Lably
Skip to content

Mount Rushmore

Mountain with U.S. presidential sculptures

  • 30 min read
  • 11 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Abraham Lincoln, Elevation and United States Senate

Lab · Class 5–9History ExplorerLab · Class 10Heights and DistancesLab · Class 6IntegersLab · Class 12Solutions & Colligative Properties

Mount Rushmore is 3.7 mi (6.0 km) east-northeast of the summit of Black Elk Peak (formerly Harney Peak), the highest point in the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore is considered part of the Black Elk Range (formerly the Harney Range) in treatments that distinguish that subrange of the Black Hills. Its elevation at its highest point is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.

Borglum chose Mount Rushmore in part because of its southeast-facing direction and maximum exposure to sunlight. The carving was the idea of Doane Robinson, South Dakota's state historian. Robinson originally wanted the sculpture to feature American West heroes, such as Lewis and Clark, their expedition guide Sacagawea, Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Oglala Lakota chief Crazy Horse. Borglum, arguing that the sculpture should be national in scope rather than regional, convinced them to choose the four presidents instead.

Peter Norbeck, U.S. senator from South Dakota, sponsored the project and secured federal funding. Construction began in 1927 and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. After Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941, his son Lincoln took over as leader of the construction project. Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941, and only Washington's sculpture includes any detail below chin level.

The sculpture at Mount Rushmore was built on land that was taken from the Sioux Nation in the 1870s. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians that the taking of the Black Hills required just compensation and awarded the tribe $102 million. The Sioux have refused the money, and continue to demand return of the land. This conflict continues, leading some critics of the monument to refer to it as a "Shrine of Hypocrisy".

History

Early history and naming

The peak that would later be known as Mount Rushmore is situated in the Black Hills, which has been inhabited by numerous indigenous groups over the centuries. The Ponca, Arikara, and Mandan were among the earliest recorded inhabitants, and were later displaced by the Kiowa, Plains Apache, and Shoshone. By 1800 those groups were supplanted by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Sioux, with the Lakota becoming the majority in the area by 1850. The Lakota call the Black Hills Pahá Sápa and consider the entire region to be sacred ground, referring to the hills as wamakaognaka e'cante, "the heart of everything that is". The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other Native groups of the Northern Plains also recognize particular sites within the Black Hills as having sacred significance.

Mount Rushmore was originally known to the Lakota as Igmu Tanka Pahá (Cougar Mountain) due to the many cougars living in the area. After the 1870s, it came to be known as Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá (Six Grandfathers Mountain). The name referred to the six head-like knobs along the summit ridge, which came to be associated with Black Elk’s 1873 "Great Vision" of the Six Grandfathers. The Six Grandfathers are the spirits of the six directions (the four cardinal directions, plus above and below) in Lakota cosmology.

The United States government recognized the Black Hills as the exclusive territory of the Lakota in both the First and Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851 and 1868, respectively), creating the Great Sioux Reservation in which the Black Hills were situated. U.S. general George Armstrong Custer summited Black Elk Peak a few years later in 1874 during the Black Hills Expedition, which triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War of 1876. In 1877, the U.S. broke the Treaty of Fort Laramie and asserted control over the area, leading to an influx of settlers and prospectors.

Early English-language names for the later Mount Rushmore included "Cougar Mountain," "Sugarloaf Mountain," "Slaughterhouse Mountain," and "Keystone Cliffs". Among the early prospectors in the area was New York mining promoter James Wilson, who organized the Harney Peak Tin Company, and hired New York attorney Charles E. Rushmore to visit the Black Hills and confirm the company's land claims. Rushmore visited the area on three or four trips over the span of 1884 and 1885. During one of these visits, Rushmore was traveling near the base of the peak and, impressed with it, asked his guide, Bill Challis, the mountain's name; Challis replied that the mountain did not have a name, but that it would henceforth be named after Rushmore. The name "Mount Rushmore" continued to be used locally, and was officially recognized by the United States Board of Geographic Names in June 1930.

Concept, design and funding

By the 1920s, South Dakota had become a U.S. state and was a popular destination for automobile travelers visiting the Black Hills National Forest, Wind Cave National Park, and Needles Highway. In 1923, the Secretary of the South Dakota State Historical Society, Doane Robinson, who would later come to be known as the "Father of Mount Rushmore", sought to boost tourism to South Dakota through the construction of a large monument in the Black Hills. Robinson initially approached sculptor Lorado Taft, but Taft was ill at the time and uninterested in Robinson's project. Robinson next sought the help of then-U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck, who had established Custer State Park when he was Governor in 1919. Norbeck cautiously supported Robinson's plan, and Robinson began campaigning for it publicly. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader was also an early proponent of Robinson's plan.

In 1924, Robinson read about the Confederate memorial at Stone Mountain, Georgia, that had been underway since 1915. On August 20, 1924, Robinson wrote to Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of the Stone Mountain memorial, asking him to travel to the Black Hills region to determine whether the carving could be accomplished. Borglum had been having disagreements with the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, and on September 24, 1924, travelled to South Dakota to meet Robinson.

Robinson's plan had some support in South Dakota, but opposition was particularly strong in the Black Hills area. Many people there opposed the project on conservationist grounds, wishing to leave the appearance of the area unaltered. Many others opposed it because they did not want an influx of tourism to the area. Cora Babbitt Johnson, editor of the Hot Springs, South Dakota newspaper, the Hot Springs Star, was particularly outspoken in her opposition to the planned sculptures. Others opposed to the plan included the Black Hills Federation of Women's Clubs and the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. Through 1924, predominant opinion in South Dakota was either opposed or indifferent to the memorial project, and it was only through considerable lobbying on the part of Robinson and Borglum that the project began to gain support in early 1925. South Dakota Governor Carl Gunderson also leaned toward opposition to the project, but informed Senator Norbeck that he would not actively oppose it.

Although many Lakota and other Native Americans later came to oppose the Mount Rushmore sculptures as a desecration of their sacred land during the modern era of the Native American civil rights movement, Native groups did not openly protest the monument at the time of its planning and construction. Indeed, Black Elk visited the site in 1936 while it was still under construction.

The press reported a later, March 7, 1925, conference between Norbeck and Borglum, with specific mention of the Washington-Lincoln design and the use of Mount Harney (now Black Elk Peak). Borglum was formally offered the project, but said he would withhold his decision until conflicts with the Stone Mountain Memorial Association were settled.

Borglum's original plan was to make the carvings in 490-foot-high (150 m) granite pillars known as "The Needles" (Hiŋháŋ Káǧa). The Needles were an established area landmark, being a centerpiece of Custer State Park and the scenic Needles Highway. The proposal to turn the Needles into sculptures had aroused some of the strongest opposition to the project, and the idea was abandoned in order to assuage opposition. (It was later noted that the Needles would have been too small and unstable to support carving on the scale that Borglum wished to carry out.) In August 1925, Borglum set out on an expedition in the area of Harney Peak to scout for a final location for the monument. On seeing Mount Rushmore, he is reported to have said, "America will march along that skyline." He chose Mount Rushmore, a more imposing location than The Needles, partly because it faced southward and received maximum sun exposure.

Borglum rejected Robinson's original plan of depicting characters from the Old West, such as Lewis and Clark, Red Cloud, Sacagawea, John C. Fremont, and Crazy Horse, and instead decided to depict four U.S. presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The four presidential faces were said to be carved into the granite with the intention of symbolizing "an accomplishment born, planned, and created in the minds and by the hands of Americans for Americans".

Senator Norbeck and Congressman William Williamson of South Dakota introduced bills in early 1925 for permission to use federal land, which passed easily. South Dakota legislation had less support, only passing narrowly on its third attempt, which Governor Gunderson signed into law on March 5, 1925. The approval came without any allocated funds, however, leaving the project to be financed by private sources. Private funding came slowly, and Borglum invited President Calvin Coolidge to the dedication ceremony, at which he promised federal funding. The dedication ceremony was held on August 10, 1927, and carving of the sculpture got underway on October 4. The Mount Rushmore National Memorial Act, which authorized up to $250,000 in matching funds, was introduced to Congress in 1928 and signed into law by Coolidge on February 25, 1929, just before leaving office. The 1929 presidential transition to Herbert Hoover delayed funding until an initial federal match of $54,670.56 was acquired.

Construction

Between October 4, 1927, and October 31, 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the colossal 60-foot-high (18 m) carvings of United States presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history. These presidents were selected by Borglum because of their role in preserving the Republic and expanding its territory. The carving of Mount Rushmore involved the use of dynamite, followed by the process of "honeycombing", where workers drilled closely spaced holes, allowing small pieces of rock to be removed by hand. In total, about 450,000 short tons (410,000 t) of rock were blasted off the mountainside. The project was completed without a single fatality. The image of Thomas Jefferson was originally intended to appear to the left of Washington, but after work there was begun, the rock was found to be unsuitable, so the work on Jefferson's figure was dynamited, and a new figure was sculpted to the right.

The chief carver of the mountain was Luigi Del Bianco, an artisan and stonemason who emigrated to the U.S. from Friuli in Italy and was chosen to work on this project because of his understanding of sculptural language and ability to convey emotion in the carved portraits.

In 1933, the National Park Service took Mount Rushmore under its jurisdiction. Julian Spotts helped with the project by improving its infrastructure. For example, he had the tram upgraded so it could reach the top of Mount Rushmore to improve access for workers. By July 4, 1934, Washington's face had been completed and was dedicated. The face of Thomas Jefferson was dedicated in 1936, and Abraham Lincoln's on September 17, 1937. In 1937, a bill was introduced in Congress to add the head of civil-rights leader Susan B. Anthony, but a rider was passed on an appropriations bill requiring that federal funds be used to finish only those heads that had already been started at that time. In 1939, the face of Theodore Roosevelt was dedicated.

The Sculptor's Studio – a display of unique plaster models and tools related to the sculpting – was built in 1939 under the direction of Borglum. Borglum died from an embolism in March 1941. His son, Lincoln Borglum, continued the project. Originally, the figures were intended to be carved from the head to the waist, but insufficient funding forced the carving to end. Borglum had also planned a massive panel in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase commemorating in eight-foot-tall (2.4 m) gilded letters the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Louisiana Purchase, and seven other territorial acquisitions, from the Alaska Purchase to the Panama Canal Zone. In total, the entire project cost US$989,992.32 (equivalent to $21.7 million in 2025).

Nick Clifford, the last remaining carver, died in November 2019 at age 98.

Later developments

Harold Spitznagel and Cecil Doty designed the original visitor center, finished in 1957, as part of the Mission 66 effort to improve visitor facilities at national parks and monuments across the country. Ten years of redevelopment work culminated with the completion of extensive visitor facilities and sidewalks in 1998, such as a visitor center, the Lincoln Borglum Museum, and the Presidential Trail.

On October 15, 1966, Mount Rushmore was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A 500-word essay giving the history of the United States by Nebraska student William Andrew Burkett was selected as the winner in the college-age group in a 1934 competition, and that essay was placed on the Entablature on a bronze plate in 1973.

Members of the American Indian Movement led an occupation of the monument in 1971, naming it "Mount Crazy Horse", and Lakota holy man John Fire Lame Deer planted a prayer staff on top of the mountain. Lame Deer said that the staff formed a symbolic shroud over the presidents' faces "which shall remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled."

In 1991, President George H. W. Bush officially dedicated Mount Rushmore National Memorial. In 2004, Gerard Baker was appointed superintendent of the park, the first and so far only Native American in that role. Baker stated that he would open up more "avenues of interpretation", and that the four presidents are "only one avenue and only one focus."

Crazy Horse Memorial

Construction on the Crazy Horse Memorial began in 1940 elsewhere in the Black Hills. It was conceived to commemorate the Native American leader while also serving as a response to Mount Rushmore. If completed it would be larger than Mount Rushmore. The Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation has rejected offers of federal funds. Its construction has the support of some Lakota chiefs, but it is the subject of controversy, even among Native American tribes.

Sign in to keep reading

10 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Audiovisual arts

Grammy AwardsAmerican award for achievements in musicBuckingham PalaceAdministrative headquarters of the British monarchWindsor CastleOfficial country residence of British monarchMount AthosMountain and peninsula in northeastern GreeceSocialist realismSoviet style of realistic art depicting communist valuesFriezeWide central section part of an entablature