We went to see Mount Rushmore! Wow what an amazing thing to see in person. A man named Gutzon Borglum was the sculptor for the monument. Many people were very skeptical about the idea, not wanting to disturb the natural beauty of the Black Hills. He scouted out a location equaling 5,725 feet. The mountain had been named after a New York lawyer named Charles E. Rushmore. Before working on the mountain he made a model sculpture at a ratio of 1:12. One inch of the model would equal one foot on the mountain. He had many local craftsmen helping with the carving. He hadn't intended to use dynamite at all in the carving. He realized that the drilling and carving would take far too long on it's own. An engineer suggested it to him and they tried it. So it became a daily routine. They got better and better at it. The carving wound up being 90% made from the blasting! They smoothed out the final touches with some hand tools which they used while sitting on suspended swings. The statue total cost nearly $1 million when completed. Borglum died unfortunately before the monuments completion. The rest of the carving was overseen by his son Lincoln. The presidenst he choose were: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. We went to see it during the day. Went and found a campground about 14 miles away. Boy was that a hassle. We went to about 4 places around, and called a few and no one had a spot for us! A lot of people are out now traveling just as we are in their RVs. We went back then at night where they had a ceremony, and lit up the monument. "A monument's dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated.... Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what matter of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away." -Gutzon Borglum
We went to see Mount Rushmore! Wow what an amazing thing to see in person. A man named Gutzon Borglum was the sculptor for the monument. Many people were very skeptical about the idea, not wanting to disturb the natural beauty of the Black Hills. He scouted out a location equaling 5,725 feet. The mountain had been named after a New York lawyer named Charles E. Rushmore. Before working on the mountain he made a model sculpture at a ratio of 1:12. One inch of the model would equal one foot on the mountain. He had many local craftsmen helping with the carving. He hadn't intended to use dynamite at all in the carving. He realized that the drilling and carving would take far too long on it's own. An engineer suggested it to him and they tried it. So it became a daily routine. They got better and better at it. The carving wound up being 90% made from the blasting! They smoothed out the final touches with some hand tools which they used while sitting on suspended swings. The statue total cost nearly $1 million when completed. Borglum died unfortunately before the monuments completion. The rest of the carving was overseen by his son Lincoln. The presidenst he choose were: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. We went to see it during the day. Went and found a campground about 14 miles away. Boy was that a hassle. We went to about 4 places around, and called a few and no one had a spot for us! A lot of people are out now traveling just as we are in their RVs. We went back then at night where they had a ceremony, and lit up the monument. "A monument's dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated.... Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what matter of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away." -Gutzon Borglum
No comments:
Post a Comment