Mount Rushmore--Presidents: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
Amy Bracewell for
National Park Service
Every  year, the many visitors to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills  of South Dakota draw inspiration from the colossal portraits of four  outstanding presidents of the United    States:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore  Roosevelt.  Gutzon Borglum carved his  gigantic Shrine of Democracy Sculpture into ancient granite high on the southeast face of Mount Rushmore “in commemoration of the  foundation, preservation, and continental expansion of the United States.”  The faces of George Washington, Thomas  Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt are about 60 feet high, and the  grouping extends approximately 185 feet along the crest of Mount   Rushmore.  Dark ponderosa  pines and other evergreens set off the stark white sculpture.  Added at the time of the Bicentennial of the  Declaration of Independence in 1976, a flag-lined formal Avenue of Flags  creates an impressive approach.
In 1923,  South Dakota State Historian Doane Robinson came up with an idea for  attracting tourists to the State.  Robinson  envisioned shaping a cluster of tall thin granite peaks called the Needles into  statues of explorers and Indian leaders.  The Needles stand where the Black Hills rise from the plains as a  gateway to the Rocky Mountains and the  West.  In 1924, Robinson wrote sculptor  Gutzon Borglum about his idea.  Borglum  telegraphed back his enthusiastic support.
Avenue  of Flags
at Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Amy Bracewell for
National Park Service
Born to a  Danish American family on a homestead in Idaho  in 1867, Gutzon Borglum made his name celebrating things American in a big  way.  In 1908, he created a large, 40  inches-high head of Abraham Lincoln.  Representatives of the United Daughters of the Confederacy soon  contacted him about creating a portrait head of Robert E. Lee on the side of  Stone Mountain in Georgia.  Convinced that the scale of the mountain  would dwarf a single head, he convinced them to create a huge group portrait of  General Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.  Borglum completed the head of Lee in 1924, but a dispute with the  backers of the project soon led to his dismissal and the eventual removal of  his work.  His departure from Georgia made it possible for him to concentrate  on Mount Rushmore.  Borglum scouted out a location far better  than the fragile Needles: 5,725-foot Mount Rushmore.  Its broad wall of exposed granite was more  suitable for sculpture and received direct sunlight for most of the day. 
Borglum himself selected  the presidents for the memorial, to reflect the nation’s first 150 years of history and to make the project a national,  rather than regional one.  Original plans included only George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Borglum picked George  Washington  the father of the new country because he was a leader in the  American Revolution, the first president of the United States, and the man who laid  the foundation of American democracy.  Abraham Lincoln was selected for preserving the Union during the Civil War and abolishment of slavery.  As  the project progressed, Borglum added Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.  Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of  Independence, began America’s  westward expansion by purchasing the Louisiana  Territory from France in 1803,  which doubled the size of the country, adding all or part of 15 present-day  States. Theodore  Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States and extremely  popular in the early 20th century, linked the east and the west  through the construction of the Panama Canal and was famous as a “trust  buster,” fighting large corporate monopolies and championing the working man.
Initial planning and fund-raising began in August 1925.  The project was almost out of money in 1927  before carving even began. Borglum and the planners succeeded in getting the  support of President Coolidge when he was vacationing in the Black   Hills.  Coolidge dedicated  the memorial in 1927.  In the closing  days of his term in office, he signed a bill approving matching funds. The Federal  Government would eventually cover almost all of the almost million-dollar cost  of construction. On October 4, 1927, the carving process began.  Local gold miners carefully removed  rock from the mountain using small charges of dynamite, leaving a three to six  inch layer of granite. They used 75-pound jackhammers to remove the next layer  and then the carvers took over.  First,  they drilled a series of shallow holes and then removed the area between them,  often by hand.  Hand tools smoothed the  stone and added small details, like wrinkles and moles.  Four hundred people worked on the  project.  Frequently suspended  because of bad weather and money problems, the work was dangerous, but  miraculously there were no fatal accidents.  During the Depression, it was welcome relief work for many, and for many  others it came to be a labor of love.  As “Red” Anderson  said, "more and more we sensed that we were creating a truly great thing."
Interpretive  ranger program