Mount Rushmore: The Shrine That Scandalized Sacred Land
Gutzon Borglum was a difficult man with grandiose visions. A Danish-American sculptor with Confederate sympathies and Ku Klux Klan connections, he had been working on a monument to Confederate heroes at Stone Mountain, Georgia, before disagreements ended his involvement. In 1924, he turned to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where boosters seeking tourist dollars wanted a monument carved into granite. Borglum chose the presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt. Work began in 1927 and continued for fourteen years. Borglum died months before completion. The monument he created became America's most recognizable - and most contested. The mountain was sacred to the Lakota, guaranteed to them by treaty, seized after gold was discovered. The faces look out over land that was promised forever to the people whose faces aren't there.
The Theft
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation - unceded Indian territory 'as long as the grass shall grow.' When Lieutenant Colonel George Custer confirmed gold in 1874, the grass stopped growing. Miners flooded in illegally; the Army looked away; war followed. After the Little Bighorn and Custer's death, the government forced a new treaty, seizing the Black Hills. The Lakota never accepted the sale. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled the taking illegal and awarded compensation; the Lakota refused the money, demanding land return. The judgment sits in a Treasury account, earning interest, unclaimed. Mount Rushmore, to many Lakota, is graffiti on a stolen cathedral.
The Carving
Borglum's original design included the presidents to the waist, with an inscription to be carved on the mountain's back. Budget and granite quality limited the final result to faces alone. Workers - mostly unemployed miners - suspended themselves by cable to drill and dynamite, removing 450,000 tons of rock. No one died during construction, remarkable for the era and conditions. Each face is 60 feet high; the noses are 20 feet long. Borglum died in March 1941; his son Lincoln supervised completion that October. The inscription was never carved; the chamber for historical documents was excavated but never completed. What exists is partial - but partial proved enough.
The Meaning
Borglum intended a 'Shrine of Democracy' - a celebration of American ideals through its greatest leaders. Washington represents independence; Jefferson expansion; Lincoln preservation and equality; Roosevelt international power and conservation. The choice of Roosevelt (Theodore, not Franklin) raised eyebrows even then; Borglum admired him personally. The four faces have become American iconography, appearing in films, advertisements, political campaigns, and endless parody. For many visitors, the monument inspires patriotism. For many others, especially Indigenous peoples, it represents desecration - American faces imposed on Lakota sacred land, a monument to conquest disguised as democracy.
Crazy Horse
Seventeen miles away, another mountain is being carved. The Crazy Horse Memorial, begun in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski at the invitation of Lakota leader Henry Standing Bear, depicts the Oglala warrior pointing across his homeland. The project is privately funded, refusing federal money; after 75 years, only the face is complete. When finished - if finished - it will be the world's largest sculpture: 641 feet long, 563 feet high. Critics question whether carving another mountain honors Indigenous culture or extends the desecration. Supporters see it as answer to Rushmore - proof that Indigenous faces also belong on the mountains. The debate continues as the carving slowly proceeds.
Visiting Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, accessible from Rapid City (25 miles). The memorial is visible from the road; the Avenue of Flags leads to the Grand View Terrace for optimal viewing. The Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center interprets construction history. The Presidential Trail provides closer approach and different angles. Evening lighting ceremonies run May through September. No climbing; the mountain is closed to approach. Nearby attractions include Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, and Deadwood's historic gambling town. Summer crowds are intense; fall offers fewer visitors and autumn colors. The experience requires reckoning: the artistry is remarkable, the setting spectacular, the history troubling.
From the Air
Located at 43.88°N, 103.46°W in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota. From altitude, Mount Rushmore appears as a pale gash on a forested granite peak - the carved faces visible as geometric regularities against natural stone. The Black Hills rise dark with ponderosa pine from the surrounding grasslands, an island mountain range sacred to the Lakota. Crazy Horse Memorial is visible to the southwest, a larger carving still in progress. Rapid City spreads to the east. The geometry is striking: two mountains, two sets of faces, two interpretations of whose land this is and whose faces belong here. What appears from altitude as tourist destination is contested ground - art or vandalism, shrine or sacrilege, depending on whose history you center.