What do U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt all have in common? There are probably many things that link these four men, including the many contributions they made to this country as presidents. However, the one particular idea I was referring to is the fact that these four men can be found in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest. To be more specific, they can be found on the southeastern face of Mount Rushmore, and they are pretty hard to miss considering they are four gigantic carved sculptures. Why were the first, third, twenty-sixth, and sixteenth presidents carved into this mountain, and why was it named Mount Rushmore? The answers to these questions might surprise you.

Charles E. Rushmore, the man after which the mountain was named after, traveled to the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1884 to inspect mining claims in the region. The story goes that he asked a man what the name of the mountain was, and learned that it never had a name. From then on, it was known as Rushmore Peak, followed by Rushmore Mountain and Mount Rushmore. However, Rushmore had nothing to do with the carving of the presidents into the mountain. That idea came around when South Dakota’s state historian Doane Robinson wanted to attract tourism to the Black Hills in the 1920’s.

The original idea for the area was to have someone sculpt an area with several giant natural granite pillars known as “the Needles” into the shapes of historic heroes of the west. This idea was then changed to have Gutzon Borgium, an American sculptor of Danish descent, work on a carving of an image of Confederate General Robert E. Lee into the Georgia’s Stone Mountain. Unfortunately, Borgium, due to his unpopularity with those who had commissioned him, abandoned the project and the sculpture of Lee. It was then suggested that to gain more national support, the figures carved should be of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to ensure more nation interest and visitors in the future. Borgium then added Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt to the plans due to their contributions to the birth of democracy and the growth of this country.

In August of 1925, Mount Rushmore was selected to be the site of the project, and funding began to be raised. President Calvin Coolidge traveled to the site, and later signed legislation to give $250,000 in federal funds for the Rushmore project and create the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission to oversee its completion. Official work on the project began in 1927 and was finished in 1941. An average of 400 workers erected the sculpture under dangerous conditions, removing a total of 450,000 tons of rock to create the carved heads. Each head was sculpted to a height of 60 feet. However, the original design showed that the four presidents were meant to be represented from the waist up, but insufficient funding forced the project to an end with the completion of their faces. Known as the “Shrine of Democracy,” Mount Rushmore welcomes roughly two million visitors every year, and is one of America’s most popular tourist attractions.