Along with the Lincoln Memorial, the United States honored its sixteenth president by placing his likeness on a mountain. Lincoln’s face was sculpted into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota along with the heads of three other famous American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Doane Robinson, a South Dakota state historian, envisioned a massive sculpture of American heroes carved into the side of Mt. Rushmore. He wanted to create a tourist attraction, and in 1924 he contacted the sculptor Gutzon Borglum to build the memorial. The artist’s first idea was to create a bust or statue of Washington. It was not until 1927 that the idea to add the other three men took hold. The work started in October 1927 and ended fourteen years later in October 1941.
