Mount
Rushmore Memorial
Carved
into the south-east face of a mountain in South Dakota, at a height of
1,737 m (5,700 ft) above sea level, are the faces of presidents George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Looking down from its position high above the Black Hills, this majestic
memorial to American history is spectacular to behold.
It was conceived by Doane Robinson in 1923 as a way to attract more
people to the Black Hills of South Dakota and lies in the former Harney
National Forest Preserve.
A sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was contracted to undertake the job of
carving the Needles area into a tall granite figure, but instead chose
Mount Rushmore for the work because it was the highest peak in the area
and its south-eastern facing site meant it would receive sunlight for
most of the day. He then selected the subjects of national focus that
would be highlighted in his work - the four presidents mentioned above.
Borglum began work in 1927 by creating a plaster model from which
measurements were taken. Dynamite was used to blast the rock until there
was only a thin, 7.6-15-cm (3-6 in) layer of granite remaining. This
final layer of granite was removed by a process called `honeycombing',
and then the final surface was smoothed.
George Washington's face, the first to be carved, was dedicated on 4 July
1934. President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the dedication of Thomas
Jefferson's in 1936. Abraham Lincoln's was dedicated on 17 September
1937, on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the
US Constitution. In 1939, Theodore Roosevelt's was dedicated. That year
modern plumbing and night lighting were installed at the memorial.
Borglum continued working on the final details of the sculptures for a
further two years. In 1941 he died suddenly and his son Lincoln took over
on the project until funding ran out a few months later. The studio on
Mount Rushmore was shut and the presidential faces were left as they
were.
Mount Rushmore continues to be a reminder of these four important figures
in American history, and the original goal of increasing traffic to the
Black Hills has been met with resounding success.
