Monadnock Madness Returned For Arabia’s 20th Anniversary

It is 2026, and the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area is turning 20 years old! For this special occasion, the Arabia Alliance brought back Monadnock Madness – Triple Hike, a formerly-annual event which takes hikers up the 3 monadnocks of eastern Metro Atlanta: Stone, Arabia and Panola Mountains. This triple-hike was a unique opportunity to learn about and hike all 3 in one day.

It has been 20 years since the US Congress designated the intersection of DeKalb, Rockdale and Henry Counties a National Heritage Area (NHA). Centered around Arabia Mountain in the city of Stonecrest, Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area oversees and amplifies the nature, culture and history of the area.

For the NHA’s 20th anniversary, the Arabia Alliance teamed up with Stone Mountain Park and Panola Mountain State Park to bring back the Monadnock Madness Triple-Hike on Sunday, March 22. This event took place annually between 2013 and 2022 and led hikers up Stone, Arabia and Panola Mountains in one day (the last event in 2022 took hikers up Kennesaw Mountain, another Metro Atlanta monadnock). This year’s Triple Hike reprise saw over 20 participants and the total route took them about 8 miles with 1300 feet of elevation gain throughout!

Stone Mountain

Stone Mountain was formed 300 million years ago and is the largest exposed granite outcrop in the world peaking 1686 feet above sea level. A monadnock, an exposed rock hill or mountain that rises above its surrounding environment, Stone Mountain has a long and complex history. For centuries, the area was inhabited by native people, most recently the Cherokee and Muscogee (also known as Creek) people until the arrival of white settlers in the early 1800s, when the Native Americans were forcibly removed. Along with Arabia Mountain, Stone Mountain became the site of a booming quarrying industry, with the earliest quarry dating back to 1845. Since then, 7.5 million cubic tons of rock have been removed from Stone Mountain and used in the construction of sites like Fort Knox in Kentucky and the foundation of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

In 1887, Stone Mountain was purchased by Samuel and William Venable for $350,000 to pursue their own quarrying venture. Samuel was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1914, newspaper editor John Temple Graves proposed a mural commemorating the Confederacy to be carved into the mountain, an idea propagated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Samuel Venable, who was instrumental in the re-birth of the Klan during a cross-burning ceremony on the mountain in 1915, agreed, and the relief carving at Stone Mountain began. After almost 50 years of stalling due to infighting, the Great Depression, then World War II, the carving depicting Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy), Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee was completed in 1972. This carving remains a center of controversy to this day.

Arabia Mountain

For the second leg, hikers made their way up Arabia Mountain in the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve. Arabia Mountain is a 400-million-year-old monadnock that has a significant quarrying history of its own. The quarrying industry here was largely dominated by the Davidson family, owners of the Davidson Granite Co, who would go on to donate land from the quarry, including the mountain, to DeKalb County for a preserve (hence “Davidson” in Davidson-Arabia). Rock from this quarry (commonly referred to as granite despite actually being classified as “Lithonia gneiss”) ended up in the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, the Brooklyn Bridge and curbs around Metro Atlanta.

Interestingly, the most popular peak of Arabia was first called “Bradley” Mountain, with the original Arabia being the slightly shorter “second” peak behind the tree line to the north. As Bradley became the more visited peak due to its proximity to parking and more pristine appearance, it become known as Arabia Mountain. The second, or “original” peak is seen in the distance in the above photo. It was the location of some of the heaviest quarrying in what is now the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve. 

Panola Mountain

The final leg was held at Panola Mountain, led by Panola Mountain State Park‘s Ranger Veronica Healy. Panola Mountain was never home to any quarrying due to the poorer quality of its stone. In 1933, John Yarbrough, owner of the Atlanta Studebaker dealership Yarbrough Motor Co., purchased the mountain as a land investment. Later, however, Yarbrough chose to develop the land around the mountain as a getaway for his own family instead. Following his death, his family decided to preserve the land. With the help of the Georgia Conservancy, which was impressed by the land’s unique habitats and presence of rare plants, the Yarbrough family sold it to the State of Georgia in 1971, and it officially opened as a State Park in 1974. Then-Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter spoke at Panola’s opening ceremony.

Unlike Stone and Arabia Mountains, Panola is quite forested, including its slopes and summit.

Because Panola Mountain was never quarried, its untouched nature inspired serious protections with a designation of National Natural Landmark. Thus, the mountain is only accessible via ranger-led hikes. Find events at Panola Mountain State Park, including guided hikes, here.

Like Arabia, Panola Mountain is home to many unique plants that are adapted to the unusual environment. One such plant that is much more abundant on Panola than at Arabia is Sedum pusillum, granite stonecrop or Puck’s orpine, a cousin of diamorpha.

Puck’s orpine was the subject of much debate for botanists researching outcrop plants in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Some confused the plant with diamorpha, leading to controversies surrounding diamorpha’s taxonomy designation and arguments about whether or not it belongs in the Sedum genus. This debate continues today with the recent scientific reclassification of diamorpha from smalli to sedum. 

Panola Mountain was also the home of moonshining operations in the 1930s when Georgia remained a dry state despite the end of Prohibition. The area was chosen for its proximity to water sources and a tri-county intersection (DeKalb, Henry and Rockdale) that made law enforcement jurisdictions ambiguous. Evidence of these operations can still be seen on a guided hike at the State Park; look out for old, rusted 100-gallon drums and stones from the old distilleries. 

The Arabia Alliance sends a big thanks to Stone Mountain Park, the Georgia Native Plant Society, the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve, and Panola Mountain State Park for helping make this day happen! Look out for more 20th anniversary events and happenings all year long in 2026.