Mount Rushmore Maximum Cards

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a huge mountain sculpture of four US Presidents, located near Keystone, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The four figures carved in stone on Mt. Rushmore represent the first 150 years of American history: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. These four Presidents were chosen to represent the founding, growth and preservation of the United States. The work was designed by the sculptor John Gutzon Borglum (March 25, 1871- March 6, 1941).




Mount Rushmore, named for New York lawyer Charles E. Rushmore, a New York lawyer investigating mining claims in the Black Hills in 1885.



SculptorGutzon Borglum (the one on the bosun chair, 1930) chose this mountain due to its height, the soft grainy consistency of the granite, and the fact that it catches the sun for the greatest part of the day.



Gutzon Borglum studied photograhs, portraits, life masks and descriptions of the presidents to create his working models. This model was changed nine different times to accomodated changes in Mt. Rushmore's desgn.



Almost 400 workers spend 14 years crating sculptor Gutzon Borglum's "Shrine of Democracy."