Here is what Mt Rushmore might have looked like if the project had not run out of funds
People are familiar with this historical carving on the mountain but they might not know what the plans behind the original design were like.
Visitors from across America and around the world are consistently awe-struck by the colossal artistry of Mount Rushmore. This magnificent sculpture features the visages of four U.S. presidents—Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln—in South Dakota's Black Hills. The construction began in 1927 and ended in 1941, but many people are unaware of how this landmark remains unfinished.
According to UNILAD, the original expansive design by Gutzon Borglum for the side of Mount Rushmore was never completed. Borglum's initial plans included a massive inscription known as the Entablature on the mountain's eastern side, shaped like the Louisiana Purchase. There were plans to put "a brief history of the United States" on the Entablature. However, the idea was ditched in 1934.
Along with that, Borglum had made a scale model for the entire sculpture that featured the torso of Washington and Lincoln in neat detail in 1925, as captured by Rise Studio. The plans were scrapped as well. All these elaborate plans surrounding the sculpture fell through after the United States Congress threatened to cut off all funding for the project unless the funds were used specifically to finish the sculpture itself, per UNILAD.
They hired a new sculptor, Henry Agustus Lukeman, after removing Borglum from the project, per Smithsonian Magazine. "Every able man in America refused it, and thank God, every Christian," Borglum later said of Lukeman, per the outlet. "They got a Jew." A third sculptor, Walker Kirtland Hancock, put the finishing touches to the memorial in 1972. However, Borglum was responsible for carving a major part of the project, which he started at the age of 60 and devoted the final 14 years of his life to it. Borglum's son, Lincoln, oversaw the finishing of the Mount Rushmore sculptures.
The iconic American landmark records an approximate footfall of over two million visitors each year who take a walk from the entrance of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota to the Avenue of Flags so they can peer up at the 60-foot tall faces of the former US presidents that have been immortalized in the mountain. As magnificent as it might look, the process of putting the visages in the rock came with a fair share of difficulties, per the outlet.
The Lakota Sioux, the area's original inhabitants, consider the Black Hills sacred. For some, the four presidents carved in the hill are not without negative symbolism, per Public Broadcasting Service. The landmark was built on the land that the white settlers took from the natives and it celebrated the Europeans who killed so many Native Americans as well. In the Treaty of 1868, the U.S. government promised the Sioux territory that included the Black Hills in perpetuity. The federal government later forced the Sioux to relinquish the Black Hills portion of their reservation, per the outlet.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on May 7, 2024. It has since been updated.
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