Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore - See the great faces of the beautiful Black Hills. Pictures don't do this memorial justice!
Mount Rushmore is not far from Keystone, South Dakota and about 20 miles from Rapid City, South Dakota nestled in the beautiful Black Hills. It is a national memorial sculpted by Gutzon Borglum representing the first 150 years of the United States of America. Here, you will see the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, standing at 60 feet tall! Picture cannot do it justice; you just have to see it for yourself. Join the two million others that visit this place each year.
The Lakota called it Six Grandfathers. It was a part of the route that Lakota leader Black Elk took on a spiritual journey. It was renamed in the 1800s after a lawyer named Charles E. Rushmore. The project of carving Mount Rushmore was originally begun to help attract tourists to the Black Hills. The carving began in 1927, and finished in 1941 with a few injuries but no deaths. Doane Robinson was the man with the idea for Mount Rushmore.
The site is also enjoyed by the people attending Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Popular riding routes to Mount Rushmore are Iron Mountain Road - Highway 16, and Needles Highway - Hwy 87. South Dakota's Black Hills make a beautiful background for Mount Rushmore, the world's greatest mountain carving. A vault with porcelain enamel panels holding the text of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution along with biographies of the four presidents and Borglum can be found in a canyon behind the carving.
Washington was placed on Mount Rushmore as the father of the country. Thomas Jefferson was honored for the Declaration of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase. Teddy Roosevelt was carved for the Panama Canal. Abraham Lincoln was placed on Mount Rushmore for preserving the Union through a very tough time.
Mount Rushmore Facts:
- Creation of the Shrine of Democracy took 14 years and cost about $1 million.
- Each head on Mount Rushmore is as tall as a six-story building.
- Each president's face is as tall as the entire Great Sphinx of Egypt, measuring 60 feet from the chin to the top of the head.
- More that 800 million pounds of stone were removed from Mount Rushmore while carving.
- The carvings are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.
- The faces of Mount Rushmore tower 5,500 feet above sea level.
- The president's noses are 20 feet long, each mouth 18 feet wide and the eyes are 11 feet across.
- The workers had to climb 506 steps daily to get to the top of Mount Rushmore.
- Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began drilling into the 5,725-foot mountain in 1927, at the age of 60.
Mount Rushmore Activities you should consider
- Find local arts and crafts, like Black Hills Gold in the gift shop.
- Gaze upon Mount Rushmore from Grand View Terrace.
- Grab a bite to eat at Carvers Café. A great view awaits from here.
- See the evening lighting ceremony at the amphitheater.
- See the state of the art Visitor Center and Museum.
- Take a walk along Presidential Trail for a closer view.
- Take the Audio Tour for even more information.
- Walk along the Avenue of Flags.
Birds you may see while sightseeing around Mount Rushmore include the turkey vulture, hawk, bald eagle, woodpeckers, and songbirds. You might also see animals such as porcupine, raccoon, squirrel, skunk, badger, coyote, chipmunk, beaver, bighorn sheep, and bobcat.
Walk along the Avenue of Flags and view the 56 state and territory flags waving proudly in the Black Hills wind. Walk a little further and there is a half-mile walking trail with great views Mount Rushmore. It was carved from mostly smooth, fine-grained granite. Erosion is very slow for this material; making is a great place for a sculpture. It is the highest mountain in the area, making it ideal for the carving of what we know today as Mount Rushmore.
