Mount Rushmore National Monument

Mount Rushmore, the "shrine of American democracy", attracts millions of visitors every year. In 1927 the American sculptor Gutzom Borglum (1867-1941), a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, began the task of hewing heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, each over 60 ft high, out of the granite rock of Mount Rushmore (5725 ft). Work continued until 1941, involving the blasting away of no less than 400,000 tons of rock.

After Gutzom Borglum's death in March 1941 his son Lincoln carried on the work. Shortage of money and the uncertainties of the Second World War led to the suspension of the project in October 1941; but 50 years later, in a ceremony on July 3rd 1991, President George Bush was able formally to declare the huge work of sculpture completed. An avenue flanked by the flags of all the states of the Union now leads to the Visitor Center. From mid-May to mid-September the monument is illuminated. The lights are switched on every evening at 9pm in a ceremony accompanied by the playing of the national anthem, which many spectators join in singing.