Can you guess who these men were? Here's s quote from Gutzon to help you out; "The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt." Gutzon Borglum Four powerhouse presidents were carved on the face of Mt. Rushmore between 1927 and 1941 by Danish-American scupltor, Gutzon Borglum and his assistant son, Lincoln Borglum. I did a little research on the sculptor and found his personal story as interesting as the main attraction. Here's just a sampling; born in 1867 into a polygamist Mormon family (the two wives were sisters), took art lessons, married his teacher, Elizabeth Putman who was 19 years his senior, traveled Europe, divorced after 10 years, studied in Paris, befriended sculptor Auguste Rodin, returned to the US to begin creating "American" art, carved a colossal head of Lincoln which Lincoln's son Robert saw and proclaimed, " I never thought I would see father again", created Robert E. Lee's head on Stone Mountain, got mad, got fired, and finally started working on his most well known public art piece, Mt. Rushmore. Wow! You know what I always say! "Why be normal when you can be interesting". Meanwhile back at the main attraction, Dave and I both entertained the tourist again as we painted and drew the monument. Dave had visited over 3o years earlier so when he got home he dug out an old sketchbook and compared drawings. It was interesting to see how his skills had matured. This was my first visit to Mt Rushmore and although the park was teaming with people from all over the world and we ran into an epic rainstorm complete with tornado warnings, I finally got to see one of our countries famous patriotic sites. Mt Rushmore was named after NYC lawyer, Charles Rushmore, who upon seeing the granite outcropping in 1884 called it a, "majestic pile". That "pile now draws in almost 3 million visitors a year and we were there!
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