Mount Rushmore

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial with carvings of the heads of (from left) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Mount Rushmore is a famous mountain and memorial near Keystone, South Dakota in the United States. It has the heads of four of America's presidents carved on it: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The Mount Rushmore Memorial is a part of the United States Presidential Memorial, which covers and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level (altitude).

History

Before the memorial was carved, the native Lakota Indian Tribes called the mountain "Six Grandfathers". Later, the mountain was named after Charles E. Rushmore, a well-known later, after an expedition in 1885. The memorial was carved to help increase tourism in the Black Hills, where the mountain was. Doane Robinson first formed the idea in 1923. Robinson convinced many influential people in the United States government to build the memorial. Congress soon allowed construction to begin.

After gaining Congress's approval, Gutzon Borglum, a famous American sculptor, was hired to begin the project.

The work of carving the heads began on March 3, 1925. It was completed on October 31, 1941.

Mount Rushmore Media

• 

  distant view of Mount Rushmore, shot with 500mm Nikon lens.

• 

  Plaque at Mount Rushmore National Monument with names of monument workers

• 

  A copy of one of the panels entombed in the Hall of Records

• 

  The Black Hills opposite Mount Rushmore

• 

  Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) dangle precipitously from the sculpture of George Washington in the 1959 film North by Northwest.

• The film trailer for North by Northwest prominently features the site and sculpture.

• 

  The 1991 Mount Rushmore 50th Anniversary commemorative silver dollar