Slander and libel abounds concerning the character of the forefathers as “new information” and “in-depth studies” come to light. George Washington was a temperamental hothead. Thomas Jefferson was a lecherous slave owner. Abraham Lincoln was a Constitution-defying warmonger. Teddy Roosevelt was an animal-killing buffoon.
And yet there the four of them are, gazing over the land they helped shape forever in this little corner of South Dakota. The name of the granite formation, as designated by the Lakota Indians, had originally been Six Grandfathers, but was renamed in honor of expeditious New York lawyer Charles E. Rushmore in 1885. It took, of all glacial things, a Congress and a President, but in 1927, carving began on what would become Mount Rushmore.
Thus it was that sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his four hundred workers began work on etching the signature faces of America’s first sesquicentennial quite literally onto the landscape. Borglum selected Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt because of their roles in expanding America’s territory and preserving the republic (an odd fact given that Borglum was a member of the Klu Klux Klan who, shortly before this project, had attempted a similar one in Georgia to honor the leaders of the Confederacy. The final price tag on the face of history tallied just shy of one billion dollars (thirteen billion, adjusted for inflation).
Now, over two million tourists come to gaze upon the monument every year. There’s a museum housing a wooden replica of the intended finished project (originally intended to include civil rights leader Susan B. Anthony and cut short due to lack of funds) and a Sculptor’s Studio built by Borglum himself housing all of the original tools used in the constuction. Lights bring Mount Rushmore to life for two hours every night and boardwalks wind among the pine.
Mount Rushmore now stands alongside the Statue of Liberty and the Capitol Building as one of the great symbols of America. The South Dakota commemorative quarter bears its likeness on the back. This fame has made it both a location and a target in much of pop culture. While serving as the base of operations for an elite anti-terrorist unit in Team America: World Police, the faces were replaced by those of the villains in Superman II. Of course, perhaps the most famous pop culture appearance is as the location for the harrowing finale of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest.
But of course the real impact of Mount Rushmore can only be experienced up close and in person. In that setting, surrounded by the sun blazed South Dakota landscape, even the youngest of visitors pauses with pride. Mount Rushmore does not bear the faces it does because it was a gift or a demand. It bears them because it was an accomplishment.
Our history set in stone.
