Four Heads on a Mountain
Two things to do today and
Having never been to Rushmore before we really didn’t know what to expect. What I found was a federal government gone silly. Concrete everywhere, Big parking structure, big entry area, big flag display, big gift shop, big snack area. And with all of the security guards and park workers standing around doing nothing it felt a shame that the whole thing seemed less than what it was meant to be. Even the snack area didn’t have Vanilla ice cream. Can you tell I was a little let down with the way this National Monument is being handled. Oh, the Four Presidents sculpted in the mountain were great, wonderful job of creating an impressive display!
After Rushmore we spent a couple of hours in Custer, a small community just south. Lunch and laundry are both required on a three week trip.
Mount Rushmore was begun back in October 1927 and approximately 400 workers were involved in the carving process that took until October 1941 to complete. Not one worker lost his life during this extremely dangerous work.
Doane Robinson is known as the “Father of Mount Rushmore”, and it was his idea for to carve the huge faces in the Black Hills. He wanted to create an attraction that would draw people from all over the country to his state. He contacted Gutzon Borglum, a well known sculptor, in August of 1924. Borglum accepted the offer and after a couple of meeting they found the site where the carvings would be completed. Funding was harder than the rock that was to be carved.
Today, the huge concrete parking structure, entry, gift shops, food courts and all hardly seem to be what was pictured when the attraction began.
Still, for all Americans this is a site to see.
