Mount Rushmore
In the black hills of South Dakota a mountain with the heads of the presidents overlooks the landscape. The whole thing covers 1,278.45 acres. It is 5,725ft above sea level. Just George Washington's face is 60ft long. It has lots of wildlife around it too. So how was this amazing structure made?
70 million years ago, erosion and weathering made the mountain come out of the ground. The mountain is mostly made of granite. The carving was thought of by Doane Robinson and Gutzon Borglum. The carving was originally supposed to be of western heros not the presidents. They soon decided to make a statue of four presidents.
The structure was made to get more tourism in the area. The structure was controversial with Native Americans. The carving was supposed to be from their waists up but only their heads were finished. The four presidents carved into the mountain are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson. So how did they build it?
Construction began in 1927 and ended in 1941. Mount Rushmore took 14 years to build. Thomas Jefferson was originally on George Washintons right but it wasn't working so they dynamiteded it off. Most of Mount Rushmore was built with dynamite.
Mount Rushmore has some lucky and unlucky things about it.
No one died while building Mount Rushmore. There is a cave behind Mount Rushmore called the hall of records it was supposed to have the story of Mount Rushmore but was never completed. It cost $989,992.32 to build. It now has three million visitors a year.
With three million visitors a year, Mount Rushmore is now one of the most famous landmarks in the U.S. Mount Rushmore has some of the most famous presidents in the U.S. on it. Mount Rushmore is visited by people all over the world. Mount Rushmore has inspired many architects. There are still many unsolved mysteries about Mount Rushmore to this day.
Mammoth dig site
Badlands national memorial
Crazy horse
Citations
En.m.wikipedia.org
Nps.gov