OTD in History: Rushmore Begins

Borglum's crowning achievement starts in 1927

Mount Rushmore is cool and good, actually.

The carving took 14 years to complete, and probably wasn’t accelerated by the 1929 Stock Market crash or the ensuing Great Depression. Gutzon Borglum’s original vision for it was much more elaborate, and would have included a large inscription of the Louisiana Purchase on the face of the rock east of Lincoln.

Borglum must have had an affinity for Lincoln, not just for his inclusion on the sculpture, but also because he named his son after him. If ‘Gutzon Borglum’ sounds like an odd name, it is—he’s the son of Danish immigrants who came to America in the mid-1800s with Latter-day Saint pioneers. Borglum’s father left the Church and moved elsewhere, eventually sending Gutzon to Europe for training as a sculptor and artist.

I don’t know much about how Borglum funded the carving, I’ll have to look up a book on that. I used Mount Rushmore as a site in my most recent manuscript (for the Ark Prize) and so I poked around a bit for historical pieces to make the story more robust.

One of my favorite little details is the Hall of Records behind it—this was going to be bigger, like the sculpture, but funds ran out and Borglum died before the whole thing was finished anyway (the aforementioned Lincoln had to wrap up the project in his wake.) The Hall also featured in my manuscript.

If it doesn’t win the Ark Prize (but it totally will) I’m still going to publish it, so no worries there. You’ll get to see it. Kenny Parrish already has and he gave me highly valuable feedback on the first draft. I’m very hyped on this book.

Anyway, Rushmore is cool.