Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore, United States

The granite faces of Mount Rushmore illuminated by warm sunrise light, viewed from a low angle through the viewing park's wooden railing.

Four presidents carved into granite in the Black Hills: a short stop with a long story behind it.

The place

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a huge work of sculpture cut into the granite side of Mount Rushmore, a summit in South Dakota's Black Hills, a short drive south-west of Keystone. Four enormous heads look out over the valley: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Each was picked to stand for a stage in the national story, from the founding and expansion of the country to its growth and its preservation. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, called the work the Shrine of Democracy.

Most visitors come to the memorial park, which covers about 1,278 acres and draws more than two million people a year. The main viewing area sits across the valley from the faces, so the figures are seen at a distance rather than close up. The peak itself reaches 1,745 metres above sea level. It belongs to the Black Elk Range, the higher ground in the middle of the Black Hills, a dark, forested upland rising out of the surrounding prairie.

The mountain was chosen partly for its granite and partly for its orientation. The faces turn towards the south-east, so the sun lights them through much of the day. Visitors who arrive in the morning tend to find softer light and smaller crowds, while summer afternoons can bring fierce, brief thunderstorms that build over the hills and pass quickly. The memorial is a place to look at rather than to walk around: the faces are the point, and the terraces and paths are simply the frame for them.

Its story

Mount Rushmore was known to the Lakota as Igmu Tanka Pahá, or Cougar Mountain, for the many cougars in the area. Later it came to be called Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá, Six Grandfathers Mountain, after the six rounded knobs along its summit ridge. The name links the peak to a vision recorded by the Lakota holy man Black Elk, in which the Six Grandfathers, spirits of the six directions, appeared. The Lakota call the wider Black Hills Pahá Sápa and regard the whole region as sacred ground.

Many peoples have lived in the hills, among them the Ponca, Arikara and Mandan, later the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and by the middle of the nineteenth century the Lakota were the main population. Treaties recognised the Black Hills as Lakota territory, but that recognition did not last. An expedition led by a United States general reached the peak, and the gold that followed brought prospectors, then a conflict that reshaped the region.

The carving began as an idea from Doane Robinson, South Dakota's state historian, who wanted monuments to figures of the American West: explorers, a guide, and Lakota and other leaders. The sculptor Gutzon Borglum argued that the work should be national rather than regional, and he persuaded its backers to choose four presidents instead. He picked the granite face partly because it faces south-east and takes strong sunlight. Early plans showed Jefferson on Washington's left, but the rock there proved unsuitable, so the figure was re-sculpted to the right.

Senator Peter Norbeck championed the project and secured federal money. Borglum oversaw the work from 1927, with help from his son Lincoln, and the faces were completed in the years that followed. The project remains contested in parts of the Lakota community, who see the mountain's older name as the truer one.

What to see

Culture

Mount Rushmore sits within the Black Hills, which the Lakota regard as sacred ground and call Pahá Sápa. Many Lakota people also know the mountain by its older name, Six Grandfathers Mountain, and that meaning sits alongside the monument's place in American public life. Most visitors come as tourists to a national memorial, and that is welcome, but the carving is also a point of disagreement, because the hills were Lakota territory under treaty before the sculpture was made. Read the interpretive panels, which set out both the national story and the Lakota view, and keep voices low on the terraces, where other people are looking quietly at the faces. Keep to the marked paths and terraces, and do not climb on the rock.

What to wear

Mount Rushmore lies in Lakota country, so the traditional dress most visitors will see in the wider Black Hills is Lakota regalia and the textiles tied to it. Traditional dress on the Northern Plains was made from tanned hide, most often deerskin or buckskin, and decorated with glass beads, quillwork and later trade cloth, with colours and patterns carrying family and community meaning. At powwows across the region, dancers wear beaded vests, bustles of eagle feathers, fringed shawls and moccasins. These are worn for dance and ceremony rather than everyday life, and many pieces are made by the wearer's family over long periods. Most people in the area now dress much as people do across the United States, in jeans, work boots and outdoor layers. Visitors should dress for a mountain climate that changes quickly: layers that can be added or removed, a wind-resistant shell for the exposed viewing area, a hat and sunscreen for summer sun, and sturdy closed shoes with grip for the stone steps and paths. Pack a light rain layer for summer afternoons, and choose modest, respectful clothing at powwows and ceremonies.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. September and early October suit most visitors, with cooler days, fewer crowds and the summer thunderstorms behind you. May and June are the wettest months, and brief but strong afternoon storms come through the summer, while July and August are warm and busy.

How long. Half a day to a full day

Getting there. Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP) is the nearest large airport, on the eastern edge of the Black Hills; Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD) is further east. South Dakota has no intercity passenger train, so the last leg is by car, or by bus along Interstate 90 with Jefferson Lines. From Rapid City, drive south-west into the hills.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources