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Mount Rushmore carving began October 4, 1927 near Keystone South Carolina. Mount Rushmore was sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum. The president faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Mount Rushmore has the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. President Roosevelt was in attendance for the unveiling presented by Gutzon Borglum.
They settled on the Mount Rushmore location, which also has the advantage of facing southeast for maximum sun exposure. Robinson wanted it to feature western heroes like Lewis and Clark, Red Cloud,and Buffalo Bill Cody, but Borglum decided the sculpture should have a more national focus and chose the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding through the enthusiastic sponsorship of “Mount Rushmore’s great political patron”, U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck,[7] construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents’ faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon Gutzon Borglum’s death in March 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum took over construction. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941.
Mount Rushmore has become an iconic symbol of the United States, and has appeared in works of fiction, and has been discussed or depicted in other popular works. It attracts over two million people annually.[1]
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