Mount Rushmore Project

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Mount Rushmore is one of the world’s largest engineering and sculpting projects. John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum is best known for Mount Rushmore. Borglum was born of Danish immigrants in the Idaho Territory on March 25, 1867. As a young and independent man, Borglum went to San Francisco to attend The Mark Hopkins Art Institute. Borglum wasn’t interested in painting and drawing so he left for Paris in 1887 to study sculpting. Borglum found his happiness and talent in sculpting massive art work. He designed and constructed several different sculptures, one of which was a six ton marble head of President Lincoln that was later donated to The Library of Congress in 1908. Historian Doane Robinson came up with the original idea for Mount Rushmore, …show more content…

While he was in Chicago he suffered a heart attack and died. Borglum’s son Lincoln Borglum took over the project and finished Mount Rushmore later that year in October of 1941. “Washington’s head was dedicated in 1930, Jefferson’s in 1936, Lincoln’s in 1937, and Roosevelt’s in 1939” (Pletcher 1).
Robinson’s original plan was to build Mount Rushmore in order to attract more tourists to South Dakota and to create a memorial for the first one hundred-fifty years of America. The construction of Mount Rushmore changed the land for the better. Americans used what the land they already had and modified it. It brought many tourists out to visit Mount Rushmore to show their respect to the foundation of America, the people who built the monument and the land on which it stands.
Today Mount Rushmore is one of the United States greatest iconic images. It is the top tourist attraction in the country and is the most visited monument. Over the years since Mount Rushmore’s completion many components have been changed or added. The site has been modified to hold the two million people the monument gets each year. The Presidential Trail is a long path for visitors to get the closest view possible of the mountain. The Lincoln Borglum museum was also created fairly recently to show respect to the men who worked on the monument for most of their lives. It is a museum about their lives and all the work the two men put into Mount Rushmore. Finally The Sculptor’s Studio has the tools the four hundred artisans used to carve and model the