Mount Rushmore, 1937
Although there was a postcard Thursday about Mount Rushmore on 21 August 2014, I am putting up another one now because every so often I am lucky enough to find a series of postcards with old pictures that tell a story. This week four cards shared are from Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. All four cards were found at the Mount Rushmore gift shop. All have black and white photographs from the Denver Public Library Western History Collection and are Impact, Designed and Distributed in the U.S.A., printed in Korea publications. The card above has the identifier #26383 at the upper left on the reverse. Not all the heads had been completed when this picture was taken in September 1937 for the unveiling of the Lincoln face. The cards show the progress of the monument from the bare mountain face to the completed project and include some of the workers as well. The fifth card is a modern photograph of a worker cleaning the surface of one of the heads.
Mount Rushmore, ca 1923
This second card shows Mount Rushmore before work on the sculpture was started by Sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The photograph dates to about 1923. On the reverse, upper left, is #26384.
The Lakota Souix called the mountain, “The Six Grandfathers.” Among American settlers it was known variously as Cougar Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Slaughterhouse Rock and Keystone Cliffs. There are at least two stories about how the mountain got its current name of Mount Rushmore. Charles E. Rushmore (1857-1931) was a New York businessman and attorney who visited the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1885 to check titles and properties of an eastern mining company owned by James Wilson concerning the Etta tin mine.
In one story he is said to have made friends with the miners and prospectors. When he asked what the name of the great granite peak was he was told it did not have a name but it would be called Rushmore from then on. The other story related by rancher, Jerry Urbanek, is that Rushmore went to the Black Hills each year to hunt big game. One day he asked the name of the mountain and was told it was called Slaughterhouse Rock. Rushmore joked that his frequent trips gave him the right to have the mountain named after himself. More or less as a joke the locals started called it Mount Rushmore. Forty years later in 1925, Rushmore made the largest single contribution of funds, $5,000, towards Borglum’s sculpture on the mountain. The United States Board of Geographic Names officially recognized the name Mount Rushmore in 1930.
Mount Rushmore, in process, ca 1934
This third card with a photograph from the early 1930s shows the beginnings of the project. It has #26380 on the reverse.
Originally Borglum planned to put Jefferson to the left of Washington but the lack of carvable stone and the poor quality of the rock led to the removal of the partially completed head in 1934. The white section on the stone next to Washington shows where the uncompleted Jefferson head was removed. Construction on the monument began in 1927 with the faces completed between 1934 and 1939. Borglum had planned to depict the figures from head to waist. After he died in March 1941 his son, Lincoln Borglum took over as leader of the construction but due to lack of funding the project was forced to end in October 1941.
Mount Rushmore with some of the almost 400 workers, ca 1941
The fourth card from about 1941 has the number #26381 and shows some of the almost 400 workers who spent 14 years creating Borglum’s sculpture known as the “Shrine of Democracy.” Gutzon Borglum’s son, Lincoln, is shown at the far right of the second row.
The mammoth size of these heads, 60 feet or 18 meters, is shown on this fifth card with a modern photograph showing a worker plugging natural fissures in the rock face. New improved sealant has also replaced material used by Borglum in the 1930s. This postcard has RP427 on the reverse and is from the South Dakota Department of Tourism, 2015.
This summer Bob and I decided to drive across the country to Marietta, Ohio, where my son and his family live, instead of flying. We planned to visit parks and monuments as part of the trip and also stop in Salt Lake City, Utah to visit with Bob's son and his family. It had been 17 years since I last visited Mount Rushmore. We didn’t see any mountain goats near the monument this time but despite the extremely hot weather we did walk part way around and took several pictures from different angles. The visitor center area includes Borglum’s workshop with models of the sculptures.
Mount Rushmore, 2017
There is a half-mile loop trail and boardwalk in the front of the mountain that we walked. Behind the heads is a chamber with a vault holding 16 porcelain enamel panels with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, biographies of the four presidents and Borglum and the history of the U.S. The chamber and vault were installed in 1998 as part of a planned “Hall of Records.” There is a trail up around the back to where the chamber is located, but it was too hot to try that hike the day we were there. The Hall of Records has not been completed as yet.
Somewhat by accident we spotted this marker along the loop trail.
Inside Gutzon Borglum's workroom with models of the presidents
Inside the workshop there are models of what the sculptures were to look like. Due to lack of funding, only the heads were ever completed on the mountain.
Gutzon Borglum by Lincoln Borglum
For additional information and pictures, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutzon_Borglum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_E._Rushmore
21 August 2014, Beware of the Rug, Thursday postcard -- Search: Mount Rushmore
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