Hillsborough County Cattlewomen
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Today we had the opportunity to explore Mount Rushmore. Upon arrival, there were multiple stations to find information about the monument and memorial, including the main Visitor center at the entrance, The Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center, and the theaters. Additionally, on the way down the central walkway to the platform with the direct view across from Mount Rushmore, there is a walkway lined with all 50 state flags. Also, down the walkway, visitors can find the alphabetized wall of the approximately 400 people that worked on Rushmore-from 1927 to 1941. As we continued to look around, we also found the portrait sculpture of Gutzon Borglum, the primary sculptor of Mount Rushmore; the sculpture was created by his son: Lincoln Borglum, who was also a sculptor and responsible for the completion of Mount Rushmore after his father’s passing. When we later made it over to the main platform, to the left and right, there were two large, engraved panels of granite - known as the Grand Terrace Donor Wall - in which the many donors of Mount Rushmore are listed. From that point, we were able to take many pictures in front of the monument before heading downstairs to the theater room and informational center/museum.
In the downstairs area, there were multiple theaters with scheduled screenings of an explanatory film of Mount Rushmore history. In a nearby room, there were many pictures of the planning and constructing processes of the monument, as well as physical artifacts- including early replicas of clay models that Gutzon Borglum used to work out the concept of the presidents’ faces and various tools the workers used during the construction period. While I was in the room of Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center, there was also a video playing, which described some of the building process, where I learned that a tool called a pointing system was used to precisely translate the 3-D clay samples of the presidents’ faces-which served as 1/12th scale references to what the final product would be to the side of the mountain. In the clay formatting stage, the style and position of the profiles were changed thousands of times before being put into stone. During the translating while using the pointing system, a bar was extended over the presidents’ clay faces from the top of their heads to get precise measurements for the application to the mountain.
This incredibly tedious and large-scale task took 14 years to get the presidents’ 60 ft. profiles formatted into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Another part of what added time to this project is that workers had to be strategic to not remove too much rock from the mountain, as one of the most significant challenges is that more rock could always be removed, but not added back. In relation to rock removal, much was being removed at a time due to the usage of dynamite-to which Borglum didn’t want to use originally, but found no other way after finding the drilling process to take too long. In the end, there are now 422 steps on Mount Rushmore.
Overall, the significance of the Mount Rushmore stands as a representation of some of the most significant aspects of development and the core values of the United States of America as a whole. The presidents were selectively chosen as: George Washington for the birth of Republic and the fight for independence, Thomas Jefferson for the expansion of United States territory, Abraham Lincoln for unity of the states and equality for all citizens, and Theodore Roosevelt for standing for the common man as well as handling 20th century world affairs.
Another portion of the visit was that I spoke to a park ranger at Mount Rushmore named Marie, who was kind enough to share some fun facts about the monument. Included, was that Thomas Jefferson was originally intended to be added to the opposite of Washington (in relation to where he is positioned now), but as he was being constructed, workers realized that the rock that was to be turned into Jefferson’s face was unsuitable, so they had to get rid of his face all together-moving it to the other side of Washington. Additionally, I learned that the stripe on Jefferson’s lip is where his nose would’ve been, but upon finding that it’d be unstable-possibly causing the nose to completely fall of in the next 5,000 years after construction-they changed his view upward.
Today we had the opportunity to explore Mount Rushmore. Upon arrival, there were multiple stations to find information about the monument and memorial, including the main Visitor center at the entrance, The Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center, and the theaters. Additionally, on the way down the central walkway to the platform with the direct view across from Mount Rushmore, there is a walkway lined with all 50 state flags. Also, down the walkway, visitors can find the alphabetized wall of the approximately 400 people that worked on Rushmore-from 1927 to 1941. As we continued to look around, we also found the portrait sculpture of Gutzon Borglum, the primary sculptor of Mount Rushmore; the sculpture was created by his son: Lincoln Borglum, who was also a sculptor and responsible for the completion of Mount Rushmore after his father’s passing. When we later made it over to the main platform, to the left and right, there were two large, engraved panels of granite - known as the Grand Terrace Donor Wall - in which the many donors of Mount Rushmore are listed. From that point, we were able to take many pictures in front of the monument before heading downstairs to the theater room and informational center/museum.
In the downstairs area, there were multiple theaters with scheduled screenings of an explanatory film of Mount Rushmore history. In a nearby room, there were many pictures of the planning and constructing processes of the monument, as well as physical artifacts- including early replicas of clay models that Gutzon Borglum used to work out the concept of the presidents’ faces and various tools the workers used during the construction period. While I was in the room of Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center, there was also a video playing, which described some of the building process, where I learned that a tool called a pointing system was used to precisely translate the 3-D clay samples of the presidents’ faces-which served as 1/12th scale references to what the final product would be to the side of the mountain. In the clay formatting stage, the style and position of the profiles were changed thousands of times before being put into stone. During the translating while using the pointing system, a bar was extended over the presidents’ clay faces from the top of their heads to get precise measurements for the application to the mountain.
This incredibly tedious and large-scale task took 14 years to get the presidents’ 60 ft. profiles formatted into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Another part of what added time to this project is that workers had to be strategic to not remove too much rock from the mountain, as one of the most significant challenges is that more rock could always be removed, but not added back. In relation to rock removal, much was being removed at a time due to the usage of dynamite-to which Borglum didn’t want to use originally, but found no other way after finding the drilling process to take too long. In the end, there are now 422 steps on Mount Rushmore.
Overall, the significance of the Mount Rushmore stands as a representation of some of the most significant aspects of development and the core values of the United States of America as a whole. The presidents were selectively chosen as: George Washington for the birth of Republic and the fight for independence, Thomas Jefferson for the expansion of United States territory, Abraham Lincoln for unity of the states and equality for all citizens, and Theodore Roosevelt for standing for the common man as well as handling 20th century world affairs.
Another portion of the visit was that I spoke to a park ranger at Mount Rushmore named Marie, who was kind enough to share some fun facts about the monument. Included, was that Thomas Jefferson was originally intended to be added to the opposite of Washington (in relation to where he is positioned now), but as he was being constructed, workers realized that the rock that was to be turned into Jefferson’s face was unsuitable, so they had to get rid of his face all together-moving it to the other side of Washington. Additionally, I learned that the stripe on Jefferson’s lip is where his nose would’ve been, but upon finding that it’d be unstable-possibly causing the nose to completely fall of in the next 5,000 years after construction-they changed his view upward.
Wow!!! What am amazing monument!!!! So much about it that so many people don't even know.
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