Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt always seemed a little larger than life to me when I read my American history books as a child. Staring up into their stone faces at Mount Rushmore certainly reinforced that feeling for me.
Tributes abound for some of our best-loved presidents, especially with celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. But one of the most impressive presidential tributes still has to Mount Rushmore, where the massive visages of Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt stand impassively immortalized high on a South Dakota mountain face.
I generally seek out some of the more obscure attractions when I visit an area, but Mount Rushmore is one of those typically touristy sites that seem to command your attention.
The four 60-foot high faces, carved 500 feet up into the mountain present a solemn presence seen for miles around, as drivers approach the site along roads winding through South Dakota’s beautiful Black Hills region.
Peter Norbeck, who as the state’s governor spearheaded blasting the Needles Highway through Custer State Park in 1919, became the moving force behind the monumental task of creating Mount Rushmore. Serving as a U.S. Senator from South Dakota during the 1920s, Norbeck helped raise nearly one million dollars for the Mount Rushmore project.
Organizers selected artist Gutzon Borglum to create the project. Borglum’s work carving the likeness of Robert E. Lee with a row of Confederate soldiers into Stone Mountain in Georgia gave him some valuable expertise with mountainside carving as he began work on Mount Rushmore.
Cost overruns, Native American belief in the sacredness of the Black Hills, and Borglum’s eccentricities and temperamental personality led to conflicts as the project dragged into the Great Depression years of the 1930s.
Borglum did play an active part in suggesting subjects for Mount Rushmore, which historian Doane Robinson conceived as an especially impressive tourist attraction to retain the interest of visitors once they’d seen the Black Hills. Borglum suggested focusing on some of the nation’s most popular presidents in order to generate national interest in the project.
Selection of the four presidents to include in the carving gave it the overlaying storyline of the country’s expansion. Washington as the first president, Lincoln and preservation of the Union, Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase and Roosevelt’s acquisition of the Panama Canal.
In spite of it all, the project started in 1927 saw its completion in 1941. A Web site for the Public Broadcasting Service documentary about the project contains a few fascinating film clips of Borglum and some of his hundreds of workers working on the carving.
Today, entering the majestic site along the Avenue of Flags honoring 56 states and territories gives no hint of the difficult road traveled to create Rushmore.
The best photo taking opportunities may be along the half-mile Presidential Trail, which takes visitors closer to the mountain and many great vantage points looking up into the larger-than-life panel of presidents.
© Dominique King 2009
Beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing. This year I will visit Mount Rushmore, for sure.
Posted by: auria cortes | February 12, 2009 at 06:56 AM
Auria-Thanks for stopping by! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed my visit to Mount Rushmore. The day was perfect for taking photos, and the walk along the Presidential Trail was especially nice because of the great photo angles it offered.
Posted by: Dominique | February 13, 2009 at 06:26 PM