Mt Rushmore (17 - under 18)

So much has been written and spoken about Mt Rushmore that it is difficult to summarise the feat and the mountain in a few words. Accordingly, I will try to write a little about the buildup to the monument’s creation, who the sculptor was, why Mt Rushmore was named plus some other ramblings!

The four Presidents are, from L-R: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Tom, our guide at Crazy Horse had pointed out the coincidence of the four white faces of former Presidents happen to be carved in white granite and Crazy Horse, a Red Indian was carved in red granite…

As a quick aside to the background of the mountain, it was interesting I sensed angst between Rangers at the two mountain sites – sort of an overwhelming passion to portray their Monument as being of paramount importance with no mention of the other. When I passed comments to a Ranger at each of the mountains about the other, I was given quite curt responses and in one case, ignored completely.

I suppose it’s their pride and dignity about being associated with a National Monument - in a way they seemed to be responding as if I had insulted their child by asking any question when associating one monument to the other. They weren’t rude questions, just passing, however….both Monuments are worth seeing!

As a scale comparison - Mt Rushmore would fit into the Crazy Horse’s intended hair sculpting behind his face. However, when you are standing in front of the faces, it is very difficult to picture the difference in size. More than likely it’s to do with how close you are to the faces at Mt Rushmore.

There is also something captivating about the sculptures of the faces – you can simply sit and stare and can’t help but be in awe of how they did it, trying to picture what it would have been like at the time and how difficult the task would have been.

The vision of carving famous people into the face of a mountain in the Black Hills was conceived in December 1923 by Doane Robinson, secretary and superintendent of the State Historical Society of South Dakota. He approached United States Senator Peter Norbeck with the idea and it was Robinson’s initial vision to have famous Western figures sculpted, such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Lewis and Clark and notable Sioux Indians.

In 1924, Robinson introduced his plan to Gutzon Borglum, a sculptor who, at the time was working amidst turmoil on a project in Georgia at Stone Mountain. This was to have been a Confederate Memorial and Borglum had already produced the scale models.

Borglum was a fiery, brash person with a large ego and there had been a clash between him and the president of the Stone Mountain association. This clash emanated in Borglum being removed as the sculptor and their seeking a replacement for him to carry on creating the sculpture from Borglum’s model. In disgust, Borglum climbed Stone Mountain and threw the scale models over the edge, destroying them.

Thus, the invitation from Robinson to Borglum to become involved in this project at Mt Rushmore could not have come at a better time. As Borglum, primarily through his first wife’s connections, knew four USA Presidents well enough to call, unannounced to the Whitehouse and would more often than not be ushered in to see them; the decision to choose Borglum due to both his talent and his Presidential connections proved to be very wise.

Despite some opposition on financial grounds, in 1925 Congress passed all necessary legislation to proceed with the project. Borglum scoured the Black Hills for an appropriate location and when he saw Mt Rushmore, knew right away it was ideal as the southeast exposure provided proper lighting, the height allowed it to overlook the Black Hills and the rock face was large enough to carve his planned sculpture.

Why was it named Mount Rushmore and who was Rushmore? He was Charles E. Rushmore, an attorney from New York who had visited the Black Hills several times on legal business in 1884 and 1885. He had apparently got well and truly under the skin of local officials and when someone from the Lands department asked of this particular as yet, unnamed granite mountain, said in disgust, “call it Rushmore!” after the man’s stubbornness.

On August 10, 1927 President Coolidge, on site formally dedicated the project and he was the first person to refer to Mount Rushmore as a “national shrine” and pledged federal support. Thus the project commenced.

Borglum was 60 years old when the sculpture began and understood this project would last the rest of his life. 400 dedicated men worked tirelessly for the next 14 years under his guidance to produce what we see today. Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941 and his son, Lincoln carried on the finishing work with a skeleton crew.

With funds dwindling and the European situation growing more critical, Lincoln Borglum and his small team worked for seven months, till on October 31, 1941 they stowed their tools, packed up their belongings and left the mountain, returning it to eternal silence from which they had awakened it 14 years earlier.

Time for us to leave South Dakota and head northwest to an interesting rock formation called Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.