Mount Rushmore National Memorial is centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota.
The sculpture features the 60-foot (18 m) heads of Presidents George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), as recommended by Borglum.
The four presidents were chosen to represent the nation’s birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively. The memorial park covers 1,278 acres (2.00 sq mi; 5.17 km2)and the actual mountain has an elevation of 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.
Peter Norbeck, U.S. Senator from South Dakota, sponsored the project and secured federal funding. Construction began in 1927; the presidents’ faces were completed between 1934 and 1939.
Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941.
Mount Rushmore attracts more than two million visitors annually
Mount Rushmore Facts
The idea was dreamed up in 1923 by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson.
Mount Rushmore was known to the Lakota Sioux as “The Six Grandfathers” or “Cougar Mountain”.
American settlers knew it variously as Cougar Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Slaughterhouse Mountain and Keystone Cliffs.
Mount Rushmore is largely composed of granite.
Mount Rushmore is visited by nearly 3 million people annually.
Mount Rushmore stands at a height of 1,745 metres above sea level.
The carving of Mount Rushmore began in 1927 and finished in 1941.
It cost approximately $989,992.32.
The carving was done by a team of over 400 men.
90% of the memorial was carved with strategically placed dynamite.
The other 10% was completed with air hammers.
More than 450,000 tons of rock was removed.
Approximately one inch of the memorial will be lost due to erosion in 10,000 years.
The area covered by the memorial is 1,278.45 square acres.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture’s design and oversaw the project with the help of his son, Lincoln.
Mount Rushmore faces southeast so that it gets the most sun exposure.
Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are depicted.
The faces appear in the order: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln.
George Washington was chosen because he was our nation’s founding father.
Thomas Jefferson was chosen to represent expansion.
Theodore Roosevelt was chosen because he represented conservation and the industrial blossoming of the nation.
Abraham Lincoln was chosen because he led the country through the Civil War.
Jefferson was originally intended to be on Washington’s right.
Washington’s face was completed in 1934.
Jefferson’s was completed in 1936.
Lincoln was finished in 1937.
Theodore Roosevelt was completed in 1939.
Each president’s face is 60 feet high.
Each of the president’s heads is equal to a six-story high building.
Their eyes are 11 feet wide; their mouths are 18 feet wide; and their noses are 20 feet long.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum died in March of 1941, leaving the completion of the monument to his son Lincoln.
Every night, Mount Rushmore gets illuminated for two hours.
Nick Clifford, the last remaining carver, died in November 2019 at age 98
The conservation of the site is overseen by the National Park Service.
It is not possible to add another president, because the rock that surrounds the existing faces is not suitable for additional carving.
Mount Rushmore appears as a Wonder of the World in the PC game Civilization IV.
Mount Rushmore was a primary location in the plot of the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
