The work in process as it appeared from an odd angle ... from the road running along the side of the mountain. Not many have seen the Memorial from this point of view.
The problem of finance has always been acute in connection with the work of the Rushmore Memorial. The economic hardships of the country made it increasingly difficult to match the Federal appropriation, without which the carving could not go on. The sculptor made repeated trips through the state and beyond its borders to arouse interest in the undertaking. He succeeded in raising some money by publishing a small book about Rushmore. There were never enough funds for as much power or as many men as he would have liked to use. There were long months when the work was stopped altogether. Finally the government took over the whole burden of financing and the work continued regularly, after 1938, being halted only by weather conditions. The sculptor was at last able to employ one or two trained stone carvers to do the finer work of finishing.
The Washington head was unveiled in 1930, with Mr. Cullinan, first chairman of the Rushmore Commission presiding. President Franklin D. Roosevelt came for the unveiling of the Jefferson head in 1936. His unfailing interest and support have insured the finishing of the Memorial. At the unveiling of the face of Abraham Lincoln in 1937, a nation wide radio hookup carried the speeches to all parts of the country and again in 1939, when Governor Bushfield of South Dakota conducted ceremonies celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the State of South Dakota at Mount Rushmore, the radio carried the speeches and music all over the United States. The upper part of the face of Theodore Roosevelt was uncovered at that time.
The face of Jefferson begins to take form. The nose and the forehead are already plainly visible, but many tons of stone must be removed before the picture is complete.
Mr. Borglum was always scrupulously careful to protect his men from harm and it was his boast that in all his years of hazardous mountain carving no worker was seriously injured. He took no care of himself, however, and physicians said that undoubtedly the strenuous work of carving at that altitude weakened his heart and in March, 1941, it stopped beating. The carving was practically finished; there remained only the finishing of the hands and hair of the four figures and the Rushmore National Memorial Commission entrusted that work to the sculptor’s son, Lincoln Borglum, who had been with his father from the beginning of the work.
A blast is set off. The handling of powder and dynamite was an especially delicate problem, since a single badly placed charge might easily spoil the work of many months.
The faces of the four presidents, as carved on Mount Rushmore, are approximately 60 feet from chin to forehead; if completed from head to foot the figures would be 465 feet high. The entire head of the sphinx in Egypt is not quite as long as Washington’s nose. The entire cost of the Memorial, including all expenses of carving, buildings and salaries, is $900,000. This is at the rate of less than two dollars for every ton of stone removed, which is a cost incredibly low considering the hardness of the granite and that every piece must be removed in such a way as not to injure the surface behind. On this investment the Federal Government has received from tourists from the one cent gas tax on the increased sale of gas during the years since the work started over two million dollars and the income to South Dakota is over twenty million dollars annually.