Georg J. Lober Georg J. Lober Georg John Lober (November 7, 1891 – December 14, 1961) was an American sculptor. Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1892, Lober moved to Keyport, New Jersey as a teenager. Lober studied sculpture at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and at the National Academy of Design, and was an apprentice of Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum. His bas reliefs of Robert Fulton and Henry Hudson in 1909 were his first major works. A bronze statue of Eve that he created for the 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing, Queens was destroyed by vandals. A 1949 sculpture of
Needles (Black Hills) location was rejected by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum owing to the poor quality of the granite and the fact that they were too thin to support the sculptures. The Needles attract approximately 300,000 people annually. The area has a rich history of bold climbing by greatest climbers of their era, and has long been known for its purist ethics. In 1936 Fritz Wiessner climbed the "Totem Pole" and in 1937 "Khayyam Spire" with Bill House and Lawrence Coveney. In 1947 Jan and Herb Conn moved to the area and over the next couple decades put up over 220 first ascents.