Alyice on June 28th, 2009

Mount Rushmore

When I was in the 11th grade, I lived with my honorary aunt and uncle. That summer, they took a trip to South Dakota, without me, and came back with wonderful tales of their time in the Black Hills, including their trip to see Mount Rushmore. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to visit the area—just once. Well, that day arrived this year and while Mount Rushmore wasn’t as glorious and magical as I remember my aunt and uncle telling me, it was a beautiful site.

Upon paying a $10 entrance fee, we parked the car and ventured up a walkway that was adorned with flags, straight to a balcony that was directly in front of the presidential carvings. Realizing that ninety percent of the carvings were done by dynamite, not chiseling, made the view even more inspiring. To realize that the dynamite had to be placed at just the right spot, or the entire head would have been blown off, is surreal.

Off to the left was a path. We took the path to get a closer look at the carvings, it wasn’t as close as I’d hoped to get since it didn’t go up towards the carvings but it did allow us to get a good view from underneath and a side view.

Upon returning to the balcony area, we rested. The climb back up was a little steeper than our out-of-shape bodies anticipated, LOL. Then we waited. We waited for the light show.

Honestly, I was expecting a real light show: colorful lights dancing in the sky, lasers creating an image in the sky, something. Instead, we got a mountain lit up with steady white lights while we watched a historical presentation on a big screen. The presentation was well-done so there was no disappointment there.

We wanted to visit the gift shop and eat in the restaurant, but we waited too long. By the time the presentation was over, everything was closed so we did what anyone in our position would do…we left Mount Rushmore and munched on the snacks we had packed in the car.

Let me leave you with a few interesting facts:

Mount Rushmore was named after a visiting attorney and not the creator, Gutzon Borglum.
When state historian, Doane Robinson, conceived the idea to create a large sculpture on the side of a mountain to attract visitors, he intended the sculpture to be of horses, but Borglum disagreed. Believing the sculpture needed a more national appeal, he selected four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Mount Rushmore wasn’t the original place for the carvings, but was picked because it would receive “good light throughout most of the day” and because the granite erosion was much better; averaging 1 inch every 10,000 years.
Mount Rushmore took 14 years and $989,992.32 to complete.
It was not carved by a single man, but took 400 workers to complete.
Thomas Jefferson was originally placed on Washington’s right but after discovering a large crack in the foundation, he was blasted off and moved to the left.

Oh, and if you’re in the area at the right time, you can take free sculpture classes and tour the Sculptor’s studio. I’m hoping to take advantage of this offer during one of my return visits.

Until next time…

Disclosure: I paid for this attraction. This is “my opinion”. I was not paid to give a positive review.

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