Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Rushmore, the mountain, was purportedly named for Charles E. Rushmore, a New York attorney who visited the area in 1885. Upon inquiring about the name of the peak, a local guide answered with a grin, "Used to be called Slaughterhouse Rock, and before that, Cougar Mountain, because they trapped a cat up there once, but we can change it. How does Mount Rushmore sound?" It sounded just fine, and the name stuck. If Rushmore had known that the mountain was destined for fame, he might not of laughed so loud. When the carving started, Rushmore was so embarrassed by reporters trying to find out what he had done to deserve the honor that he contributed $5,000 to the monument.

The Mount Rushmore project got started back in the 1920s, when Doane Robinson, the official historian of South Dakota, was considering various projects aimed at attracting visitors to the Black Hills. He decided on the concept of a colossal mountain carving, envisioning statues of legendary mountain men such as Jim Bridger, John Cotler, Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill Cody.

But, Gutzon Borglum, the man who had been commissioned to do the sculpture, had a different idea. A student of Auguste Rodin, Borglum was established as a painter and sculptor by the early 1900s. In 1915 has was asked by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to carve a head of General Robert E. Lee on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Work did not begin until 1923, but some of the demands made by Borglum soon led to his dismissal from the project. The project in the Black Hills presented him with an opportunity to create a monument whose dimensions would be "determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated." The subjects ultimately chosen were George Washington, signifying the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic; Thomas Jefferson, the idea of representative government; Abraham Lincoln, the permanent union of the State and equality for all citizens; and Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs.

Work on the mountain actually began on August 10, 1927 (Borglum was 60 years old!). Fourteen years were needed to complete the project. Borglum died in March 1941, and his son, Lincoln, completed the projects later in the same year when funds ran out. Borglum had intended for the figures to be carved to the waist.