Whose Faces are on Mount Rushmore?

South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson conceived the idea in 1923 to attract more people to the Black Hills of South Dakota with gigantic carvings of American heroes. Doane gained support from major players in South Dakota and Washington D.C. with the help of Senator Peter Norbeck and Congressman William Williamson. The US Congress passed legislation authorizing the mountain carving in Harney National Forest Preserve (now Black Hills National Forest). On October 4, 1927 the first actual work of carving the mountain began. Dynamite was used to remove rock from the mountain until there was only a thin, three to six inch layer of granite left on it. This final layer of granite was removed by a process known as "honeycombing". Then the surface was worked smooth using a bumper tool. This left the faces as smooth as that of a sidewalk. Between 1927 and 1941, sculptor Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers carved the 60-foot busts of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, to represent the first 150 years of American history.

George Washington was selected because he was regarded as the father of the United States and represented its struggle for independence, its constitution and its liberty. Thomas Jefferson was to be honored as the author of the Declaration of Independence, representative government and for the expansion of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. President Teddy Roosevelt was selected because he saw through the completion of the Panama Canal linking the two oceans and opening the connecting waters of the East and the West. Abraham Lincoln was chosen for preserving the Union through one of America's darkest hours and for the ideals of freedom and equality for all. Work was initiated on Mount Rushmore with George Washington. Washington's head was first carved in an egg shape, and his features were added later. Thomas Jefferson was started on Washington's right side. After around two years of working on Jefferson's face, the granite was found to be badly cracked and Jefferson's face had to be blasted off the mountain. Jefferson was started again on the left side of Washington.

Millions of people make the pilgrimage to the famed US monument each year. Today the first question out of many visitors' mouths is not why, or even how Mount Rushmore was carved, but whether they could climb it. Actually, it's not such a frivolous question. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum's 1935 conception for the monument had a provision for a grand public stairway leading from the base of the mountain to a hall of records, behind the presidential heads. But when Gutzon ran out of quality granite, and the project ran out of money, the plan was shelved. Climbing over or on the memorial has been officially prohibited since the work ended there in 1941. In fact, even Alfred Hitchcock had to shoot his famous chase scene in his movie 'North by Northwest' on a replica built in a Hollywood studio.