South Dakota Top Things to See & Do

South Dakota Top Things to See & Do -Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Mount Rushmore National Memorial Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a large-scale mountain sculpture by artist Gutzon Borglum, a famous Dutch-American sculptor, was selected for the Mount Rushmore project.
Faces of four great American presidents who represent the birth, growth, development and preservation of this country.

At his death in March 1941 his son, Lincoln Borglum, continued the work and it was completed later that year.Most of the carving was done by strategically placed dynamite, then later with chisels.

Majestic figures of George Washington,Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson was built twice.
He was originally built on the other side of Washington. Over a year into construction, they decided the rock there was too weak, and blasted the face off with dynamite).
Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln(you can see an elephant, or at least the stone face of an elephant, if you look to the right of Lincoln).
The 60-foot high faces were shaped from the granite rock face between 1927 and 1941, and represent one of the world’s largest pieces of sculpture, as well as one of America’s most popular tourist attractions.
The actual carving was done by a team of over 400 men,and amazingly there were no fatalities.
Each of the president's heads is equal to a six-story high building. Their eyes are 11 feet wide; their mouths are 18 feet wide; and their noses are 20 feet long.

The idea of creating a sculpture in the Black Hills was dreamed up in 1923 by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson.
He wanted to find a way to attract tourists to the state,today,each year, approximately three million tourists from all over the world visit Mount Rushmore.
Official site