Posted on Friday, October 31, 2025
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by The Association of Mature American Citizens
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On October 31, 1941, the monumental work at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota was officially declared complete, marking the end of a fourteen-year endeavor that transformed a rugged granite peak into one of America’s most enduring symbols.
The vision for the project first emerged in the 1920s when South Dakota historian Doane Robinson sought to boost tourism by carving major figures into the region’s Black Hills. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was brought in, and he selected four U.S. presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln—to represent the birth, expansion, development, and preservation of the American Republic.
Construction began on October 4, 1927, with hundreds of workers blasting and carving the granite face of the mountain. Over the years, they removed some 400,000 tons of rock and endured the hazards of working high above the slopes, suspended by ropes and using dynamite and pneumatic drills to carve 60-foot–high presidential visages.
Despite the ambition of Borglum’s original scheme—which envisioned full-bust sculptures reaching from head to waist, and an engraved “Hall of Records” tucked behind the faces—funding constraints and the onset of global war intervened. Borglum passed away in March 1941, and his son Lincoln Borglum oversaw the final phase. By October 31, the work was halted, the monument declared complete, even though some of the larger elements were never realized.
Over the decades, Mount Rushmore has come to stand for American ideals—liberty, leadership, democracy—but its legacy is also shaded by controversy. The Black Hills region, sacred to the Lakota and other Indigenous peoples, had been ceded in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie only to be taken by the United States after gold was discovered there.
Still, the completion of the monument in 1941 marked a remarkable convergence of artistry, engineering, and patriotism. From raw mountain to towering symbols of four presidents, the project embodied a vision of national identity carved in stone. Today, millions of visitors traverse the park each year, drawn not only by the four massive heads but by the sweeping story etched into the granite slopes of the Black Hills.
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