Viewpoints Explained: Everything You Never Knew About Mount Rushmore

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Earlier this year, Mount Rushmore made headlines after a republican lawmaker floated the idea of adding president Donald Trump’s face to the monument. if this happened, Trump would be the fifth face on the portrait, joining George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, And Abraham Lincoln. as the story grew, The National Park Service dismissed any new construction plans. according to experts, the granite rock is already fractured and any new blasting could compromise the whole mountain. 

While this wild idea only lasted for a short time, it made us think: what else don’t we know about Mount Rushmore? For one, the faces of the four presidents weren’t part of the original vision. historians wanted a statue that celebrated western history and featured icons like lewis & clark, buffalo bill and native american lakota (luh-coat-uh) chief, red cloud. but the sculptor in charge of the project had other ideas. he wanted it to be a national monument that drew national crowds instead of a smaller, regional focus. 

Today, the almost 100-year-old sculpture is also the result of some extreme engineering. Four hundred men, from miners to sculptors to rock climbers, worked on the mountain and about 90 percent of the work was done with dynamite. By the end, the workers had cleared more than 450,000 tons of rock. the project, which started in 1927, stretched on for fourteen years, largely from funding delays, bad weather and the sheer scale of the portraits. 

in the end, the monument reflects the priorities of the post-world war i landscape it was built in. it’s a national symbol of America’s birth and its values of freedom, democracy and opportunity for all. Even today, Rushmore is still One of the most iconic landmarks in the world, drawing close to two and half million visitors to South Dakota every year. 

that’s viewpoints explained for this week… more in a moment…

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