4 dead dudes carved in the front so tourists can come and look and spend money, but you knew this already

Gutzum Borglum was the sculpter that supervised the carving mentioned in Wikipedia. This project he got to finish. He began the Stone Mountain GA carving but was run out of town as the locals didn’t like his work, which was subsequently blasted away for a new artist to begin.

It was carved in the 1930’s as part of the Works Progress Administration and most of the roads in the surrounding Black Hills were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of FDR’s new deal recovery from the great depression.

The Black Hills were stolen from the Lakota(et al) Tribes in 1874-76 and the final battle in this little war was at Little Big Horn Montana. We lost but we won the war. The US Supreme Court has ruled that this was illeagal and awarded +/- 200 million to the Sioux tribes, which they have refused to collect.

I don’t like the new fancy tourist center the built up there in the 90’s and miss the old rustic viewing area.

Old Guy, Live in Rapid City, SD

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, is a monumental granite sculpture located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents: George Washington (1732-1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).[1] The entire memorial covers 1,278 acres (5.17 km²),[2] and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.[3] It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts approximately 2 million people annually.[4]

Mt Rushmore was a stronghold for the Lakota (Blackfoot) Nation. The U.S. Government, in an attempt to thwart and unnerve the Nation, secretly planned to blow-up the small mountain in a series of attacks.

This was to happen over the course of three years. One evening, John D Dwayne, a dynamite expert placed seventeen sticks of dynamite around a small portion of the mountain. The next morning, after the detonation, the group of 25 ex-army soldiers noticed the face of George Washington staring down at them.

The Lakota, knowing they would forever be under the nose of the man, fled north. John D Dwayne was now commissioned to sculpt the three other presidents.

It has the faces of 4 of the most influential presidents of the USA scriptured across it. I’m surprised you didn’t know this.

Coney Dogs!