South Dakota Community Network

Mount Rushmore was originally thought up by Doane Robinson as a way to attract visitors to the South Dakota Black Hills. The original site chosen for the monument was the Needles but it was turned down in favor of the larger Mount Rushmore. The original location would have also had issues with erosion which was another reason sculptor Gutzon Borglum turned them down The mountain was named after the prominent New York lawyer Charles Rushmore. President Calvin Coolidge authorized funding for the project in 1925 after some debate in congress. Construction on the monument lasted from 1927 to 1941 when funding for the project ran out. While there were some injuries during the course of construction there were no fatalities. A crew of four hundred workers craved the faces of four great American Presidents into Mount Rushmore. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, were chosen to represent the first one hundred and fifty years of america’s history and for their roles in expanding America’s borders. The original design for the monument had Jefferson placed on Washington’s right but after work was begun the rock proved to be to unstable and his location was moved to the left.