Mount+Rushmore

__**Mount Rushmore**__ Mount Rushmore! One of the greatest American symbols of freedom, but __**do all feel the same about this great monument?**__ “For many American Indians, it is a symbol of all the country has done to betray them”(“Two sides”). Most people look at these four individuals as leaders. Others see them as people that aided in the destruction of their way of life. As America was growing, the Native American way of life was being lost. It would be similar to Cuba taking over America and then making a statue of Fidel Castro in the homeland of America. No matter what your opinion is Mount Rushmore is an amazing masterpiece but did you know that “Mount Rushmore is actually an unfinished work” (“Ahmann”). “Gutzon Borglum had intended for the figures of the presidents to be carved in detail to the waist.” (“Ahmann”)

__**Mount Rushmore is a huge part of South Dakota’s economy**__. “In a busy year it can lure almost 3m people” (Two sides). That’s tremendous considering that South Dakota’s population is nowhere close to 3 million. Many old mining towns in the black hills would be ghost towns if it wasn’t for Mount Rushmore. Now they have turned into tourist towns and most stores are only open in the summertime, during the tourist season. With this many tourists it’s not just going to affect small souvenir shops but it also provides booming business for hotels, restaurants and other tourist traps along the way. Many of these restaurants and hotels have opened up along the way to Mount Rushmore. Land prices have skyrocketed for many years in this particular part of the black hills. This part of the Hills was mainly, and still is, used for agriculture but now has a commercial value because of the tourism industry.


 * __So how big is Mount Rushmore?__** “George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, each face some 60 feet (18 meters) high.” (“Two Sides”) “Rushmore’s granite faces tower 5,500 feet above sea level”. “Each head on Mt. Rushmore is as tall as a six story building” and “Each president’s face is as tall as the Great Sphinx of Egypt, measuring 60 feet from the chin to the top of the head.” “The president’s noses are 20 feet long, each mouth 18 feet wide and the eyes are 11 feet across” (“Mount”). This gives you a good idea about the size of this monument.

Finally __**how and when was Mount Rushmore made?**__ “Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began drilling into the 5,725-foot mountain in 1927, at the age of 60… Creation of the Shrine of Democracy took 14 years and cost a mere $1 million”. “More than 800 million pounds of stone were removed from Mount Rushmore while carving the presidents”. (“Mount”) It’s truly amazing.

__**Works Cited**__

Ahmann, Laura. “Mount Rushmore National Memorial.” Tourism in South Dakota. 27 Oct. 1996. Web. 3 May 2010. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/students/Ahmann/rushmore.html. Mount Rushmore Information. JnM Design, 24 June 2009. Web. 22 Apr. 2010.  “Two sides to every story; Mount Rushmore.” The Economist (US) 2 Aug. 2008. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 14 Apr. 2010