Located in South Dakota, Mount Rushmore is in fact a national memorial. It is located near Keystone. Mount Rushmore is one of the very special historical monuments of the United States of America. Mount Rushmore is included in the Presidential Memorials. The Memorial is made up of granite. It is in fact a sculpture. This sculpture represents the history of United States for more than 150 years. The sculptures are huge in size. The reason because of which the Mount Rushmore is included in the presidential memorials is that the 60 feet sculptures are of the heads of four most popular presidents of United States of America. These former presidents of America have reined America from 1732 till 1919. The sculptures of four American presidents are there in this grand presidential memorial.
The four Presidents who are on the list there are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. All four of these presidents have their own specialties. They were very famous and popular amongst the public in their reigns. People till this day respect them for what they did to make the United States one of the most developed countries in the world. The memorial is nowadays well managed and kept in the perfect state by the National park service. It is a very famous presidential monument which has given the South Dakota an identity of its own kind. People come form all parts of the world to visit this historic monument. The art of sculpture is at its best in these huge sculptures. You love the first sight of this sculpture.
The Memorial is of a very huge size. The memorial covers more than 5 sq. kilometers of area. The height of this sculpture above the sea level is more than 5,000 feet above the sea level. At least 2 million people from all parts of the world come to visit this monument every year. Due to the presence of these sculptures in the South Dakota, the tourism department of this region has developed a lot. These sculptures are the most important of all the historic and tourist attraction places where people from all parts of the world come to visit.
The name Rushmore was given to the mountain in remembrance of a very famous lawyer of New York. Charles Rushmore was the person after whom this mountain was named in 1885. The carving and sculpting work was undertaken in this region as a tool to create a place of tourist attraction in this region. The basic target was to attract the public form all other parts of the world to increase the foreign exchange earning. The project was approved by the congress after going through a lot of hassle. The carving works on the Rushmore Mountain actually stated in the year 1927. The work completed in the year 1941. The good news was that there was no death in the construction and carving of this monument. There were few injuries though, but even those were not of very serious nature.
The idea of using the Rushmore Mountain as a source to generate a regular flow of visitors and tourists towards South Dakota was initially generated by Robinson, who was a historian by profession. It was in the year 1924 that Robinson persuaded Borglum, a sculptor to take a look at the Rushmore Mountain to decide whether it was fit for carving or not. Borglum was the right person to get involved in this project as he has done similar kind of work for others as well. He has been involved in a massive sculpturing project in Georgia as well. Thus he was able to take a look at the mountain and judge the feasibility of the plan. Although he was supposed to do almost similar work in Georgia, but he was of the opinion that the site in Georgia was not fit for this task. When he saw Mount Rushmore from this perspective he at once believed in the potential of this place for this kind of work. Thus in this way the expert opinion of Borglum helped in deciding the exact location of this historic monument.
This was a very costly project. Millions of dollars were spent in the construction and sculpting of this model. The best thing about the engineering and designing of this massive project was that there were no casualties during the progress of this project.
The Mount Rushmore and these sculptures were added to the list of National Historic places in 1966. In 1991, President Bush officially dedicated this monument.
The canyon behind the sculptures has a huge chamber in it. This chamber has been used to place the life histories of these four presidents as well as of the sculptor. There are some other objects placed in this chamber which include the constitutions and declarations of independence. The vault was installed here in 1998. It was planned that a hall of Records will be constructed here.
There are few controversies which have been related to this mountain. The region was seized by the United States government from the Lakota Tribe. Till this day the monument is this controversial with the Native Americans. It is one of the best known historical and presidential monuments in the United States of America. The monument itself is a very well designed and well worked out. The place is a source of making lots of money for the region. It is a famous monument the world over and people from across the continents come to visit this monument.