MOUNT RUSHMORE

Mount Rushmore, also known as the President's Mountain, is located in

the Black Hills of Keystone, South Dakota, USA. The work shows the
faces of four U.S presidents most important of the first 150 years of the
country. They were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore
Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
According to the National Park Service, the monument is visited each
year by more than three million people.

HISTORY

Local historian Doane Robinson came up with the idea for Mount
Rushmore in 1923 in order to promote tourism in South Dakota.

Gutzon Borglum, a famous Dutch-American sculptor, was selected

for the Mount Rushmore project. At his death in March 1941 his
son, Lincoln Borglum, continued the work and it was completed
later that year.

Carving of Mount Rushmore started on October 4, 1927, and

finished 14 years later on October 31, 1941.

Over 400 workers helped to sculpt Mount Rushmore climbing 506

steps to its top each day and amazingly there were no fatalities.

Initially, it was planned for the figures to be carved from head to

waist, but a shortage in funding didn't allow for this.

The whole project cost US $989,992.32

Mount Rushmore was declared a National Monument and is also

enrolled in the National Register of Historic Places.

A cave called the 'Hall of Records' sits behind the monument and
contains a vault of 16 porcelain enamel panels with text of the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, biographies of the
4 presidents and Borglum, and history of the U.S.