The initial step in this great enterprise was taken by Doane Robinson, state historian of South Dakota, who had heard of the monument being carved in Georgia by Gutzon Borglum to honor the heroes of the South in the war between the states and thought it would be a fine idea to have a similar patriotic shrine in South Dakota to bring that state to the attention of the nation.
Mr. Robinson invited Mr. Borglum in 1924 to visit the Black Hills to see what could be done. The first thought was to carve the likeness of Washington and perhaps of Lincoln in one of the granite upthrusts known as the Needles. The stone, however, was not suitable and there was no special reason for memorializing Washington and Lincoln as individual presidents in South Dakota. Then Mr. Robinson told the sculptor of a lead tablet discovered by children playing near old Fort Pierre, which had been planted there in 1743 by Verendrye, an emissary of Louis of France, sent to establish French territory behind the English. This fired his imagination. Here was a subject for the great memorial he wanted to carve in the Hills.
South Dakota lies in the heart of the old Louisiana Territory, purchased by Jefferson in 1803, in order to control the mouth of the Mississippi, which marked the first step away from the Atlantic seaboard colonies in the expansion of the little republic. That step led to the establishment of Texas, the conquest of California, the acquisition of Oregon and Alaska and the spanning of the continent from ocean to ocean by the empire nation called the United States. This was a subject worthy of a mountain—a monument to a nation, to its philosophy of government, its ideals and aspirations, its great leaders. Here in this remote spot, protected by its inaccessibility from the vandalism of succeeding generations, would be carved a Shrine of Democracy, as an imperishable record of a great people.
Here is Mt. Rushmore as it stood for countless ages before the poetic and patriotic idea of the great national memorial was born in the mind of Gutzon Borglum.
Mr. Borglum paid a second and third visit to the Hills and camped among them for two weeks, exploring and examining every rock large enough to suggest a monument, with the result that the huge granite upthrust called Mount Rushmore was selected as the only stone sound enough to be suitable for carving. Another reason for choosing Rushmore was the important consideration of lighting. It was imperative that the cliff on which the figures were to be carved should face the east in order to get the maximum amount of sunlight all the day long. Washington’s face is so placed that it catches the first rays of light in the morning and reflects the last ruddy glow in the evening. Many beautiful works of art are made insignificant by poor lighting.
Senator Peter Norbeck, who had created the park system of South Dakota and played an important part in the creation of the Rushmore Memorial, also agreed that, in spite of its remote position with only riding trails leading to it, there was no other location possible.
Ranging downward like spiders swinging on fine threads, workmen made the strokes on the granite mountainside which now bears the features of George Washington.
