Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore

A Big Idea for America In the early 1900s, the United States of America was growing fast. Many people were settling in the West, but many more had not yet visited the area. In 1924, a member of the South Dakota Historical Society had an idea. He thought a huge memorial carved from rock would bring visitors to the area. And he knew just the sculptor for the job.

He asked an artist named Gutzon Borglum to help. Borglum suggested a memorial that would show faces of American presidents. After a year of searching for the right place to carve a memorial he found Mount Rushmore. It was in an area called the Black Hills. The area had a special kind of rock called granite that was good for carving.

An American Message Borglum thought about which presidents' faces should be carved into the rock. He wanted to show the strength of America through each person. First, he chose George Washington because he was the first president. Second, he chose Thomas Jefferson because he purchased land from France that doubled the size of the United States.

Third, he chose Abraham Lincoln because he led the country during the difficult Civil War. Finally, he chose Theodore Roosevelt because he had the United States build an important waterway in Central America. This waterway, the Panama Canal, made travel faster between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Roosevelt was also a special choice because he had a home in South Dakota.

Blasting Through Rock Carving a work of art into rock is no easy job! First, Borglum made smaller models of each president. Then the models were carried up Mount Rushmore for workers to copy. Dynamite was used to blast away rock, Finally, workers were lowered down the mountain on cables to drill shapes out of the rocks.