
out of the garage or somewhere nearby?
I do.
Would you be willing to show it to us?
No.
You don't have to open it.
Would you be willing to just show us the case?
It's under a lot of furniture
out in that building out there.
Oh, okay.
Be difficult to get to
till we move up some furniture out.
Okay.
Mike, do you want to move furniture?
You wouldn't let us move the furniture, would you?
Yeah, you can if you want to
but it's just in that old IBM case.
After further discussion,
Mr. Martin agreed to show us
what he has never shown to anyone else.
How does it feel to have a world mystery
right out here in your shed?
I don't think of it like that.
I'm awkward and walking, but I can still walk.
You wonder.
Hey, a lot of people,
my dad had a stroke when he was 74
and he was never able to get about anymore.
Lived in a, I picked him up every morning
and before I went to work and put him in the chair
and he stayed in the chair till I got home
in the afternoon, I put him back to bed
and he lived three years like that.
Mm-hmm.
Had an older brother
who landed on the beach at Normandy on D-Day
and he was wounded with a German 88 shell
on September the 18th, 1944.
Took a part of his hip off
and he walked with crutches for a while
when he got back to the States.
Mm-hmm.
I think that's it sitting right in
behind that red bucket there.
Is that right?
You want me to zoom in?
Where is it now?
Right behind that red bucket?
The black?
It just moved the red bucket over
and you can see it good.
I can't motor right around much if you can do that.
It's heavy.
Not too bad.
I love history and this is a part of history.
Yeah, I always enjoyed history.
The best grade ever made in college was on world history.
Well, there it is.
I bought the IBM machine that computer land
and I paid extra for the case.
Hey Mike, can you spin it around?
Yeah, I am.
There's a piece of paper sticking out, you can see.
There's some papers in there.
Is there a paper in there?
Yeah, there's a paper.
Now, how long is it best that you open this?
Probably 15 or 20 years.
15 or 20 years?
Yeah.
Would there be any information in there
if you looked at it, you would remember some things
to tell us on this documentary?
I don't think any more than what I've told you.
I don't think, most of it is just drawings
and correspondence and records of where I received money
and the money was sent to me from various cities
of remailing services in the United States
because he didn't want it to come from his town.
But you hope to use this to write a book, maybe?
I thought about it one time, but I've gotten old now.
My sight's not as good as it was anymore.
I can look at it and see things singular now,
not double like I was.
Do you think you might have somebody help you
put this together, if you think it's a big chore?
It'd be a big chore.
I've lost interest now, it's kind of over with with me.
What about a museum, you think a museum?
No, I wouldn't let him see any of that
because I might have his address and name in there.
I probably do.
Well, that's something you could always take out
and leave the good stuff out for the museum.
Look through it, yeah.
It's been 20 years probably since I've opened that case.
I've just carried it with me every time I moved.
When I moved to Florida, I moved to Florida.
When I came back, it came back.
Well, this documentary means to be the one
for all of history will have, from the horse's mouth,
what the real story is.
So if there's anything you think
that could be part of the missing story
that we'll never get, unless you take a peek of it,
I can give you a hand with it,
otherwise that's fine.
Oh, the only thing that you'll never get
is what I won't tell.
I've told you everything else.
Okay, everything that's in here that you can share,
you've told us.
Would you be willing to open the case
and not show us any of the papers,
but just let us see a shot of you?
You might turn that case down.
If it'll still open.
Yeah, let's see here.
Sure it will.
Well, there you go.
Whoops.
It's got papers.
It's the real deal.
Probably got a few of my tax returns on top there too.
Got a few other things, huh?
Yeah, I may have put some tax returns in there.
Bank statements, I kept all my bank statements.
You can see those over there.
And here's your, you can see correspondence.
You had all your, I assume is that just?
That is a letter right there from Mr. R.C. Christian.
You're kidding.
Where's this?
This right here, just show him, here's the...
And so that is from Mr. R.C. Christian himself.
That's correct.
That's amazing.
That's his writing.
Yeah, and he called you W.C.
So he called you W.C.?
Was that his name?
He always called me Wyatt.
Let me look at it just a minute.
He went open heart surgery two months ago.
He had open heart surgery like I've had.
I'm old enough, 78, to remember the days of the Dust Bowl.
Amazing.
Wow.
See, he says, I believe that the message
of the guided stones will not receive adequate attention
until the problems of human overpopulation
become more critical.
In the meantime, there's little more
that we too can do to spread their message.
Hopefully, the monument will endure long enough
to help direct attention to the core issues.
And he sent me packages of things
to mail to other organizations
that he thought would help
to spread the word about the guided stones.
The more prominent ones that he made us there?
Any of them you recollect?
I don't remember them.
I wonder if they were like you in organizations.
Beyond that, I will not be asking you
for any other task.
You have already done a magnificent job
that you managed to do so while successfully managing a bank
was a really impressive performance.
I doubt that the complicated task
could have been completed without you.
With best wishes to you and Ms. Martin,
I am sincerely Robert Christian.
See, that was in 1998.
And he stuck with his nomenclature, Robert Christian.
Can you show us his handwriting
without revealing anything?
It's pretty.
It's really pretty handwriting.
It just says Robert Christian on it.
I don't see whether it'd be a problem.
That's all it has, is Robert Christian.
But it doesn't say Ted Turner on it.
No, and it's not your handwriting.
No.
No, it can't be you.
It's not mine.
But he did quite, hey Chris,
you see the W.C. Martin I was talking about here?
Where?
Down here, down here.
See it, you can see it closer.
I'll show you where it says W.C. Martin.
I'm sorry I picked that up.
See.
And they blocked the town out there.
But you're doing this movie,
I may have to burn this right short.
Somebody might be trying to break in and get it,
just to find out who,
they still wouldn't know who R.C. Christian is.
They might,
now have you ever shown this IBM computer case to anybody?
No.
Wow, this is it.
We are the first to see this case.
That's right.
That's history.
That is, you're a piece of American history.
That's it.
Now is there anything else in there of interest,
Mr. Martin?
Yeah, historical interest.
Smithsonian Magazine.
To Mr. Robert Christian here,
Mr. Merriman,
P.O. Box 268, Greensburg, Georgia.
Oh, the Smithsonian wrote to Robert Christian.
Yeah, Smithsonian Magazine.
Hey, while you're looking at that,
I gotta get a, it's the door,
so I gotta get a drink real quick.
I'll throw it out, I'll be right back.
That's bank statements and all that type of thing
that I put in that old envelope.
It's finished.
Yeah, I think that,
let me just do a slow zoom on,
Oh, that's the day we took that fly detector test.
Where now?
Right here.
There's some more of Mr. Christian's writings.
It can be stated that the individuals who sponsored the project are loyal Americans who believe in God and country.
They wish to remain unnamed because the appeal of these stones is to all mankind and is not sectarian or nationalistic or in any narrow sense politically.
The stones must speak for themselves and to all who would take note, they must appeal to believers and non-believers everywhere at all times.
Translations should stress brevity and concise accuracy.
The English version has been carefully trimmed to no less than 100 words.
Other variations should strive to do so in the name and the same translation.
He mentions the Hebrew up here you talked about.
That one letter that you read was dated 1998. Did he stop right after that or did he send you any more letters?
I probably got a letter, seemed like maybe like an 01 or something, about the last time I ever heard from him.
Let's put this back in there.
Well, that is amazing.
Without revealing anything directly to us, the paperwork in Wyatt Martin's IBM computer case provided powerful clues.
The first was the name of a Mr. Merryman who was somehow associated with R.C. Christian.
The next was the mailing address at 730 Raywood Drive in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Could this be the address of Mr. Merryman? And could Merryman have been the true name of R.C. Christian?
We contacted the publisher of the book, Common Sense Renewed, at Stoyles Graphic Services in Lake Mills, Iowa.
We were told that the book had been published by a Mr. Robert Merryman, pictured here on the far right.
His obituary shows that he died in 1992, 12 years after the guide stones were completed.
Was this the face of R.C. Christian?
Harris Hansi was a friend of Robert Merryman's.
Both men served during World War II and worked together in the publishing industry.
My name is Harris Hansi and I was publisher of the Lake Mills graphic from 1968 to 1999.
Merryman was the publisher of the Fort Dodge Messenger, and I had known him vaguely through our press association.
He was a super guy and well-known and well-respected.
And so, yes, I knew Bob Merryman, but not that well, but I knew him as a gentleman and just one smart guy.
He knew what was going on.
We spoke to Mr. Hansi about the book, Common Sense Renewed, and he confirmed for us that it was indeed published by Robert Merryman.
How certain are you that he was the author of it?
I am very certain. I think that I was, I always believed that.
Did he ever mention to you who the Robert Christian was?
No, he did not.
He did not?
No.
He used a pseudonym, which is not uncommon.
Right.
Did he ever suggest that possibly he wrote it himself or helped somebody else with it?
I was under the assumption that he wrote it. That would be my answer.
Any reason why you would have thought maybe it was his?
Well, I guess I never really considered that anyone else wrote it, but Bob wrote it.
Our next clue is the address found on one of the envelopes in Wyatt Martin's IBM computer case.
730 Raywood Drive in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Fort Dodge was an old fort that dates back to 1850.
It was originally named Fort Clark, but they discovered there was another Fort Clark that existed,
and so the name was changed to Fort Dodge in honor of Senator Henry Dodge from the state of Wisconsin.
Fort Dodge is also famous for the Cardiff Giant, one of the great hoaxes of the 19th century.
While investigating the address at Raywood Drive, we discovered that this was not the home of Robert Merryman.
Also, Merryman died in 1992, 11 years before the phone call described by Joe Fenley Jr.
and six years before the letter sent to Wyatt Martin in 1998.
Because of this, Merryman could not have been the stranger who came to Elberton, but would have likely known who he was.
After further investigation, we learned that 730 Raywood Drive was once owned by a well-respected physician named Dr. Herbert H. Kirsten.
Dr. Kirsten was also an inventor who owned more than 10 patents registered with the U.S. government.
This patent for a rotary valve engine shows the inventor Herbert H. Kirsten at 730 Raywood Drive in April of 1979,
just two months before R.C. Christian first met with Wyatt Martin.
Furthermore, a campaign donation in support of Doug Gross for Governor in 2002 again lists Herbert H. Kirsten at the same address on Raywood Drive.
This means that Dr. Kirsten continued at this address during the whole time that the guide stones were designed and built.
And he was at this address when the letters were sent to Wyatt Martin.
One of Kirsten's patents included an invention for a form and facing device for concrete.
I was once a concrete worker myself.
We also learned that Dr. Kirsten died in 2005, which would fit with a timeline given by Joe Finley Jr.,
who claimed Mr. Christian called his father in 2003, and also by Wyatt Martin, who revealed that the stranger had died after the year 2000.
Can you say if it was after the year 2000?
Yes, it is after the year 2000.
In his letter to Wyatt Martin, Mr. Christian revealed that he was 78 years old in the year 1998.
I'm old enough, 78, to remember the days of the Dust Bowl.
This would mean that R.C. Christian would have been born in the year 1920.
Could this have been the same year that Dr. Kirsten was born?
We went to his grave in Fort Dodge to find out.
The caretaker was a lifelong resident of Fort Dodge and was very familiar with the Kirsten family.
Dr. Kirsten came from a long line of physicians that maintained a medical practice in the city for 74 years.
They're great people, all the Kirstens.
The members of the Kirsten family share a plot in the local cemetery.
Now I notice there's red, white, and blue roses.
A family member would have put that out for him.
As we suspected, Dr. Kirsten was born in the year 1920.
This means his age was identical to the person who called himself R.C. Christian.
But he left yet another clue on his gravestone.
He wished to be remembered as both a physician and a conservationist.
Leave room for nature. Leave room for nature.
We also learned that the name Kirsten is an archaic form of the word Christian.
Hence, Mr. Kirsten literally means Mr. Christian.
Is it possible that Dr. Kirsten worked with Robert Merryman
and that both men were part of the small group of Americans responsible for the Georgia Guidestones?
When it came time to publish their book, did the authors combine the first name of Mr. Merryman
with the last name of Mr. Kirsten so that Robert Kirsten would become Robert Christian?
Yet it remains to be seen whether or not these two men even knew each other.
To find out, we met with the nephew of Mr. Merryman,
a well-known figure in Fort Dodge named Chief Judge Kurt Wilkie.
What is your relationship to Robert and Merryman?
He was my uncle. He was actually married to my mother's sister.
Judge Wilkie also confirmed that he knew Dr. Herbert H. Kirsten.
I knew him just very, very slightly. I knew who he was.
He had a great reputation here in Fort Dodge. He was a physician.
I think I went to see him once for some problems I was having with my knee,
but that's about it as far as Dr. Kirsten is concerned.
We've tried to find information to show how they might have known each other.
Of course, they're two prominent citizens.
What would lead you to believe that they may have known each other?
I know that they knew each other.
For example, at Christmas time, my aunt and uncle would have social gatherings at their house
and Dr. Kirsten would be there.
So I knew that they were friends.
During our interview, we shared with Judge Wilkie what we had learned about the involvement of his uncle and Dr. Kirsten with the Georgia Guidestones.
My uncle was a very intelligent man, a very studious man.
So being told this, it's not a real surprise.
From what your investigation was that Dr. Kirsten had some ideas about working on this project done in Georgia
and that he might have wanted to maintain some secrecy about his involvement.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that if he went to Bob Merriman and asked him to somehow assist with whatever it was
and to keep it quiet, it would stay quiet.
That's the kind of guy Bob was.
If you took him into confidence in any way, shape, or form, he was going to maintain that confidence.
So that's probably why, I don't know if you've talked to my cousins, Bob's children,
but they probably don't know anything about this because he wouldn't divulge anything to anybody if somebody asked him not to.
So no one in town might know another.
That's right.
Judge Wilkie confirmed for us that Kirsten and Merriman knew each other.
Yet the most shocking information would be revealed in the public library at Fort Dodge
at our meeting with two local historians, Professor Roger Natty and Mr. William Sayles Doane.
They remembered Robert Merriman and his family legacy in the publishing industry.
His father was a publisher here prior to Bob.
He didn't get involved really in politics in terms of providing a leadership role.
I think he was highly thought of in the community.
They also remembered Dr. Kirsten and that the two men had worked together on a project in Fort Dodge.
There is a direct connection to Dr. Kirsten and Mr. Merriman.
Please share that with us. That's very important to us.
Dr. Kirsten decided he was an architect.
This is Dr. Herbert Kirsten.
Right.
And he had a little scale model for a bandstand, which I used to call the string quartet stand because you couldn't put a band in there.
We used to have a huge bandstand where Carl King was conducting in the city square.
It was torn down and not replaced.
So Dr. Kirsten designed a small model and the great flag was a co-production of Mr. Merriman.
The bandstand and the flag can be found in Fort Dodge to this day.
Mr. Doan's description of how Dr. Kirsten created a small scale model reminded us of the model of the Guidestones, presented to Joe Fendley.
We shared with Professor Nattie and Mr. Doan what we had learned about Kirsten and Merriman's relationship to the Georgia Guidestones
and the publication of the book Common Sense Renewed.
I have a copy of the Library of Congress catalog record and it shows the copyright also to Graphic Publishing Company, which was Robert Merriman's company.
And separate documents we have show that Graphic Publishing, of which Merriman was at least a co-owner, was an arm of Stoyles Publishing.
So we can track a direct connection there and we have other letters that actually connect Mr. Merriman's name in writing to the R.C. Christian that built the Georgia Guidestones.
Well this is a double life if there ever was one. I mean I would never have guessed that that's what he was doing in Lake Milt.
He tried to run the college bookstore and failed and then moved to Lake Milt.
Suddenly you're telling me that he was involved with this publishing? I'm astonished.
Professor Nattie shared with us some additional records in the Fort Dodge Library.
One of them contained a brief biography of Dr. Kirsten that clearly showed his beliefs were identical to those of R.C. Christian.
From 1990 from Herbert Kirsten it says,
The number one world health problem is the population explosion, Kirsten believes.
Controlling population is the most important problem confronting humanity, he said.
Our present world population of 5 billion is expected to double in 20 years.
We are already polluting the world and using up much of our resources.
We should talk about controlling human population rather than controlling acid rain.
The solution involves education and birth control in all countries, he said.
Pharmaceutical firms are no longer coming out with new birth control drugs, they're afraid of lawsuits.
Despite these revelations, nothing could have quite prepared us for what we learned next from Mr. Doane.
As we asked him further about Kirsten's beliefs.
One of the writings on the Georgia Guidestones has to do with population control and the concern for the world population.
What do you know about Mr. Kirsten's opinions in that regard?
Well, they would be antithetical to the Catholic religion.
And he is supposedly a Catholic and when he died he left $400,000 to the local diocese.
In other words, the church thought birth control was a sin, not so Dr. Kirsten.
So Dr. Kirsten, even though he was a professing Catholic, his views were contrary to the official teachings of the Catholic Church.
Oh yes.
But was he then well known for his views about population control?
I think fairly well.
Shockley is the name that I couldn't think of before. Nobel Prize winner.
Shockley is a reference to Dr. William Shockley, the Nobel Prize winning physicist who invented the transistor.
In the 1970s, Dr. Shockley was known for his belief that blacks were genetically inferior to whites.
And that those with an IQ of less than 100 should be paid to undergo sterilization.
Despite his scientific achievements, Shockley's racial views made him highly unpopular.
And Dr. Kirsten knew Shockley and said that he, Kirsten, and he used to circulate this in the country club, which is how I heard about it.
He had decided he would create some kind of measurement that would prove once and for all that only white people were, especially Northern Europeans, were the superior race.
And this was well known around Fort Dodge.
So would it be accurate to say that Mr. Kirsten was a white supremacist?
Racist to his fingertips.
When he did this at the country club, a number of people were deeply offended by what he was saying.
He didn't have popular support at the country club, most of whom were well educated people.
Many of them were somewhat multiracial or multiethnic and they were not pleased, which is why they told me about it.
Dr. Kirsten had even written a letter to a Florida newspaper expressing his views in favor of David Duke, a well-known controversial figure and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
A letter that I downloaded from the Sun Sentinel newspaper in Florida.
This columnist is responding to a letter he received on an article he had written.
It says an Iowa physician, Herbert H. Kirsten of Fort Dodge, reacted to my attack on those who attribute base sentiments to anyone who wants to solve America's problems first.
He lulled me into dropping my guard. He said I correctly suggested it is not wrong to be patriotic.
Then wham, he threw in the incendiary names of Patrick Buchanan and David Duke, contending that they are among the few public figures who speak for American interest in this new era of internationalism.
Duke, he said as my skin crawled, voices many beliefs held by reasonable Americans.
It is unfortunate that more acceptable public figures are not pushing similar views.
Now David Duke, the one we're talking about is the gentleman who was the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
And also an American Nazi and he paraded around with a swastika armband and a Nazi uniform. And there are photographs of it.
In his autobiography, David Duke referred to William Shockley as his friend.
At one point, Mr. Doane even wondered if Dr. Shockley had been a member of the small group of Americans behind the Guidestones.
Did Shockley have anything to do with this directly?
Apparently, Dr. Shockley was also a friend of Dr. Kirsten.
And I knew that Dr. Kirsten and Shockley were friends.
And how did you know that?
Because Kirsten told us. He was very proud of him. He was a Nobel Prize winner.
In your presence?
Yes. I mean he did not make it a secret. He was proud of it.
We can only wonder at how influential William Shockley may have been in the life of Herbert Kirsten.
Shockley's thinking seems to be represented in the words, Guide Reproduction Wisely.
Which implies hindering the birth rate of some in favor of others, which was exactly his idea.
In his book, when speaking about how to reduce the world population, R.C. Christian wrote that
Common sense would suggest that we make the reduction in a selective fashion.
Worldwide human conception is still governed with little conscious guidance.
Many talented and productive individuals are constrained to limit their reproduction.
While at the same time we provide subsidies that encourage childbearing by the indigent, the lazy, the irresponsible, and the inadequate.
While men like Shockley and apparently Kirsten thought in terms of a man's genetic abilities,
their flawed beliefs were the result of failing to acknowledge a biblical view of how God sees mankind.
The declaration of Christianity is that God's salvation is for all the nations of the earth.
Jesus said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
It is for this reason that Christianity teaches mercy and compassion toward others,
regardless of how they might be perceived on a man-made scientific scale.
The concept of an age of reason, as envisioned by Thomas Paine, would be a frightening prospect for humanity.
A world devoid of Christian charity would likely be a world that would usher in another Holocaust.