Stone Mountain, 1915

Borglum's first foray into mountain carving came at Stone Mountain in Georgia, where the United Daughters of the Confederacy hired him to sculpt a likeness of Robert E. Lee. To fund the project, Borglum designed a commemorative half-dollar coin which was minted and then sold by the Stone Mountain project for a dollar. In this way, he raised more than two million dollars. His Lee was completed to everyone's satisfaction, but Borglum became embroiled in a conflict; in the end, he fled Georgia, and his patrons issued a warrant for his arrest.

Although a monument was eventually completed on Stone Mountain, none of Borglum's original design exists on the mountain anymore.