Mount Rushmore National Memorial / A monument commemorating the conception, preservation, and growth of the great American republic

by Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society of the Black Hills

THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Millions of Americans and liberty-loving people from all over the world have come to the Black Hills of South Dakota to look upon Gutzon Borglum’s Shrine of Democracy.

The exact number of visitors to the great granite carvings is not known but each travel season the pilgrimage increases in size.

During the period of construction from 1927 to 1941, when work was under supervision of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission, no accurate records of visitors were kept. Hundreds came each day, however, to keep a fascinated watch over the emergence of the likenesses of the four great presidents from the great stone uplift.

Consecration ceremonies attended by President Coolidge and the unveilings of Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln were attended by thousands of people. Distinguished guests participating in these ceremonies included the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Then in 1939, the Memorial was placed under the supervision of the National Park Service of the Department of Interior. World War II intervened, but in the peace years since the transfer, the flow of visitors has been measured at close to a half million persons each travel season, 419,817 being reported for the 1947 travel year.

Among the nine great memorials in the National Park Service system, Mount Rushmore, by 1947, had risen from seventh to fourth place in attendance. So far as these memorials are concerned, those reporting larger visitations were the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument, all in the District of Columbia.

As with other national parks, monuments, and memorials, Mount Rushmore was designated for inclusion in the National Park system because it had become a most inspiring site of historic significance.

Its present administration is designed to promote and regulate the use of the memorial area to conserve the scenery and the natural and historical objects and to provide for the enjoyment of it in such a manner as to leave it unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

A total of nearly 1,800 acres of the Federal Game Sanctuary in the Harney National Forest now comprises the memorial area. It is under the administration of Superintendent Harry J. Liek with headquarters at Wind Cave National Park. The memorial is directly under Acting Custodian J. Estes Suter.

A brief description follows for Wind Cave National Park and the three national monuments—the Badlands, Jewel Cave, and Devils Tower—that are embraced in the Black Hills and Badlands area of southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming.