Mount Rushmore as it once was

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2006)

As a many-times visitor to Mount Rushmore over several decades, I have always delighted in the location shots of the mountain itself, and the interior of the restaurant, which was known as "The Buffalo Room." Alas, in the early 1990's, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society and the National Park Service decided to "improve" the facility by demolishing the building housing the restaurant--which blended so well with the natural terrain, flora, and fauna, and replacing it with concrete structures which appear to be the product of a Greek architecture dropout. If you haven't been to Mount Rushmore since about 1990 or earlier, "North by Northwest" is the only place to see the way it was intended to be visited.