The Making of Mount Rushmore
The 70th anniversary of the completion of the South Dakota monument prompts a look back at what it took to create it
- By Megan Gambino
- Smithsonian.com, October 31, 2011
(Underwood & Underwood / Corbis)
In the 1920s, despite the area’s atrocious roads, a fair number of adventurous travelers were visiting South Dakota’s Black Hills. But Doane Robinson, the official historian for the state, had an idea to lure more tourists to the pine-covered mountain range that rises from the plains, taking to its rather atrocious roads. But Robinson wanted to entice more visitors to South Dakota, which had been named a state 30 years prior.
“Tourists soon get fed up on scenery unless it has something of special interest connected with it to make it impressive,” he said. He envisioned heroes of the American West—Red Cloud, Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill Cody, among others—carved into the granite “needles,” named for their pointy appearance, near Harney Peak, the state’s tallest mountain.
In August 1924, Robinson wrote to Gutzon Borglum, an ambitious sculptor who was already carving on a granite cliff face in Georgia. “He knew that Borglum would have the skills and knowledge to get something like this done,” says Amy Bracewell, park historian at Mount Rushmore.
Borglum, a son of Danish immigrants, was born in Idaho, spent his childhood in Nebraska and later studied art in California, Paris (with Auguste Rodin) and London. After returning to the United States, Borglum entered a gold-medal-winning sculpture into the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. He sculpted figures inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and a head of Lincoln that was prominently displayed by Theodore Roosevelt in the White House and, for many years, in the Capitol Rotunda. But when Robinson wrote to Borglum he was working on his largest project yet—a bas-relief of Confederate leaders on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
Borglum had managed to work out the technical difficulties of working on a sheer face of a mountain, in a massive scale, and was well into carving a figure of Robert E. Lee, when Robinson approached him about the assignment out West. At the time, tension was rising between Borglum and the Stone Mountain Monumental Association because while the sculptor sought to carve a whole army into the cliff, the association only had the funds for the frieze’s centerpiece of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and possibly a few other mounted generals.
In September 1924, just five months before the association fired him, Borglum made his first trip to South Dakota. He was eager to start anew in the Black Hills. “I want the vindication it would give me,” he told Robinson.
Comments (13)
this doesnt help atallll
Posted by gracie on September 19,2012 | 09:16 AM
I've been researching my geneology and I did know my family owned the lumber company that provided scaffolding & etc for the construction of the monument & upon reading this article I also was able to confirm my great great grandfather was the mayor of Rapid City! No wonder I felt at home when I vacationed in South Dakota for the Sturgis Rally. I love this state even more!
Posted by Jana Boland on July 6,2012 | 08:00 AM
My great grandfather is Chris Vranich. He is on the memorial wall and worked on the build of Mount Rushmore. Yesterday I received many photos. Among them are four photos of my grandfather working on Mount Rushmore. Another ten or so photos are of him with his wife and children with the mountain in the background, under progress of being built. Also a few photos of their home at the time, which was located at the base of the mountain. It got me looking around online and these are some wonderful photos shown here also!! Very beautiful.
Posted by Shasta Espeland on April 25,2012 | 09:04 PM
I like this monument because it contains the picture of best president.
Posted by Brook Y. on December 8,2011 | 02:51 PM
This is a really good article about the making of Rushmore. Also glad to see the mention of the Lakota opposition to it.
A lot of people forget the Black Hills were sacred ground to the Lakota Sioux. So, it's not surprising they were offended by this shrine to their oppressors.
I wish they'd been able to finish the Hall of Records behind Mount Rushmore. When you read about it, it sounds impressive.
Michael D Walker
Thorne Smith biographer
Posted by Michael D Walker on November 28,2011 | 05:16 PM
Great information. I remember visiting Mt. Rushmore during a field trip to our Gillette natural gas operations in Wyoming. It was a nice drive. I do hope someday consideration will be given to adding a fourth head to the monument, that of America's first black president and Noble peace laureate, Barack H. Obama.
Posted by Angelo Pinheiro on November 27,2011 | 09:31 PM
A very good and very balanced account of the construction of Mt. Rushmore and the surrounding issues is found in Judith StGeorge's book, The Mt. Rushmore Story.
Posted by Taza Keene on November 13,2011 | 08:34 PM
The monument should have been dedicated to Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, Red Cloud, and the other great Native American leaders, who are the true founding fathers.
Posted by Sioiux on November 11,2011 | 03:05 PM
This was a wonderful article. My family operated the National Park Concession for 40+ years so I had the privelege of growing up at Mt. Rushmore. It will always be home.
Posted by Kate Riordan Gordon on November 8,2011 | 04:25 PM
while I was reading this story, I admired those people who was build monument. This story is only a word with wonderful
Posted by Sinem Sipahioglu on November 4,2011 | 12:09 PM
Great summary story of the making of Mount Rushmore and the celebration of its 70th. year after completion. Nice piece to add the factual recentment that the Lakoda Indians have/had.
Posted by Carter Gilmer on November 4,2011 | 10:53 AM
Ann and I stayed below Mount Rushmore in June 2011 for a week. We truly loved every minute that we woke up and looked up at George Washington looking down upon us and the valley. We took hundreds of pictures of Mount Rushmore and the surrounding area. Those four (4) Presidents being above us made us SO proud. Thanks for keeping the area in such a lovely condition for everyone to come see and be proud of America and your area of our country. We WILL BE back in the future to view the area in the future.
Posted by John E. O'Shea on November 3,2011 | 09:08 PM
Great story, and balanced regarding American Indian views of Mt. Rushmore. My grandmother corresponded with many artists of the time, including Gutzon Borglum.
It was probably gold prospectors panning for gold who invaded, rather than panhandlers.
Posted by Richard Merrill on November 3,2011 | 04:39 PM