Mt. Rushmore, SD

After driving way too many miles across flat prairies, we finally came to the Black Hills where the landscape changed dramatically. Here are beautiful hills with huge granite boulders scattered here and there. With the carpet of green grass that we have seen on this whole trip, (It’s springtime!) it is beautiful.

Dark and threatening thunderstorms have rolled through periodically, suddenly dumping hard rain and wind, but then moving on.

After getting a glimpse of what all there is to see here in this area, we have decided we want to come back and spend about a week. Having only three days on this trip, we are quickly covering as much ground as possible.

First on our schedule was to go to Mount Rushmore. It wasn’t far from where we camped, so it was an easy drive.

The faces on the mountain can be seen from the highway before we arrived at the entrance to the monument, but when we got there we were impressed with the presentation to the public.

There is a long, wide walkway up to the Visitor Center lined with tall granite covered pillars. On the sides of each pillar is engraved the name of a state and the date that it as admitted to the union. We found the plaque for the state of Oregon.

Looking up, was the impressive Presidential faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln looking out between the wind blown flags.

From more of a distance, you get a better view of the size of the faces compared to the size of the mountain.

We took a trail that goes up directly under the faces and you can see them closer up.

There are two places on the trail where only one face is visible through the trees, first Lincoln...

...then, Washington. A little further on one can again see all the faces.

At this point we were right under the faces looking up at them.

After spending as much time as we wanted outside admiring the monument, we went in to the museum.

The mountain sculpture with four 60 foot high faces carved from solid granite, was begun in 1927 by Gutzov Borglum and took 14 years to complete. Borglum died a year before the completion date and the project was finished by his son, Lincoln.

Originally, the presidents were to be sculpted to their waists, but with the lack of funding, it became faces only.  The carving was done with a combination of dynamite and hand drills.

Inside the museum, there was a picture of the original studio model which I  found very interesting.

This model shows Washington to his waist and Lincoln grasping his lapel. Jefferson’s hand also is visible.

To get a better feel for the challenge Borglum faced, this is the what the mountain looked like before he began this project.

Fourteen years later. This is a truly amazing accomplishment, and a gift for the ages.