The Steatite Boulder

Marker Text:
This steatite boulder was found on the site of a prehistoric quarry along Soapstone Ridge 8 miles south of Decatur. It shows the methods of Indians in making stone bowls, with the first girdling of the stone to remove workable cores. It is estimated to be at least 3000 years old by archaeologists studying such remains in central and north Georgia.
The soapstone quarry on River Road, DeKalb County is the largest found by archaeologists in Georgia.

044-1 Georgia Historical Commission erected 1953

Location: Decatur Square at Old Courthouse
GPS:
Visited: June 30, 2008

This is a bit odd. A marker about a boulder that isn't from the courthouse area but from the Soapy Creek area miles away. Yes, it tells of pre-European North American history. Yes, it is an interesting piece of information about a culture that is no longer in existence and will never return. Why is the boulder out in the elements eroding? That is of special concern given the nature of our smoggy city in the summer. I am sure that the acid rain is having a good time with this stone.
Maybe I should document this stone with a photograph yearly. Now that is a thought.
But this is the first, numerically, of the Dekalb County markers (044) and it was erected in 1953. The Georgia Historical Commission was begun, I believe, in 1951 by the legislature to mark points of interest around the state. According to wikipedia, they had no budget for a year. Each county in Georgia, from what I see so far, had a unique code, 1 through 159 (or 158 at the time?). DeKalb is 044 and Fulton is 060. The commission was dissolved in 1973 under the then Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Now the Georgia Historic Society has taken over most of the functionality of this commission for new markers. The maintenance and upkeep of the markers installed prior to mid-1998 are the responsibility of department of the interior (of the state of Georgia).
So this marker is one of the first markers placed under the new commission with their new budget. And they chose a rock. Of all the things that have happened in the state, and they choose a rock to be the first for Dekalb County. It must have been some low hanging fruit. Or ignorance. But no matter, the commission did push to get the civil war markers out prior to the 100th anniversary.