A long list of “Who’s Who” in America and South Dakota have been recorded in the annals and on the membership roll of the Mount Rushmore Society. Membership certificate No. 1 is held by John Hays Hammond, world famed mining engineer, lecturer, consultant of Cecil Rhodes and active in the development of hydro-electric and irrigation projects. Number two belongs to Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War under President Wilson and a one-time member of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague.

Other original members, some of whose heirs hold the certificates, are John N. Garner, vice president of the United States; Julius Rosenwald, American merchant and philanthropist; Sewell L. Avery, chain store magnate; Mary Garden, American operatic soprano; Walter Dill Scot, author and president of Northwestern University; Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1931, and Vilhjalmur Stefanson, Arctic Explorer, to mention a few.

The Society’s Board of Trustees presently is composed of Paul E. Bellamy, John A. Boland, Mrs. Gutzon Borglum, Lincoln Borglum, Francis Case, Fred C. Christopherson, Miss Nina Cullinan, George E. Flavin, Mrs. William Fowden, Mrs. Peter Norbeck, Robert E. Driscoll, Sr., Eugene C. Eppley, Mrs. Frank M. Lewis and William Williamson. Walter H. Johnson is treasurer and K. F. Olsen secretary. The Commission is not active at this time.

Originally a portion of the Federal Game Sanctuary in the Harney National Forest, the 1,686-acre tract that comprises the Mount Rushmore National Memorial was established in 1929 but did not come under the National Park Service jurisdiction until 1939.

During the interim, the South Dakota State Highway Commission constructed the present Memorial Highway from its junction with U. S. Highway 16. It also built the Iron Mountain Drive with the three tunnels that frame the Shrine of Democracy. The planning and intricate engineering skill that went into building the Iron Mountain Highway was extremely ingenious in itself.

Transcriber’s Notes