Mount Rushmore: A President's View

The wide expanse of Great Plain prairie collides with the rolling Black Hills of South Dakota, just south of Rapid City. The grasslands abruptly move into twisty curvy roads cradled by stone mountains and thick forests. Rivers wind along the canyon and mountain valley floor, offering a rich landscape of immense beauty, which captivates the American spirit of East meets Mountain West.

It's evident how the area is known as "The Black Hills" as when you approach from the high  grasslands from the east - the mountains rise like pillars of black well defined rock having an altitude from 4,000 to over 7,000 feet out of the plains is impressive and begs one to keep driving into the hills.

I think so many people think of the Black Hills of Mount Rushmore, but don't realize how much more there is to the region in the next several weeks I will be recounting my explorations in the region and Custer State Park - one of the oldest and BEST State or National Parks in America. I will be posting on how Southwestern South Dakota is one of the TOP FIVE family vacations bar none!

Today we pick up from where my last entry left off. After leaving Wall SD we headed west on I-90 until we reached Rapid City and then exited off the Interstate before going south to Keystone on Highway 16A - one of the most scenic and older cross county highways in America (It leads all the way to Yellowstone in WY, which I'll discuss later on). Almost instantly the topography changed from plains to a gorgeous green canyon of evergreen and stone. The topography reminds me of a combination of the Blue Ridge Mountains meets the Rocky Mountains.  

Our Oldsmobile started feeling the altitude changes as we gained elevation and subsequently went down into the canyon. So far so good with the Oldsmobile - although I have found changing into a lower gear helps in the mountains.

As much as my mom and I love to camp after four nights sleepy in our car and no real shower - we were ready for the benefits of modern civilization and a hotel room. In hindsight we probably should have stayed outside the main tourist drag as it is a bit more expensive and we only have $772 for three weeks, but I think if you are going to splurge on a hotel room it was worth it to stay right near Mt. Rushmore in it's Gateway town of Keystone.

Keystone is a campy town with a lot of personality. It reminds you of a National Park/Family tourist destination meets old west frontier town. The main drag is lined with discount souvenir shops and a few decent restaurants. I think it's a fun place to visit, but I don't think more than a day is needed in Keystone and would recommend exploring other area locations such as Custer or Hill City.

Big warning about Keystone they have weird ATM'S and many restaurants don't take major credit cards - we have a Visa and none of the ATM's (all owned by a local bank) would allow us to withdraw money and several restaurants wouldn't accept our card, although it's a major card. Be warned that just because they say they take VISA they might not accept all Visa cards or Bankcards - so get cash in Rapid City or via the ATM at Mt. Rushmore. We were in a real lurch when the restaurant couldn't read our Visa...

We checked into The President's View Resort, which is in a prime location as it's seats atop a cliff and offers views of the surrounding areas. The room cost $89 per night and included a nice view and nice pool. It is also within walking distance of downtown Keystone.

After bumming around historic Keystone and eating a Mexican dinner we enjoyed relaxing in the room and taking a dip in the the pool. I was so happy to have a bed and shower! We also used the coin laundry to clean our clothes. Overall it was a very relaxing experience and I would highly recommend the hotel.

August 22nd (Part 1 of 2 Part entry)

On August 22nd we woke up around eight and finished our laundry and packed up our car. I'm afraid we brought too much stuff! It was so hard to know what not to bring and what to bring - oh well - the saga of packing and unpacking the car adds a tedious excitement to our day.

My mom and I checked out of our hotel room by eleven and immediately headed to Mt. Rushmore National Monument. Mount Rushmore is become an icon blasted and etched in stone, which has come to be synonymous with American  ideals.  The four faces on the mountainside include four great Presidents spanning from various important segments of American history:

 - George Washington, his head juts out majestically on the left side of the mountainside - a symbol of the beginning of American ideals - and our nation's beginnings.

- Thomas Jefferson: The writer of the Declaration of Independence and America's third President.  Thomas Jefferson like Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers and expressed the ideals of American democracy in the Declaration and also was instrumental in expanding our nation with the purchase of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of our nation.  

-Abraham Lincoln: A man who led our nation through one of its most difficult trials during the Civil War and fought to keep the U.S. unified, something he was in turn assassinated for.  

- Theodore Roosevelt: At the time of Mt. Rushmore's commissioning many were unsure of Roosevelt's worthiness.  However today it is obvious Teddy deserves his spot in stone.  He helped set aside many of our national parks and embrace quality social change.  It is become of Roosevelt that many of our nation's parks were protected such as The Grand Canyon, Devils Tower/Bear Lodge, among others.  Fun fact President Roosevelt is the first official to enact the mechanical royalty law for songwriters, in which they would be paid  2 cents for each song sold.  The model still is valid today and despite inflation the rate hasn't gone up much.  It is roughly 11 cents today.

The Beginnings of the Rushmore Dream:

The Black Hills are filled with large stone pillars, spires and rock expanses - natural monuments of stone.  The spires and rock are unique and a part of South Dakota's Hill Country.  The idea for Mt. Rushmore dates back to 1923 when a South Dakota State Historian named Doane Robinson got the idea of carving stone sculptures into the Black Hills stone as a way to lure tourists into the region.  Robinson was sure that once Americans from other areas experienced the majesty of the Black Hills they would be hooked for life - and frankly I tend to agree.

Robinson's original idea was to have carvings/monuments of Western heroes such as Bill Cody or Chief Red Cloud.  He enlisted the assistance of Gutzon Borglum, a sculptor who had been working on Stone Mountain in Georgia, a similar concept to Mt. Rushmore only that it features Confederate war heroes, such as Robert E. Lee.  

Originally Robinson and Borglum planned to carve figures into the granite pillars known as the Needles.  However the Needles are subject to heavy erosion and too thin to support sculpting after looking over nearly every rock, spire and natural stone mountain in the region, Borglum picked Mt. Rushmore.  The Mountain was originally named The Six Grandfathers by the Lakota Sioux, but was renamed after N.Y. lawyer  Charles Rushmore in 1885, as he was in business in the Black Hills region.  Therefore Mt. Rushmore is not named in reference to the monument, but from it's original title before the idea of the presidential monument began.

Borglum chose Mount Rushmore, a grander location, partly because it faced southeast and enjoyed maximum exposure to the sun. Borglum said upon seeing Mount Rushmore, "America will march along that skyline."  The rock was also less prone to erosion, only losing one inch of rock every 10,000 years.  However although natural elements continue to force year-round maintenance work o the Mountain to ensure Borglum's inception is not altered by forces of time.

Construction of Mount Rushmore:

Construction of this iconic American monument lasted from October of 1927 to October 1941.  It was commissioned by Pres. Calvin Coolidge in 1927 and given additional funds in 1929.  Coolidge was persuaded by Peter Norbeck, a South Dakota Senator and friend of the President's to support the project.  I will have an entire entry on Norbeck later as he was one of the truly great Americans and was instrumental in preservation of the Black Hills region and also promoting it's tourism industry.  He helped found Custer State Park and also continued to court succeeding Presidents after Coolidge to continue to promote Mt. Rushmore.

In 1933, Mt. Rushmore was placed under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service.  
 By July 4, 1934, Washington's face had been completed and was dedicated. The face of Thomas Jefferson was dedicated in 1936, and the face of Abraham Lincoln was dedicated on September 17, 1937. In 1937, a bill was introduced in Congress to add the head of civil-rights leader Susan B. Anthony, but a rider was passed on an appropriations bill requiring that federal funds be used to finish only those heads that had already been started at that time.[12] In 1939, the face of Theodore Roosevelt was dedicated.

The project to build Mt. Rushmore cost less than $1,000,000 and provided jobs in the region.  

From Keystone we headed down Highway 244, a scenic road leading up to the entrance of Mt. Rushmore.  The views afforded along the way were stupendous as vistas of the well defined peaks and valleys of The Black Hills were visible in every direction.  Before hitting a sharp curve, which leads to the entrance, a silhouette of Washington's head, framed by the thick forest begs one to pull out at the adjoining roadside turnout.  It is one of the best views in the entire area!

While taking pictures at the turnout we ran into a nice couple from Atlanta Georgia who were visiting their friend who was living in N.D.  We talked about one another's trips and they gave us some tips about our impending journey to Custer State Park. 

The weather today is PERFECT, a cloudless sky with temps in the mid-eighties with no humidity.  As we pulled into Mt. Rushmore the clock in the dashboard read eleven.  

After parking the Oldsmobile we headed up to the main Visitor's area and food court.  Upon entry a long boulevard lined by each state's flag  leads to a visitor's center/food court on the right and gift shop on the left.   The four Presidential heads are fully visible as you walk up the path and continue to become more pronounced as you continue walking.  An amphitheatre graded below the main viewing area offers a better look at the monument and is where a variety of ranger talks and the light show is held every night in the summer!

We were famished so my mom and I started out with lunch.  I opted for a cheeseburger and fries while my mom settled on chicken in broccoli (more healthy than me today).  For dessert we enjoyed raspberry yogurt and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  

After lunch we toured the informative museum, which offers a comprehensive history of the region, Mt. Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, and a Mt. Rushmore time line.  Definitely try to spend at least forty-five minutes in the museum -it's worth it.  Also check out the interesting twenty minute film about the monument, which is narrated by Tom Brokaw.

Upon completion of our museum tour my mom and I decided to embark on the Presidential Trail, which winds through a scenic forest to offer stunning and intimate views of Mt. Rushmore.  This is a must-do trail if you have the time!  Chipmunks abound to the point they have trailside signs saying "Don't Feed the Chipmunks."  Other wildlife such as Mountain Goats many be visible from afar if you look atop the craggy peaks.  Along the trail you can visit Gutzon Borglum's personal sculpting studio and learn about the process of creating this grand monument.

The Sculptor's Studio—a display of unique plaster models and tools related to the sculpting—was built in 1939 under the direction of Borglum.  Unfortunately Borglum died from an embolism in March 1941. His son, Lincoln Borglum, continued the project. Originally, it was planned that the figures would be carved from head to waist, but insufficient funding forced the carving to end.  Borglum had also planned a massive panel in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase commemorating in eight-foot-tall gilded letters the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Louisiana Purchase, and seven other territorial acquisitions from Alaska to Texas to the Panama Canal Zone.

It is interesting to note that within the monumental heads, there is in fact A Hall of Records.  This was done as Borglum thought it was frustrating that monuments from the ancient world did not leave an explanation as to why they were built.  If they did - it was weathered away or forgotten.  He wanted to ensure that future generations would always have a record of why the sculpture was built, the key tenets of American democracy and a history of our country.

A model at the site depicting Mount Rushmore's intended final design. Insufficient funding forced the carving to end in October 1941.  That's fourteen years!  The process of molding the rock to the clear and precise figures we see today took Borglum and 400 dedicated workers who blasted and chiseled the rock in order to form the faces.  Interesting to note despite the dangers of the work not one person died in the construction of Mt. Rushmore (only injuries on record)

We finished up our tour of Mt. Rushmore around two.  My mom and I briefly debated whether or not we should head onto Custer State Park or go ahead and visit Crazy Horse first, another area monument crafted out of stone and hard work.  Both Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse compliment each other and are Must-See attractions in the region.  

We ended up deciding to go onto Crazy Horse as it's on the way to Custer S.P.  I will discuss this in my next entry as like Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument has a lot of history which I want to take the time to focus in on.