Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, colossal sculpture in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota, U.S. It lies about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Rapid City, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Custer, and just north of Custer State Park. Huge representations of the heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, each about 60 feet (18 metres) tall, are carved in granite on the southeast side of Mount Rushmore. The mountain itself, at an elevation of 5,725 feet (1,745 metres), was named in 1885 for Charles E. Rushmore, a New York lawyer. The memorial, which covers 2 square miles (5 square km), was designated in 1925 and dedicated in 1927. The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) assumed administration of the site in 1933.

Creation of the sculpture

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The idea of creating a monumental sculpture in the Black Hills was first suggested in 1923 by South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson, who had envisioned creating likenesses of famous Native American and American Old West personalities on a needlelike rock formation in Custer State Park. However, American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who was hired to design and execute the project, rejected that site because the rock there was too eroded and unstable and instead chose nearby Mount Rushmore with its solid granite rock face. Borglum also proposed that the four heads in the sculpture symbolize the first 150 years of the United States: Washington to represent the country’s founding; Jefferson, its expansion across the continent; Roosevelt, its development domestically and as a global power; and Lincoln, its preservation through the ordeal of civil war.

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Work on the memorial began in October 1927, shortly after its dedication by Pres. Calvin Coolidge, and continued, off and on, for the next 14 years. Progress was hampered by periodic funding shortfalls, design issues (the likeness of Jefferson, originally on Washington’s right side, had to be redone on the other side), and the death of Borglum in March 1941, several months before the sculpture was finished. Borglum’s son, Lincoln, took over the final work on the project, which was completed in October 1941. In all, the work consisted of six and a half years of actual carving by hundreds of workers, who used dynamite, jackhammers, chisels, and drills to shape the massive stone sculpture assemblage. Borglum’s technique involved blasting away much of the rock with explosives, drilling a large number of closely spaced holes, and then chipping the remaining rock away until the surface was smooth. Much of the 450,000 tons of rock removed in the process was left in a heap at the base of the memorial. The federal government paid most of the nearly $1 million cost, with much of the remainder coming from private donations. Washington’s head was dedicated in 1930, Jefferson’s in 1936, Lincoln’s in 1937, and Roosevelt’s in 1939.

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The contemporary memorial

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The Mount Rushmore sculpture ensemble quickly became one of the United States’ great iconic images. The memorial is now among the most heavily visited NPS properties and is one of the top tourist attractions in the country. Over the years, components of the site’s infrastructure, such as accessibility and visitor facilities and services, have been improved and expanded to accommodate the two million or more people who go there annually. Among these is the Avenue of Flags (opened 1976), a walkway leading toward the mountain that is flanked on both sides by flags of the country’s 56 states and territories. Another major renovation, completed in 1998, added the Grand View Terrace and its amphitheatre, affording vistas of the monument at the north (mountainside) end of the Avenue of Flags; the Presidential Trail, which provides the closest views of the sculpture; and the Lincoln Borglum Museum, which has exhibits on the memorial’s history. The Sculptor’s Studio (1939) displays tools used in the carving and the scale model used to create the sculpture.

Mount Rushmore lies within Black Hills National Forest. Ponderosa pines are the predominant tree cover in the region, with groves of aspens where the pines have been disturbed by such phenomena as forest fires or infestation by pine bark beetles. A variety of grasses and wildflowers grow in more open areas. Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) and mule deer are the most common large mammals found around Mount Rushmore, and bison, elk, and pumas (mountain lions) live in the vicinity as well. The memorial also is home to squirrels, chipmunks, wood rats, and other small mammals and to a variety of birds, such as nuthatches, pine siskins, and western tanagers. In addition to Custer State Park, other nearby attractions include Wind Cave National Park (south) and Crazy Horse Memorial and Jewel Cave National Monument (both southwest). Mount Rushmore is easily accessible by road. There are dining facilities and a visitor’s centre at the memorial but no overnight accommodations.