I'm not sure what to say about Mt. Rushmore. It is always surreal to see something in real life that you see pictures of pretty much every day, like the Eiffel Tower, the statue of liberty, or Keanu Reeves at a grocery store. Unlike most American landmarks, Mount Rushmore itself really has nothing to do with the history of America. It is really just a weird sculpture carved into a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Since its completion 60 years ago the mountain has become an American icon, but I doubt that many people who haven't visited know anything about its history (I sure didn't until a few days ago).
Like most American monuments, the history of Mount Rushmore involves a bizarre cast of characters, racism, and many fascinating stories. It seems that the original idea for the mountain was a basic tourist attraction, a way of luring people to South Dakota. The sculptor they chose to build the monument, Gutzon Borglum, saw the mountain as an opportunity to be a much bigger deal than a tourist attraction. He thought that by putting presidents' faces on it, it could be a symbol of freedom and democracy and become a global icon.
Borglum, who was an outspoken political activist and "a man of strong opinions" (i.e. Freemason and KKK member) designed the mountain to include all four men from the waist up. He also planned a "hall of records" buried inside the mountain, so that people in hundreds of years would know that the faces on the mountain were not gods. But the 1930's were a terrible time to carve up a mountain, and the project ran out of money shortly after Borglum died in 1941. Knowing that the US wouldn't finance the project going into World War 2, Borglum's son declared the mountain complete. In 1950 he attempted to finish the project, but Congress wouldn't pay for it since it had already been declared finished. So the iconic appearance of the four faces coming out of the mountain is pretty much a total accident, a result of running out of money. Standing there staring at the thing, it is very obvious that the sculpture is incomplete. But it was still pretty cool to see four giant heads coming out of a mountain.
Anyways, here's that photo-essay:
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