Mount Rushmore

MOUNT RUSHMORE National Memorial SOUTH DAKOTA of Mount Rushmore. This robust man with The model was first measured by fastening a his great variety of interests and talents left horizontal bar on the top and center of the head. As this extended out over the face a plumb bob MOUNT RUSHMORE his mark on his country. His career encom was dropped to the point of the nose, or other passed roles of political reformer, trust buster, projections of the face. Since the model of Wash rancher, soldier, writer, historian, explorer, ington's face was five feet tall, these measurements hunter, conservationist, and vigorous execu were then multiplied by twelve and transferred to NATIONAL MEMORIAL the mountain by using a similar but larger device. tive of his country. He was equally at home Instead of a small beam, a thirty-foot swinging on the western range, in an eastern drawing Four giants of American history are memorialized here in lasting granite, their likenesses boom was used, connected to the stone which would room, or at the Court of St. James. He typi ultimately be the top of Washington's head and carved in proportions symbolical of greatness. fied the virile American of the last quarter extending over the granite cliff. A plumb bob of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th was lowered from the boom. The problem was to adjust the measurements from the scale of the centuries. More than most Presidents, he and he presided over the Constitutional Con model to the mountain. The first step was to locate On the granite face of 6,000-foot high knew the West. He was perhaps the greatest the point of the nose since that was the extreme Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South vention that drew up the Constitution of the conservationist among our Presidents, and he projection of the face. If it were found that sev Dakota the likenesses of four great Americans United States in 1787. took action to arrest what he felt was a squan eral feet of rock had to be removed to reach the have been sculptured. The four men are As first President of the United States, he nose point, this was indicated by paint marks. dering of our national resources. Then other projected points of the face, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, successfully launched the new Nation on a His administration witnessed the building the frontal bones, were located and measured. Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. sure and steady course. A practical states of the Panama Canal, new and greater re After the rough points were established, men Each likeness is carved out of solid granite man, the strongest feature of his character sponsibility in the Caribbean, and the exten suspended in swing seats began the drilling and and measures about 60 feet from chin to was prudence. He normally did not take blasting. The blasting was done in such a way sion of United States naval power. One of forehead. Gutzon Borglum sculptured the action until he had weighed every circum as to leave a great rough, egg-shaped mass. his best known admonitions is, "Speak softly It was possible to dynamite within an inch or models and directed the work. The Wash stance and consideration; but when decision and carry a big stick, you will go far." two of the intended surface, and occasionally this ington figure is finished as far as the shoul had been reached he carried out his purpose. was done at Rushmore. But generally, blasting was ders, adding to the overall dimensions of the "Upright intentions and close investigation," not carried on closer than six inches to the surface. group. This group of sculptured figures is he said, were his guides. The Roosevelt and Lincoln sculptures as they appeared in 1940. It was not practicable to dynamite too near, be The Sculpturing cause the charges had to be so small and the holes one of the largest ever undertaken. The so near together that little, if any, labor was saved. heads are in the proportion of men 465 feet Thomas Jefferson Gutzon Borglum, the noted sculptor se Measuring, drilling, blasting, drilling, wedging, and bumping was the ordinary work cycle. The high. Each head is twice as high as the head Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declara lected to execute the carvings, began work on of the great Sphinx of Egypt. for Religious Freedom and the founding of and industry from humble circumstances to term "carving" was only a figure of speech in this tion of Independence, would have been great public eminence and national honor. This the granite face of Mount Rushmore, August gigantic project. The four great Americans represented here the University of Virginia among his greatest by that act alone. But that noble document frontier lawyer was a true liberal. He knew 10, 1927, the same day that President Calvin stand as giants among the Presidents of the accomplishments. After about 6l/ years of actual work ex was only one of the many accomplishments and loved the common man. Liberalism to Coolidge dedicated the memorial. The real, 2 first century and a quarter of our Nation's The most notable achievement of his two tending over a period of more than 14 years, he bestowed upon the shaping of the new him was not a garment that he wore on occa organized work of drilling and blasting stone, history. They built well in the development terms as President was the purchase of the the work on the sculptures came to an end Nation. Throughout his life he was a foe sion; it was, as one of his biographers has however, began on October 4 and continued, of our democratic processes of government, vast Louisiana territory. The Louisiana Pur in October 1941. Borglum himself had died to all kinds of human tyranny. He labored chase more than doubled the land area of the said, "the fiber of his mind." with many lapses caused by lack of funds and and are honored here because of it. for a democracy with a broader base in the unfavorable weather, for nearly 14 years until 7 months earlier at the age of 74, leaving the young Republic. It opened new fields of His use of the English tongue is unmatched final work to his son, Lincoln Borglum. The interests of the common man. More than among the American great. It resembles in death stayed Borglum's hand in March 1941. George Washington economic opportunity for men of all classes latter spent the remaining available money most of his contemporaries he believed that Borglum used at Mount Rushmore the and degrees of wealth, perpetuated for three- its simplicity and power the Elizabethan on Roosevelt's face (which was never com Just as George Washington was the first through the combination of education and engineering methods he had evolved at Stone quarters of a century the constructive influ English of Shakespeare and the King James pleted), finishing the lapels and collar of American President, so was his likeness the reason the common man could rise to the Mountain in Georgia. The first step was to ences of the democratic frontier, and guaran version of the Bible. If "the final cause of Washington's coat, blocking out Jefferson's first of the four to be sculptured on Mount challenge of republican government. blast away the surface rock until a point was teed the physical greatness and strength of the speech is to get an idea as exactly as possible collar, and putting some last touches on Rushmore. The movement for liberty cen He was an American pioneer in many reached where a solid granite face, unbroken United States. out of one mind into another," he succeeded Lincoln's head. tered in him during the American Revolution. branches of science. His habits and temper supremely well in doing it. by the deep fissures lining and crosschecking Abraham Lincoln The memorial cost §989,992.32, Federal The great qualities of personal leadership ament were those of a scholar. He was a His thought processes were characterized the face of the mountain was exposed. The Government appropriations amounting to he displayed, his accomplishments as Com philosopher-statesman, and at the same time The man who, more than any other, pre by tenacity of logic and conclusions slowly work was done by drills, jackhammers, and §836,000 of the total. mander of the American armies, his personal the most versatile of Americans. He was a served the Union and freed the slaves will reached, but then firmly held. He was a dynamite. Borglum trained a group of ex- integrity, and his unyielding devotion to the patron of the arts and the leading figure in rank forever as one of the foremost Ameri statesman overflowing with those rare human miners to do the work. All the drilling and American cause gave strength and inspiration the classical revival of architecture in the cans. He gave to his country a new birth of qualities of humility and mercy. His own blasting was done on the basis of measure Selected Chronology to the Thirteen American Colonies. After United States. He was a builder whose freedom and a "Government of the people, words might well be used to describe the man ments obtained from a model. the successful conclusion of the war, he con creative genius comprehended both physical by the people, and for the people." himelf, "With malice toward none; with The most vivid description of the work is DECEMBER 28, 1923: tinued to be a national leader.

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