Q. David Bowers
On May 6, 1927, Borglum wrote to his former secretary, Lillian Taylor, to say: "We have completed the financing of the big South Dakota mountain sculpture. I have Signed up my contract for it, just a little less than $500,000." Two years later Congress approved a bill creating the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Commission and appropriated funds not to exceed $250,000, to match equal funds to be raised privately.
To depict individuals instrumental in the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States, Borglum selected presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt to be carved in stone. A news release dated Keystone, South Dakota, March 24 (no year indicated), noted the following: "Mount Rushmore was selected for the enduring quality of its stone and because it is visible from a distance. After completing his clay design Borglum first projected the picture of Washington onto the face of the cliff. This was sketched, then chiseled on the rock. Blasting gave a rough contour, and electric drills and chisels rounded out the sculpturing. All the figures will be in full relief. Washington's figure is at a point of the mountain. It will be shown to his left buckle, a figure 500 feet tall. Jefferson's bust, Lincoln's shoulders, and Roosevelt's head are to follow in that order over the left shoulder of Washington ..... "
Correcting Calvin Coolidge
President Calvin Coolidge, who had vacationed in South Dakota with his family and who was familiar with Borglum through the Stone Mountain project, showed interest in the Mount Rushmore Memorial from an early date, attended the dedication of the project on August 10, 1927, and maintained an involvement that continued after he left the White House.
Borglum convinced Coolidge to write a historical outline of the history of the United States, such to be carved on the mountain on "Entablature," to be in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase and of sufficient size that the letters could be read three miles away. To be featured were what Borglum considered to be the eight most pivotal events in American history including the 1776 Declaration of Independence, 1787 framing of the Constitution, 1803 Louisiana Territory Purchase, 1846 admission of Texas to the Union, 1848 Oregon boundary settlement, 1849 (later revised to the correct date of 1850) admission of California to the Union, 1865 end of the Civil War, and 1907 completion of the Panama Canal. Later Borglum added other events and the dates 1819, 1867, and 1904 and deleted 1907.
In 1931 a magazine article commented: ("Master of Arts," by John B. Kennedy. Collier's magazine, December 19, 1931.) "At Stamford he [planned the sculptures] by projecting pictures against a snow-covered hill and then at a forty foot canvas 700 feet away-in order to redraw the project. Calvin Coolidge wrote a 500-word history of the United States and Borglum edited it. The former president didn't like it very much but was a good sport. When Coolidge wrote 'justice under the law' Borglum reminded him that under the law witches were burned [actually, hanged] in Massachusetts. 'Justice' was edited out. When Coolidge said 'right to be free and to be happy through self-government' Borglum dropped 'through self-government.' Coolidge agreed .... "
Actually, Coolidge agreed up to a point. After nationwide news articles told of Borglum's corrections to Coolidge's knowledge of history, his interest waned, and soon he separated himself from the project. After Coolidge died in 1933, Borglum sought to perpetuate the idea of a historical text carved in stone and set up a nationwide contest soliciting essays. Like many of Borglum's most grandiose ideas, reminiscent of those proposed for the Stone Mountain project, the Entablature never came to pass.
Somewhat related was Borglum's unfulfilled plan to carve the Constitution and other important American documents on a rock wall in English, Latin, and an unspecified third language, possibly Chinese or Japanese, to preserve their contents for millenia.
Still another Borglum idea concerned cutting a huge cavern into the rock, to be called the Hall of Records, containing a bronze frieze of epic proportions, 350 feet wide, depicting the history of westward immigration in the United States (with Conestoga wagons, steamboats, railroad locomotives, and aircraft), and with niches containing statues of 25 prominent Americans (to be selected by Borglum). The assistance of noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright was obtained. Although some beginning work was done, the Hall of Records never saw reality.
The Mount Rushmore Memorial In Later Years
The actual sculpting of the four presidential figures-with dynamite, air drills and jack hammers-was more engineering than art. This was fortunate, for until 1938 Borglum's sixty-man crew was made mostly of skid row bums and down and out miners," according to one writer. ("The Shrine of Democracy," by Jay Scriba, April-May 1965 issue of Modern Maturity, condensed from an earlier article, date not given, in The Milwaukee Journal.) who went on to say: "Borglum received $187,000 for his work, but he spent money very freely and he was always running out of it. A nervous backer who asked for an estimate on the project's final cost was told to 'call up King Cheops and ask him how much his pyramid cost, and what he paid the creator.'" The last comment was typical of the comments Borglum made to anyone who dared challenge his ideas.
An undated clipping from Look magazine noted that the Mount Rushmore Memorial would be seven and a half times larger than the Sphinx of Egypt and would erode only one tenth of an inch in 100,000 years. "It is so large that 16 workmen can work on the same feature of a face at the same time. The head of Washington is 65 feet from forehead to chin. A National Park Service official recently said that 'the very temperamental sculptor' made it difficult to estimate progress on the work. Borglum replied it was 'no boy's job. '"
In the Mount Rushmore Memorial sculpture group, Washington's head was done first and was to be the most prominent of the four presidents. It was unveiled in 1930, followed by Jefferson in 1936 (at which time Borglum suggested that President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicate the Memorial as a "Shrine to Democracy"), Lincoln in 1937, and Theodore Roosevelt in 1939. The typical dimension of a face was 60 or more feet from his chin to the crown of his head, a far cry from the 500-foot sculpture of Washington and the other mammoth figures originally envisioned but still large enough to be the world's largest stone sculpture group. During the 1930s Borglum was involved in continuing disputes with laborers, backers of the project, and the United States government.
When finally finished under the supervision of Borglum's son Lincoln in 1941, the Mount Rushmore Memorial sculpture group occupied a space on the mountain measuring nearly 300 by 500 feet. Borglum stated that he had left an extra three inches of stone on each of the presidential figures to provide for normal weathering over the next 300,000 years, at which time the portraits would "look their best." Visitors numbered 10 million by 1958 and one to two million per year after that, accounting for an estimated 75% of the tourist visitors to South Dakota.