The History Behind America's Iconic Monument

by Ermiyas Abiy, age 8

Mount Rushmore is a monument meant to represent democracy and memorialize U.S. Presidents who led the country at different times. The granite cliff, located in South Dakota, depicts former presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Initially, the designer and sculptor planned for the monument to include the leaders down to their waists, but that didn’t happen due to low funding, Gutzon Borglum’s death, and the onset of World War II. Instead, sculptors Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, focused on carving only the heads.

Borglum, born in Idaho in 1867, was a famous artist. Building Mount Rushmore was a dangerous job due to the height of the monument and the tools used. Borglum and Lincoln directed miners and masons, who ultimately used dynamite to remove large portions of rock. Despite the use of dynamite for the rough work, chisels were employed to carve the finer details of the presidents’ heads.

The heads were revealed at different times: Washington’s in 1930, Jefferson’s in 1936, Lincoln’s in 1937, and Roosevelt’s in 1939. Gutzon Borglum worked on the monument from 1927, when he was 60, until his death in 1941. His son then took over the project and continued until funding ran out.

Today, Mount Rushmore is part of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and serves as an iconic tourist destination, with millions of people visiting each year. The monument helps preserve and remember significant moments and figures from the nation’s past.

[Source: 100 Great Wonders of the World]