What was mount rushmore named after

There's even a half-finished "Hall of Records" carved into the mountain feet above the ground, with no way to reach the secret room.

Read on to find out what those early grand plans involved, and what happened to them. Borglum wanted Mount Rushmore to become a "Shrine of Democracy," as he called it, and he wanted to carve four faces on the mountain. Three U. However, there was much debate as to who the fourth face should honor.

Borglum wanted Teddy Roosevelt for his conservation efforts and for building the Panama Canal , while others wanted Woodrow Wilson for leading the U. Ultimately, Borglum chose Roosevelt.

In , a grassroots campaign emerged wanting to add another face to Mount Rushmore—women's rights activist Susan B. A bill requesting Anthony was even sent to Congress. However, with money scarce during the Great Depression and WWII looming, Congress decided that only the four heads already in progress would continue. What many people don't know is that Mount Rushmore was named even before the four, large faces were sculpted upon it.

Rushmore, who had visited the area in Rushmore was visiting South Dakota for business when he spied the large, impressive, granite peak. When he asked his guide the name of the peak, Rushmore was told, "Hell, it never had a name, but from now on we'll call the damn thing Rushmore. The carving of four presidential faces onto Mount Rushmore was a monumental project. With , tons of granite to be removed, chisels were definitely not going to be enough.

When carving first started at Mount Rushmore on October 4, , Borglum had his workers try jackhammers. Like chisels, jackhammers were too slow. After three weeks of painstaking work and too little progress, Borglum decided to try dynamite on October 25, With practice and precision, workers learned how to blast away the granite, getting within inches of what would be the sculptures' "skin. To prep for each blast, drillers would bore deep holes into the granite.

Then a "powder monkey," a worker trained in explosives, would place sticks of dynamite and sand into each of the holes, working from the bottom to the top. During the lunch break and in the evening—when all the workers were safely off the mountain—the charges would be detonated. Borglum had originally planned to carve more than just presidential figures into Mount Rushmore—he was going to include words as well.

The words were to be a very short history of the United States, carved into the rock face in what Borglum called the Entablature.

The Entablature was to contain nine historical events that occurred between and , be limited to no more than words, and be carved into a giant, byfoot image of the Louisiana Purchase. Any chance we could be related?

Contact me if you are interested. My husband and I just had the increadible experience of visiting Mount Rushmore, eager to find more information, I quickly got on the computer, unfortunately to my disappointment, opinions and imformation seem somewhat muddled to believe, or pass on to friends and family. All and all it is a moment in my life time, that I will cherish forever.

Skip to main content. Climate change and the parks. National Park Travel. Search Enter your keywords. You must enable JavaScript to view the search results. You are here Home » Mount Who? Mount Who? By Jim Burnett - June 2nd, Mount Rushmore in , before work began on the four faces. NPS photo. A park publication notes, When Borglum inspected the Needles, he found them to be too thin and weathered to support sculpture on a grand scale.

Park History. Add new comment. I was a youthful attorney at the time, and was employed by these gentlemen early in to go to the Black Hills and secure options on the Etta mine, and other cassiterite locations. My mission required me to remain several weeks in the Hills, and to return there on two or three later occasions in that year and in Part of my time was spent among prospectors at Harney, and at a log cabin built in that neighborhood.

In my life among these rough, but kindly, men I conformed to their ways, and, may I say it with becoming modesty, was in favor with them. I was deeply impressed with the Hills, and particularly with a mountain of granite rock that rose above the neighboring peaks. On one occasion while looking from near its base, with almost awe, at this majestic pile, I asked of the men who were with me for its name. They said it had no name, but one of them spoke up and said "We will name it now, and name it Rushmore Peak.

Some time after the incident above narrated I was told that the name and identification of the Rock, or Mountain, was recorded in the Land Office in Washington at the instance of some of the good friends referred to, but I have never sought to verify this feet. And just maybe that gets us talking again as human beings, as Americans. Blowing up the faces or trying to uncarve it somehow would only cause more damage to the mountain.

Other Indigenous leaders object to the sculpture but want the mountain left alone to erode naturally. Granite is an exceptionally durable rock that sheds mere centimeters from its surface over tens of thousands of years. Water seeping into cracks could speed the process, Kortemeyer said, potentially loosening some of the blocks that make up the carved faces. We respect that the Earth heals itself. On its own timeline, the mountain will heal itself.

Living in Geologic Time is a series of personal accounts that highlight the past, present, and future of famous landmarks on geologic timescales. Morton, M.