Mount Rushmore: America's Greatest Sculpture

Mount Rushmore - America’s Greatest Sculpture The United States of America is the greatest nation in our world today. It is made up of 50 states with each state having its own unique history. South Dakota is well known for tourism mostly due to the beauty of the Black Hills and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial nestled in a granite mountain located by Keystone, South Dakota. Mount Rushmore started out as a dream which led to the reality of a monumental sculpture commemorating four outstanding presidents, and one artist’s great skill and energy. The story of Gutzon Borglum, who became the mastermind behind this sculpture, never giving up on his dream, encouraging the participation of government leaders to fund the project, offering hope
His first request was to several businessmen in South Dakota and they were offended at his request for $50,000 to get this project started. Several South Dakotans were not in favor of this project and it caused a big ruckus among the people. Borglum eventually mortgaged is own home to raise cash to begin the project. In November, 1925, he turned to Frank Hughes, president of the Rapid City Commercial Club (an organization raising funds for the project). Borglum’s financial problems would continue to be troublesome for everyone around him, as Norbeck confessed to Hughes: “Frankly…Mr. Borglum has been more of a problem to me this winter than I ever expected. It has been impossible for me to get him to see the Black Hills side of the matter. He was impatient because they did not send him money before he had ever rendered a bill. Then when he found out I was not going to try to scare anybody in South Dakota, he worked around and got others to try it…He was desperately hard-up and didn’t know which was to turn…” (River, Charles ed. 11,12). The first year they only acquired $5,000 in donations which was not enough to start the carving. Borglum was so aggressive it turned people against the project but it didn’t stop him from pushing the funding issue. On August 10, 1927 Congressman William Williamson invited President Calvin Coolidge, “Silent Cal”, to vacation in the Black Hills. South Dakotans became excited and patriotic, so they started donating to the project to impress the president. By the time Coolidge arrived in South Dakota the people had raised $42,000. Borglum claimed to have a conversation with Coolidge before his speech. He later recalled, “President Coolidge whispered to me, “Who’s paying for all this?’ I said, ‘These farmers are paying for it…’ He said, ‘These people cannot do this and they ought not to be asked to do it…You come see me when I get back to Washington…and we will sit down and work out a