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 NPS: Nature & Science» Geology Resources Division South Dakota Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota Mount Rushmore National Memorial is located along the northeast edge of what is known as the Harney Peak Granite Batholith in the Black Hills of South Dakota. A batholith is a geologic feature that formed by the cooling of a large igneous body of magma below the earth's surface; if a similar igneous body reaches the earth's surface, it would form a volcanic feature such as a lava flow. The Black Hills magma was emplaced into the older "host" mica schist rocks during Precambrian time, approximately 1.7 billion years ago!

The mica schist originated from the metamorphism (alteration by heat and pressure) of muds and sands from an ancient sea floor sometime prior to the emplacement of the Harney Peak Granite. Metamorphism of this original material produced the "slabby" appearance in the mica schist that now contains minerals such as muscovite, biotite and quartz. The Harney Peak Granite (of which Mount Rushmore is carved) consists of fine-grained minerals including quartz, feldspar, muscovite and biotite. It is believed that these minerals formed approximately 8 miles below the earth's surface from molten magma. Some cracks developed as a result of the cooling of the magma and were later "patched" with molten magma. The result was the emplacement of pegmatite dikes that filled the fractures and zones of weakness in the granite. Today these pegmatite dikes are expressed as white streaks on the foreheads of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. Elsewhere in the Black Hills, economically significant mineral deposits are found associated with these pegmatite bodies.

The Harney Peak granite was likely exposed at the surface prior to Cambrian time, but was covered by sandy sediment when the Cambrian seas invaded the Black Hills some 550 million years ago. Today, these sands are part of the Deadwood Formation sandstones that contain grains derived from the ancient Harney Peak granite and the exposed Precambrian surface. The granite core of the Black Hills continued to be further buried during the rest of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras of geologic time and wasn't exposed to surface processes again until some 50 million years ago when today's Black Hills began to take on their present form. Weathering and erosion have been carving these rocks since then, but the most noticeable "carving" occurred in the 20th century when Gutzon Borglum oversaw the project to construct Mount Rushmore as a "shrine to democracy". The carvings occur within a granite sheet several hundred feet thick that has intruded the older schists. The irregular nature of the granite intrusion is noticeable just below the bust of George Washington, where the lighter colored granite sharply comes in contact with the darker schist. Shrine of Democracy Sixty million years ago this land was in turmoil.

Hills and mountains were being thrust up and gradually eroded. On the nearly indestructible granite face of one of these peaks, Mount Rushmore, the heads of four American Presidents have been carved in bold relief. These figures symbolize the birth and trials of the first 150 years of the United States. Individually they represent the ideals of the Nation. George Washington signifies the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic, Thomas Jefferson the idea of representative government, Abraham Lincoln the permanent union of the States and equality for all citizens, and Theodore Roosevelt the 20th-century role of the United States in world affairs. The Memorial Idea In 1923, Doane Robinson, the South Dakota State historian, conceived the idea of carving colossal statues of romantic western heroes such as Jim Bridger, John Colter, and Kit Carson on the granite formations known as "the Needles" in the Black Hills. The proposal had only moderate public acceptance, and at times criticism of the project was severe. But Robinson was able to gain the influential support of South Dakota Senator Peter Norbeck and Representative William Williamson. Slowly public opinion changed, the memorial was authorized, and some funds were obtained to begin the work.

Robinson invited the sculptor Gutzon Borglum to the Black Hills in the autumn of 1924 to study the proposal. John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was born in St. Charles, Idaho, on March 25, 1867. He began painting at an early age, and in his early twenties sales of his works enabled him to study art in France for several years. It was there, in 1890, that he began to sculpt. His final paintings were completed in 1903, and from that time on he worked only as a sculptor. His fame grew, as did the size of his works. In 1915 he was asked by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to carve a head of Gen. Robert E. Lee on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Work did not begin until 1923, but some demands made by Borglum soon led to his dismissal. The invitation to the Black Hills presented him with an opportunity to create a monument whose dimensions would be "determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated". For this purpose a location other than the Needles was needed.

After much searching Borglum selected Mount Rushmore because: it was smooth-grained granite, its 5,725-foot height dominated the surrounding terrain, and it faced the sun most of the day. Carving the Monument Work on the mountain began August 10, 1927, the same day President Calvin Coolidge officially dedicated Mount Rushmore as a national memorial. Fourteen years were needed to bring the sculpture to its present appearance, but because of delays caused by lack of funds and bad weather only 6½ years were actually spent in carving. In the early years private donations supported the project, but when more funds were required the Federal Government assumed full financial responsibility. Federal appropriations accounted for $836,000 of the $990,000 spent on the memorial between 1927 and 1941. In March of the latter year Gutzon Borglum died. His son Lincoln, who had worked closely with his father on the monument, continued the project until funds ran out later the same year. Since then no additional carving has been done, nor is any further work on the memorial planned.

Mountain Carving To say that Mount Rushmore was "carved" is to use a convenient figure of speech. Very few conventional sculpturing methods were employed in what was actually "a unique engineering accomplishment". Gutzon Borglum used the engineering techniques at Mount Rushmore that he had developed during his work on Stone Mountain. He first designed a grouping of the four Presidents to conform to the mountain's granite cap, but deep cracks and fissures' later discovered in the rock, required nine changes in the design. Five-foot models of each figure guided the workmen on the mountain. Measurements were taken from the models with a horizontal bar and plumb bob, enlarged 12 times, and transferred to the mountain. After a reference point, such as the tip of a nose, was located, excess rock could be removed with dynamite, often to within three or four inches of the finished surface. Some 450,000 tons of rock were removed in this manner. Drillers, suspended over the face of the mountain in "swing seats" used jack hammers to honeycomb the surface with shallow holes at intervals of about three inches. The remaining rock was wedged off with a small drill, or a hammer and wedging tool.

Finally the sculpture was smoothed with a small air hammer in a process known as "bumping." National Park Service - The Presidents (Mount Rushmore National Memorial) Mount Rushmore National Memorial South Dakota Mount Rushmore National Memorial Pennington County, about 25 miles southwest of Rapid City and 3 miles southwest of Keystone, just off U.S. 16 on Horse Thief Lake Road. Mount Rushmore National Memorial Carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore, a sheer peak rising 6,000 feet above sea level in the Black Hills of South Dakota, are the colossal images of four Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. In paying tribute to them, this national memorial also commemorates the growth of the United States through the early part of the 20th century. An incredible engineering feat, the monument was constructed over the course of 14 years at a cost of nearly $1 million. Unique among world sculpture and practically immune to the ravages of time and nature, it also stands as an enduring tribute to the genius of sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

The idea of a mountain sculpture in the Black Hills originated with South Dakota historian Doane Robinson, who in 1923 enlisted the support of U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck for such a project. The next year, Robinson acquired the services of sculptor Borglum, who enthusiastically agreed to direct operations. He had been engaged in a similar endeavor at Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Ga., where he had begun carving a huge Confederate memorial, but the undertaking had failed. Rejecting Robinson's conception of a monument to prominent western heroes, Borglum envisioned a national memorial on an immense scale. He initially considered carving into a mountainside the images of Presidents Washington and Lincoln complete from the waist up. In 1925 Senator Norbeck succeeded in obtaining the passage of laws by the South Dakota legislature and by the U.S. Congress authorizing the project. The former body, apparently assuming that another peak near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills was the likely site, also created an administrative unit, the Mount Harney Memorial Association. In August Borglum selected Mount Rushmore, an imposing peak of smooth-grained granite near the town of Keystone.

In addition to a picturesque setting, the mount enjoyed the advantage of facing the sun for most of the day, an ideal lighting arrangement. Mount Rushmore National Memorial. (National Park Service, Boucher, 1959.) On October 1 Borglum dedicated Mount Rushmore before a crowd of about 1,000 people. He undoubtedly held the ceremony to stimulate public interest, for almost no construction funds had yet been raised. During the next 2 years, he consumed most of his time raising money in the East and in perfecting his design. Eventually choosing as his subjects the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, he believed they would effectively represent not only the westward expansion of the Nation but also its entire history from the time of the American Revolution to his own generation. Meantime, the Mount Harney Memorial Association had managed to acquire some support from Rapid City businessmen, a few State organizations, and a couple of philanthrophists. The funds collected were rapidly exhausted. By 1927 the project seemed to be on the verge of failure.

The rededication of the mountain on August 10 of that year by President Coolidge, however, brought wide national press coverage and some new contributions. Nonetheless, after a few months of work, Borglum was forced to cease operations. Aware that more substantial financial support was needed, he appealed to the Federal Government for aid. In February 1929 Congress responded by creating the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission to replace the Mount Harney Memorial Association and by authorizing Federal appropriations up to $250,000, provided they were matched by private subscriptions. About a decade later, the Federal Government assumed complete financial responsibility for the project. Creation of the memorial required the use of some unique engineering techniques that Borglum had earlier originated at Stone Mountain. After designing a group of figures to conform to the contour of the mountaintop, he made individual plaster models of each of them to serve as guides for his workmen. The models measured 5 feet from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin; 1 foot on a model equaled 12 feet on the mountainside. Sometimes, for measuring purposes, the models were suspended from the mountaintop by cables.

All the workers were local men trained by Borglum. Using ladders hewn out of pine trees to climb the mountain, they installed a tramway of cables and winches from its base, where they constructed shelters and storage shacks. An elaborate scaffolding system was devised to accommodate drilling and blasting. Drillers, using jackhammers to drill holes for dynamite, were lowered from the peak to the scaffolds in leather swings by hand-operated winches. Microphones and loudspeakers relayed messages for the lowering and raising of the swings. Surface rock had to be blasted away with dynamite to eliminate deep fissures and cracks until only solid granite remained. The actual carving involved a tedious cycle of measuring, blasting, drilling, wedging, and smoothing. A blacksmith shop at the base of the mountain serviced the drills, as many as 400 of which needed to be resharpened each day. NPS employee inspecting the face of Abraham Lincoln. National Park Service.) The Washington face was unveiled on July 4, 1930. Jefferson's image proved to be far more difficult.

Originally to the north of Washington, in 1933, because of imperfections in the granite, the partially completed figure had to be blasted away and begun anew at a different location. Three years later, on August 29, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to Mount Rushmore and dedicated it. The remaining figures, those of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, were dedicated on September 17, 1937, and July 2, 1939. Each head in the group, carved to the scale of a man 465 feet tall, averaged about 60 feet from top to bottom. Each had a nose 20 feet long, a mouth 18 feet wide, and eyes 11 feet across. But the memorial had not yet reached completion. Besides refinements in the images already carved, Borglum was planning to inscribe a brief history of the United States into the mountain alongside the four figures. Even more fantastic, he had already begun blasting a huge hall of records in the interior of the mountain. The hall was to be a gigantic room filled with busts of individuals representing all phases of U.S.

history, bronze and glass cabinets containing historical records carved on aluminum sheets, artifacts of American civilization, and various works of art. Access to the hall was to be via an enormous flight of steps rising 400 feet from a huge granite disk at the base of the mountain. Mount Rushmore in winter. National Park Service.) Borglum's sudden death in March 1941 brought an end to such grandiose schemes. His son Lincoln, who had assisted him for many years, supervised the final work, completed in October. Construction had extended over a period of 14 years, though much of that time the laborers had been idle because of financial difficulties and weather conditions. The cost had almost reached $1 million. At the base of the mountain lay 450,000 tons of stone rubble, which has never been removed. By 1941 the National Park Service had assumed full responsibility for the memorial. Since that time, it has greatly enhanced administrative and visitor accommodations. Uniformed rangers, informational signs, leaflets, and museum exhibits provide interpretive services. Each evening from June through September a dramatic lighting ceremony is held in the amphitheater.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial travel guide - Wikitravel 10 Get out Mount Rushmore National Memorial [1] is a United States National Memorial located in the American state of South Dakota , in the vicinity (35 miles) of Rapid City . Featuring the monumental faces of four former Presidents of the United States of America, blasted and carved from the white rock, Mount Rushmore represents an iconic destination for many travellers to the area. Mount Rushmore depicts the faces of four former U.S. Presidents (from left to right): George Washington, first president Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president The four, 60-foot granite faces of Mount Rushmore National Memorial draw more than three million visitors each year, and that's just for each head! The first blast on the mountain occurred in 1927. Under the direction of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, 400 workers labored through hot summers and cold winters to create the sculpture, nearly 500 feet up the side of the mountain. More than 90 percent of the mountain was carved using dynamite. The fine details of the faces were achieved with a jackhammer.

Operators hung from the top of the mountain in bosun chairs held by steel cables. Despite the dangerous work, during the 14 years of construction, not a single person died. The memorial was officially declared complete on October 31, 1941. However, Gutzon Borglum’s vision was not totally completed – original plans included head-to-waist depictions of the presidents. When Borglum died suddenly in July 1941, his son, Lincoln, tried to continue his father’s work, but funding ran out as America entered World War II. Visitors wanting to see a model of Borglum’s original dream can view it at the Sculptor’s Studio located at the Memorial. Another part of Borglum’s grand vision was for a Hall of Records to be carved into the canyon behind the faces. Borglum envisioned a majestic room that held important documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Borglum started blasting the hall, but never finished it. On August 9, 1998, Borglum’s Hall of Records was somewhat completed when a repository was placed in the floor of the hall entry.

Inside a titanium vault are sixteen porcelain enamel panels inscribed with the story of Mount Rushmore, the reasons for selecting the four presidents and a short history of the United States. The Hall of Records is not accessible to visitors, but is left as a record for people thousands of years from now. History[ edit ] Mount Rushmore is named after Charles E. Rushmore, a New York City attorney who was sent out to this area in 1884 to check legal titles on properties. The giant outcropping of rock was a favorite place that many presidents visited with their families. The four granite faces that give the mountain its greatest claim to fame were carved over a 14-year period (October 4, 1927 - October 31, 1941) by over 400 workers under the supervision of Gutzon Borglum, an American sculptor. Each face is about 60 feet high; if the bodies were to be included, each figure would be about 460 feet high. Mount Rushmore is a project of colossal proportion, colossal ambition and colossal achievement. It involved the efforts of nearly 400 men and women.

The duties involved varied greatly from the call boy to drillers to the blacksmith to the housekeepers. The workers had to endure conditions that varied from blazing hot to bitter cold and windy. Each day they climbed 700 stairs to the top of the mountain to punch-in on the time clock. Then 3/8 inch thick steel cables lowered them over the front of the 500 foot face of the mountain in a "bosun chair". Some of the workers admitted being uneasy with heights, but during the Depression, any job was a good job. The work was exciting, but dangerous, 90% of the mountain was carved using dynamite . The powdermen would cut and set charges of dynamite of specific sizes to remove precise amounts of rock. Before the dynamite charges could be set off, the workers would have to be cleared from the mountain. Workers in the winch house on top of the mountain would hand crank the winches to raise and lower the drillers. During the 14 years of construction not one fatality occurred. Dynamite was used until only three to six inches of rock was left to remove to get to the final carving surface.

At this point, the drillers and assistant carvers would drill holes into the granite very close together. This was called honeycombing. The closely drilled holes would weaken the granite so it could be removed often by hand. After the honeycombing, the workers smoothed the surface of the faces with a hand facer or bumper tool. In this final step, the bumper tool would even up the granite, creating a surface as smooth as a sidewalk. From 1927 to 1941 the 400 workers at Mount Rushmore physically sculpted, through the rock and soil, a landmark that people from across the nation and around the world would travel to see for generations to come. By plane[ edit ] The closest commercial airport to Mount Rushmore is Rapid City Regional Airport [2] . South Dakota State Route 16 links Rapid City with Mount Rushmore. By road[ edit ] Travelers on I-90 should exit at Rapid City and follow Highway 16 southwest to Keystone and then Highway 244 to Mount Rushmore. Travelers coming from the south should follow Highway 385 north to Highway 244, which is the road leading to the National Memorial.

Fees/Permits[ edit ] Entrance to the Memorial is free; however, there is a fee to park. This fee isn't covered by the National Park Pass, Golden Age or Golden Access Passport cards because the parking facilities are privately owned. The structure was built to accommodate visitation, and because federal or donated funds weren't available, it was contracted out, and the non-profit organization became Presidential Parking Inc. Parking is $11 for private vehicles (cars, motorcycles, and RVs). Mount Rushmore National Memorial Information more "The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt." - Gutzon Borglum Mount Rushmore National Memorial is host to almost three million visitors a year from across the country and around the world. They come to marvel at the majestic beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota and to learn about the birth, growth, development, and preservation of our country. Over the decades, Mount Rushmore has grown as a symbol of America - a symbol of freedom and hope for people from all cultures and backgrounds.

All the cultures that make up the fabric of this country are represented by the memorial and surrounding Black Hills. One of the most important gifts we can give our visitors at Mount Rushmore National Memorial is an understanding and love for our nation's history and cultures and an appreciation of the importance of caring for that legacy. more The Black Hills The Black Hills, known as Paha Sapa (hills that are black) are sacred to the Sioux. Throughout the centuries, many tribal nations lived and traveled within reach of what would become the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The first European explorers to see the Black Hills were probably Francis and Louis-Joseph Verendrye. These French explorers were traveling through South Dakota near the Missouri River. The exact route they were using is unknown, but according to Louis-Joseph's journal, on New Year's Day in 1743, they were on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River and were "...in sight of mountains." It was reported that their American Indian guides would not take them any closer to the mountains because hostile bands of Indians were known to live there.

Lewis and Clark heard tales about the Hills from other traders and trappers, but it wasn't until 1823 that Jedediah Smith and a group of about 15 traders actually traveled through them. While fur trade was at its peak, the Black Hills were explored to some extent by adventuresome trappers, but because the hills were considered sacred by the Lakota, most trappers avoided the area. Several reports of the discovery of gold in the "Black Hills" were heard during this time. However, the exact location where the gold was discovered was often confusing because the Laramie Range in Wyoming was also occasionally called the "Black Hills." As immigration across the continent increased there was a marked decline in American Indian-white relations. The Army established outposts nearby, but they seldom entered the Black Hills, thinking that doing so would surely cause trouble. Trouble, however, was already brewing. Bands of Lakota reportedly raided settlements and then retreated to the cover of the Hills. Because of this, Lt. G.K. Warren was assigned the task of making a thorough reconnaissance of the plains of South Dakota, including the area known as the Black Hills.

The study of the area was supplemented by another reconnaissance in 1859-60 by Capt. W.F. Reynolds and Dr. F.V. Hayden. In 1861, residents of what is now Eastern South Dakota were organizing groups of miners and explorers to investigate the Hills and reports of gold found there. In 1865 they asked Congress for a military reconnaissance to do a geological survey on the Black Hills. The military recognized the importance that the Lakota Nations attached to the area, and in 1867 Gen. William T. Sherman stated that the Army was not in any position to investigate the Black Hills and would not protect any civilians who did so. Pressure to move into the Hills was temporarily halted in 1868 when the land west of the Missouri was granted to the Lakota in an effort to bring about a lasting peace with the tribes of the plains. The treaty prohibited settlers or miners from entering the Hills without authorization. In return, the Lakota agreed to cease hostilities against pioneers and people building the railroads. In 1870 stories continued to circulate in Eastern South Dakota about gold and other wealth to be had in the Hills.

The citizens of Yankton again pressed for an expedition. The Army and the Department of the Interior tried to discourage any entry into the Hills. American Indian raids and constant pressure from the citizens of Yankton caused General Phillip Sheridan to propose an expedition to investigate the possibility of establishing a fort in the Black Hills. The Army suggested a fort to aid in controlling the bands of American Indians who would raid settlements and then return to the Hills to hide. The expedition, led by Lt. Col. George A. Custer left from Fort Lincoln rather than Fort Laramie because of the large concentration of American Indians at Fort Laramie and the trouble that such an expedition would have caused. The purpose of Custer's expedition was to find a suitable location for a fort. However, for unexplained reasons, a geologist and several miners were included in the party. The miners occupied their time searching for gold, and on July 30, near the present-day town of Custer, their efforts were rewarded. After Custer's report of gold in the Hills, the citizens of Yankton again petitioned the government to open the Hills. The government held firm to the position that the Hills belonged to the Lakota.

This did not stop the rush of hopeful miners. The first group to reach the Hills was the Gordon Party. Originally lead by Thomas Russell and later by John Gordon, the party consisted of 28 adventurers including Annie Tallent (Tallent is credited with being the first white woman in the Black Hills). They were soon forced to leave by the Army. During the winter of 1874 and 1875 the Army tried to keep miners and settlers out, but by spring they found the task to be impossible. In 1875 another expedition organized by the Army entered the Hills to determine its true mineral value. Walter Jenney reported gold could be extracted with sophisticated equipment, but individual miners would have a hard time of it. By 1875 Col. Richard I. Dodge estimated 800 white men were mining or residing in the Hills. Mining camps were established near Custer, Hill City and Deadwood. As old claims played out, new ones were found and towns died or were born almost overnight. By 1876, approximately 10,000 people populated the Hills.

In the spring of 1875 the federal government attempted to solve the problem of ownership of the Hills by inviting American Indian leaders to Washington D.C.. The American Indians refused all offers and would not relinquish ownership of the land. Some of the Indian wars that followed were a result of these problems. The ownership of the Black Hills is still in question. A 1980 Supreme Court decision that attempted to settle the issue by paying the Lakota tribes for the land was not accepted by the Lakota as many of them are still trying to gain ownership of the land sacred to them. Mount Rushmore Getting the sculpting project underway was a challenge all by itself. Once State Historian Doane Robinson and others found a sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, they had to get permission to do the carving. Senator Peter Norbeck and Congressman William Williamson were instrumental in getting the legislation passed to allow the carving. Williamson drafted two bills, one each, to be introduced to Congress and the State Legislature. The bill, requesting permission to use federal land for the monument, was easily passed. The bill sent to the State of South Dakota was not going to be as easy.

The Mount Harney National Memorial bill was defeated twice and almost a third time when, on March 5, 1925 Governor Gunderson signed the bill. The Mount Harney Memorial Association was established by the Governor later that summer. Early in the project money was hard to find despite Borglum's promise that eastern businessmen would gladly make large donations. He also promised the people of South Dakota that they would not be responsible for paying for any of the mountain carving. In the summer of 1927, President Calvin Coolidge was in the Black Hills, and Borglum was planning a formal dedication of the mountain. Borglum hired a plane to fly over the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park where Coolidge was staying. As he flew by, Borglum dropped a wreath to invite the President to the dedication ceremony. Fortunately, Coolidge agreed to attend. On August 10, 1927 Mount Rushmore was formally dedicated. At the dedication ceremony President Coolidge gave a speech and promised federal funding for the project. A meeting was arranged for Borglum to meet with the Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon.

Mellon's approval would be critical to the passage of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Act through both houses of Congress. Borglum convinced Mellon of the project's importance. Mellon was willing to fund the entire project but Borglum said he would need only half the money from the government on a matching basis. The rest, he said, he could raise privately. Senator Norbeck was stunned that Borglum would turn down full funding. President Coolidge signed the bill authorizing federal funding. The Rushmore bill authorized government matching funds up to $250,000.00 and created the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission with 12 members appointed by the President. Coolidge appointed ten of the twelve members and said Hoover should appoint the other two. When Hoover took office, he quickly appointed the final two members to the commission but did not meet with the Commission. The Commission had to meet with the President to begin work. Congressman Williamson was asked to make an appointment with the President, asking him to organize the Commission meeting. Frustrated by the slow pace, Borglum decided he would try to get in to see the President himself.

When he got to the White House, he got into an altercation with the President's secretary and Williamson's appointment was cancelled. Eventually, Williamson got in to see the President, convinced him of the importance of the project and getting the first meeting of the Commission set up. Hoover met with the Commission within a couple of days. Officers were elected and on the day following the meeting, Williamson and Boland, the secretary of the executive committee, went to Mellon and received the first funding from the government. Mellon gave them $54,670.56 to match funds already spent by the Mount Harney Association. One notable exclusion from the new Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission was Doane Robinson. The father of the project was not even put on the list of potential candidates to serve on the committee to be selected by the President. Robinson continued to support the project and generously offered, "Let me help where I can." Soon, feeling unneeded, Robinson moved away from the Rushmore project. The Commission was organized and money was in the bank; work on the mountain could begin in earnest. Workers were hired, machinery was installed, and facilities were developed.

In the 1930's Norbeck managed to get emergency relief funds through the New Deal and get those funds matched by the Rushmore Appropriation. In 1933 a major change developed with the signing of Executive Order 6166 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Mount Rushmore was placed under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Borglum did not like being under the "watchful eye of the government." Julian Spotts, an engineer by training, was sent by the National Park Service to assist with the work. Spotts made improvements that made work on the mountain more efficient and easier on the workers. In 1938 Borglum removed all roadblocks to his complete control over the Rushmore project. At this time the Mount Rushmore Memorial Commission was reorganized, and new members who allowed Borglum complete control over almost everything were named. Borglum wanted to create the Hall of Records, a large repository carved into the side of the canyon behind the carving of the presidents to tell the story of Mount Rushmore and America.

Work was stopped in 1939 when there was a threat of losing funding for the entire sculpture if the money was not used exclusively on the carving of the faces as was originally intended. Work on the Hall of Records stopped and was never started again. For the final two years of the project, Lincoln, Borglum's son, was in charge while Gutzon was constantly trying to get more money for the project. In March of 1941, as a final dedication was being planned, Gutzon Borglum died. With the artist gone and the impending involvement of America in World War II, finishing work on Mount Rushmore drew to a close. On October 31, 1941 the monument was declared complete. Receiving permission to do the carving, finding funding, and managing personalities were all a part of the challenge to establish Mount Rushmore National Memorial. At times, it seemed harder to keep the project going than it was to do the colossal carving of the four presidents. In the end, cool heads, charm, and determination saw the memorial through to the end. Since, Mount Rushmore National Memorial has become a great icon of American history.

more The field documentation at Mount Rushmore, including geo-referenced laser scanning and photography, took place in May of 2010. Teams from CyArk, Historic Scotland and the Glasgow School of Art (CDDV), RESPEC, and Wyss Associates, Inc. all worked together with National Park Service staff for over two weeks to fully document the sculpture and park grounds. In order to laser scan the face of the mountain sculpture completely, a special tripod rig was designed by the team, engineered by Hermanson Egge Engineering, and manufactured locally in Rapid City. The NPS ropes team repelled down the face of the mountain sculpture with this tripod rig and the laser scanner to scan the details of the sculpture that could not otherwise have been captured. During the two weeks of field documentation, over 200 laser scans were performed, collecting billions of data points. In addition to the laser scan data collected, individual photographs and panoramic images were taken on the sculpture and throughout the park grounds. These images were used to photo-texture the laser scan data. All the data collected has been used to create a variety of media for digital preservation.

This media will be used for the on-going preservation and conservation of the mountain and for public education and interpretation of the memorial. more As stewards of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the National Park Service strives to preserve the mountain sculpture and its surrounding natural environment. NPS has slowed the process of erosion by sealing the cracks on the top of the sculpted portions of Mount Rushmore, leaving the vertical cracks open to allow the release of water to minimize the process of freezing and thawing, especially in the harsh unpredictable South Dakota winters. The National Park Service team uses strain gauges and fiber optic communication lines to gather data on the monitored blocks within the sculpture. The laser scan data is being used to closely examine the cracks within the sculpted part of Mount Rushmore. Examining these cracks helps determine their “strike and dip” or simply illustrate the direction in which the individual blocks would go if they did move. This ability to forecast potential movement has been greatly enhanced by the data collected through the scanning process. The many facilities at the memorial have changed over time to better meet the needs of the increasing numbers of visitors over the years.

In the mid-1990’s work began on the current facilities accommodating the nearly three million people that now visit Mount Rushmore National Memorial each year. Mount Rushmore Presidents - Who is on Mount Rushmore? The face of George Washington was the first to be carved on Mount Rushmore. The Washington carving was officially dedicated on July 4, 1930. An American flag measuring 39 feet by 67 feet was hand-sewn by a group of Rapid City women and wife of the sculptor, Mrs. Gutzon Borglum, for the dedication. The flag was later used to dedicate all the presidents of Mount Rushmore. GROWTH Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (1801-1809) Thomas Jefferson, our nation’s third president and one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, is credited with inspiring democracy and the western expansion of the country. In 1803 Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory (which included most of present-day South Dakota) from France for $15 million. The expansion doubled the size of our country, prompting Jefferson to send Lewis and Clark on their famed expedition to explore the new territory.

After their return, settlers started moving west into the nation’s new frontier. Carving on Mount Rushmore of Thomas Jefferson’s face originally began on the opposite side of George Washington. Carvers realized 18 months into the carving that the granite was not suitable. Jefferson’s partially carved face was blasted off with dynamite and carving began anew on the other side of Washington, where we see it now. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the carving of Jefferson on August 30, 1936. DEVELOPMENT Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1901-1909) Theodore Roosevelt was a fiery individualist who embodied American culture of the early 1900s and provided leadership during a time of rapid economic growth. His conservationism, willingness to take on big business and progressive policies set the stage for important reforms of the 20th century, leading many to characterize him as one of the nation’s greatest leaders. Deeply inspired by the Dakota Territory, Roosevelt is also the father of our National Park System, which protects valuable natural resources for generations of Americans to enjoy. The face of Roosevelt was the last to be carved on Mount Rushmore.

The Roosevelt carving was dedicated on July 2, 1939. PRESERVATION Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1861-1865) Leading the country through some of its darkest years, Abraham Lincoln is considered by many scholars to be our nation’s greatest president. He was instrumental in the abolishment of slavery and is credited with setting in motion the work to preserve the United States after the Civil War. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated while attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He died on April 15th. The face of Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore was officially dedicated on September 17, 1937. Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore By Jennifer Rosenberg Updated January 05, 2016. From 1927 to 1941, sculptor Gutzon Borglum and nearly 400 workers diligently carved the faces of four U.S. presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt) into the southeastern, granite side of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Completed on October 31, 1941, Mount Rushmore took 14 years to create, removed 450,000 tons of granite, and cost $989,992.32. The Idea In 1924, the state of South Dakota was only 35 years old and still relatively unknown. To enliven interest in South Dakota and bring in tourists, state historian Doane Robinson proposed creating sculptures of western heroes out of the Black Hills rock formations known as the Needles. Robinson envisioned this outcropping of pillar-like rocks to be shaped into figures such as Sioux chief Red Cloud , Lewis and Clark , John C. Fremont , Sacagawea , and Buffalo Bill . While still in just the idea stage, Robinson, who is now known as the "Father of Mount Rushmore," wrote a letter on August 20, 1924 to sculptor Gutzon Borglum about the project. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States The Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was a talented, energetic, strong-willed man.

He began his artistic life as a painter, gaining accolades and patrons after painting a portrait of the intriguing and influential explorer and Civil War general, John C. Fremont. Borglum then went to Paris to study, where he met renown sculptor Auguste Rodin . It was while in Paris that Borglum switched from painting to sculpture. Back again in the United States, Borglum made an impressive, large bust of President Abraham Lincoln that gained him national fame. The bust caught the eye of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who then asked Borglum to carve the image of Confederate General Robert E. Lee into the side of Stone Mountain in Georgia. Borglum began work on the Stone Mountain project but after the strongly opinionated Borglum and the rest of the committee began to have serious disagreements about who was in charge, Borglum was asked to leave the project on February 5, 1925. Unwilling to allow another artist to use his design, Borglum destroyed the models he had designed of the Stone Mountain project.

This absolutely infuriated the members of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, who then sent a posse after Borglum, chasing Borglum to the state line.1 Not surprisingly, Borglum was never asked to come back. (The carving was later finished by other artists, but only after all of Borglum's work had been removed.) Leaving the Stone Mountain project left 58-year-old Borglum free to pursue Mount Rushmore. Finding the Mountain Delving into the Mount Rushmore project, Borglum quickly changed Robinson's idea from western figures to U.S. presidents, specifically George Washington and Abraham Lincoln , so that the project would have a wider, national appeal. Borglum made a rough sketch, showing the two men standing next to each other. In August 1925, Borglum made a trip to South Dakota with his son, Lincoln, to search for the right mountain. Having determined that the Needles were unsuitable for carving, Borglum was searching for something much larger. Having been guided through most of the Harney range on horseback, Borglum was taken to Mount Rushmore last. This was the mountain for his monumental project.

When Borglum saw the mountain for the first time in 1925, Mount Rushmore stood 6,000 feet above sea level, with a flat-topped, granite peak 1,000-feet long and 400-feet high. Importantly, Mount Rushmore had a southeastern face that would be naturally lit by the sun for most of the day. The only problem with Mount Rushmore was that it was buried deep in the wilderness, a mile-and-a-half from the nearest road.2 It would take a lot of money and effort just to make the site accessible to both workers and visitors. What Images to Carve? George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were easy choices for the monument. Borglum, who thought and dreamed big, decided to add two more figures. Wanting the completed Mount Rushmore project to be a "Shrine of Democracy," Borglum added Thomas Jefferson . The fourth figure, however, was more controversial. While Borglum wanted to add Teddy Roosevelt because he had built the Panama Canal and advocated for the conservation of America's natural lands, others advocated for Woodrow Wilson , the president that had led the United States through World War I and who had died the year before.

In the end, Borglum did as he wanted and made the fourth image Teddy Roosevelt. Getting Started Getting funding for the Mount Rushmore project was more difficult than first expected. Borglum, who had been confident that private investors would fund the project, was surprised to find that nearly none would. After two years of struggling to gather enough money to get the project started, the Mount Rushmore project was almost scrapped before it had begun. But then in 1927, Borglum got lucky. In 1927, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge decided to vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Using this to his advantage, Borglum invited Coolidge to participate in a dedication ceremony for Mount Rushmore. Coolidge agreed. In preparation for the big event, Borglum used the $54,000 they had managed to acquire from private donors to get preparations underway.3 At the base of the mountain, the workmen built a studio for Borglum, quarters for the crew, a blacksmith's workshop, and a cookhouse. They also dug a well to provide water.

Three miles away, the workmen constructed a building in Keystone to house the 200-horsepower, diesel engine that would supply the electricity needed to power the air compressors (these powered the drills).4 Equipment was gathered, including jackhammers, air-compressed drills, chisels, bosun's chairs, and steel wires. On August 10, 1927, the dedication ceremony took place. Coolidge, wearing cowboy boots and a suit for the occasion, gave a short speech to the 1,700 visitors had come to witness the ceremony at Mount Rushmore. Coolidge stated: Here in the heart of the continent, on the side of a mountain which probably no white man had ever beheld in the day of Washington, in territory which was acquired by the action of Jefferson, which remained an unbroken wilderness beyond the days of Lincoln, which was especially beloved by Roosevelt, the people of the future will see history and art combined to portray the spirit of patriotism.5 With Coolidge's support, Mount Rushmore began receiving federal funding. Although slow and intermittent, the promise of federal funding was enough to get started.

Carving the Mountain Carving of Mount Rushmore began on October 4, 1927. Borglum had created a plaster model of the sculpture at a scale of 1:12, meaning one inch of the model correlated to twelve inches (one foot) of the mountain. The model, which had to be changed nine times during the 14-year project, showed the four presidents from the waist up.6 Work started first on George Washington. Workers would climb 760 steps to reach the top of the mountain (about 40 stories high) and then be lowered down the face of the mountain in a seemingly precarious bosun's chair , held only by a 3/8-inch steel cable, to get to work. To move from place to place, the workers signaled to a "callboy," who could call up to the men working the winches at the top of the mountain in order to adjust or move the men to a new location. A small cable car, working like a dumbwaiter, was also built to travel up and down the mountain to carry supplies. For most of the construction, this cableway was not intended for human transport.

Approximately 90% of the carving was done by carefully-placed dynamite, done by men known as "powder monkeys." When most of the granite was removed, work slowed as they began the "honeycomb" process of removing granite, which entailed boring holes just inches apart from each other and then chiseling in-between. To smooth out the surface, workers used a process called "bumping," which used a dallet hand facer to carefully ground the surface to look as smooth as skin. The Problem With Jefferson When Washington was nearly finished, the workers began carving Thomas Jefferson in June 1931 on the left side of Washington. However, the granite there proved too difficult to carve because of numerous veins of quartz. Having to make a very difficult decision, Borglum ordered the work on Jefferson to not only halt, but be blasted off in 1934. The workers then moved to the right of Washington to begin again on Jefferson. Lincoln's head was started in 1936 and then Roosevelt came next. Veins of quartz also plagued the work on Teddy Roosevelt's face. Borglum had to cut deep into the rock to find a spot of solid granite to shape for Roosevelt.

How Big Are the Faces on Mount Rushmore? Each of the four presidential faces are huge. At 60-feet tall, each of the heads are 83 times as large as a regular human head. At that size, a full-body statue would be taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza and almost reach the top of the Washington Monument in D.C. The nose of each statue alone is 20-feet long and each eye measures 11-feet wide. Teddy Roosevelt's mustache ranges 20-feet across and Abraham Lincoln's mole is 16-inches wide. Calling It Done Funding for the Mount Rushmore project was difficult to find even when it was started in 1925. When the Great Depression hit after the 1929 Stock Market Crash , funding became even scarcer and more sporadic. Each time the project ran out of money, all work had to stop. This meant that only 6 1/2 years of the 14 years it took to create Mount Rushmore were spent carving.7 In 1941, even the sporadic funding was to stop.

In February 1941, sculptor Gutzon Borglum went in for surgery. Unfortunately, just three weeks later, March 6, 1941, 73-year-old Borglum died. Borglum's son, Lincoln, who had been involved with the Mount Rushmore project from its inception, took over for his father and finished the project. Although the torsos of the four presidents had barely begun, Congress decided to consider the Mount Rushmore project complete. With the United States' entrance into World War II looming, Congress cut funding for Mount Rushmore. Carving ended on October 31, 1941, just 37 days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered WWII. More Heads? Over the decades, there have been a number of recommendations to add more heads to Mount Rushmore, including the likeness of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan .8 Despite the suggestions, Congress has not yet given any funding for additional carving to be done at Mount Rushmore since work stopped in 1941. Notes 1.

Judith Janda Presnall, Mount Rushmore (San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000) 22. 2. Presnall, Mount Rushmore 25. 3. Presnall, Mount Rushmore 35. 4. Presnall, Mount Rushmore 36. 5. President Calvin Coolidge, "Speech Delivered on August 10, 1927," National Park Service (accessed November 29, 2015) 6. Presnall, Mount Rushmore 43. 7. Lynn Curlee, Rushmore (New York: Scholastic Press, 1999) 20. 8. Curlee, Rushmore 44. Mount Rushmore Memorial: What to Know Before You Go | HowStuffWorks Mount Rushmore Memorial: What to Know Before You Go NEXT PAGENEXT Mount Rushmore is a colossal memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The work of gifted sculptor Gutzon Borglum, it was to become the world's largest mountain sculpture. The memorial started as an idea to draw sightseers to the Black Hills.

In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the site, and Borglum began 14 years of work designing, blasting, and carving the face of the mountain. Today, the 60 foot faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln gaze out from Mount Rushmore as a shrine to democracy. The four presidents chosen for Mount Rushmore Memorial led the country from colonial times into the twentieth century. President Washington had commanded the Revolutionary Army and was the first U.S. president. Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence and advocated westward expansion. Lincoln restored the Union and helped to end slavery in America. Roosevelt promoted conservationist and other progressive causes. Up Next Walnut Canyon National Monument The magnitude of the sculpture on Mount Rushmore flabbergasts viewers. Washington's head is as tall as a six-story building. His nose alone is 20 feet long; his mouth, 18 feet wide. At this scale, Washington's full figure would stand 465 feet tall. More than 80 percent of the work was done with dynamite, which quickly and inexpensively removed the enormous amount of hard rock that had to go.

Borglum's crew grew so skilled that they could blast to within inches of Mount Rushmore's finished surface. After dynamiting, the workers bored a network of closely spaced holes, each reaching almost the depth of the finished surface. Then they used chisels to remove the surplus rock, and finally the employed pneumatic hammers to smooth the "skin" of each face on Mount Rushmore. It is thought that the hard ancient granite faces gracing Mount Rushmore will wear down at a rate of just one inch in every 10,000 years. Doane Robinson, superintendent of the South Dakota Historical Society in the early twentieth century, wanted to have a massive stone carving to draw people to South Dakota. He talked about his idea with several people, but when he shared it with U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck things began to happen. Gutzon Borglum had been working on another memorial when he received a message from Norbeck.

(Borglum was a student of French artist Auguste Rodin, and was one of America's most successful artists before he even thought about Mount Rushmore.) Borglum died in 1941, before the memorial was finished, but his son, Lincoln Borglum supervised the completion of his father's masterpiece. Mount Rushmore can be viewed 24 hours a day, year-round, but it is best photographed in the morning light from the Main View Terrace. Easy trails lead to a visitor center, which has exhibits and a short film, and to the Sculptor's Studio, containing original carving tools and scale models of the memorial.

Question: Who is the only 20th century president to be carved onto Mount Rushmore?
Answer: THEODORE ROOSEVELT