| Mount Rushmore stands at the gateway to the
West and was built to embody the spirit of the foundation, preservation,
and expansion of the United States. There is no greater monument to
American expansionists' efforts to tame the wild and rugged terrain of the
West. |
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It took 14 years for sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his crew to carve
60-foot-tall faces of four U.S. presidents — George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln — into a wall of
exposed granite. The faces tower over a setting of pine, spruce, birch,
and aspen on 5,725-foot Mount Rushmore. |
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Recently, ten years of redevelopment work culminated with the
completion of extensive new visitor facilities. These include a new
Visitor Center and Museum and the Presidential Trail, a walking trail and
boardwalk providing spectacular close-up views of the mountain sculpture. |
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