The Faces of Mt. Rushmore

Between 1927 and 1941, Gutzon Borglum, his son and a crew of about 400 blasted and carved away in excess of 450,000 tons of granite from a mountain named Mt. Rushmore. (The mountain’s most famous name came from a New York lawyer surveying gold claims in the area in 1885. Charles E. Rushmore asked his guide, William Challis, “What’s the name of that mountain?” Challis allegedly replied, “It’s never had one…till now…we’ll call the damn thing Rushmore.”)

The result, as everyone knows, is one of the most iconic of all American symbols:

Facing southeast (maximum sun exposure) in order, are the 60-foot-high likenesses of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Borglum chose these four, he said, for the following reasons:

George Washington (1732-1799) represents our nation as its founding father.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) represents expansion, as a signer of the Louisiana Purchase and author of the Declaration of Independence.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) represents conservation and the industrial blossoming of the nation.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) represents perseverance at all costs since he was the nation’s leader during the Civil War.

Experts say that there is no room to add more faces and that the remaining granite is too unstable to carve since it might damage or destroy the ones already there.

But while the famous four will remain for thousands of years, it is always fun to speculate on who should have been or who should be on Mt. Rushmore. For example, all four are White, male and Presidents. Fair?

Since the monument was completed in 1941, there are lots of other people who could be considered candidates for carving in the intervening years.

I posed the following question to numerous folks, “Who would you like to see on Mt. Rushmore? You can only have four so if you want to add another, you must subtract one. Add two, subtract two. Or keep these four?”

Not surprisingly, most of the respondents wanted to keep the original four and leave the national memorial as it is. But there were a few other suggestions. One person wanted to replace Theodore Roosevelt (TR) with Barack Obama. Another, saying the memorial needed a woman, suggested either Eleanor Roosevelt or Harriet Tubman. That same respondent also suggested replacing TR with another Roosevelt, Franklin D. It would be interesting to see Franklin and Eleanor side by side in granite.

The most common change submitted was exchanging TR for FDR. I might agree with that one. FDR was elected four times and led the nation through a world-wide depression and the Second World War. No question, he qualifies.

Two other Presidents were mentioned as possibilities to replace TR, Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Truman had the unenviable task of following FDR but accomplished much including the end of World War II, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, establishing NATO, recognizing Israel and domestically, economic transition, social programs, the Fair Deal and legislative oversight. But he also involved the U.S. in a very unpopular war in Korea that hasn’t officially ended yet. Disqualifier?

LBJ, after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, accomplished even more with his “Great Society.” Passed were Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, War on Poverty, Education Acts, Clean Air and Water Acts, Housing and Urban Development and Fair Housing. More than 200 major bills were signed into law, most still in force today. Yet LBJ had his very unpopular war in Vietnam.

Presidents were not the only possible names I received. They included Thomas A. Edison, John Lewis, Sandra Day O’Connor, Will Rogers, Abigail Adams, Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Susan B. Anthony.

So, what is your opinion? If you could carve your own Mt. Rushmore, who would you choose?

Contact Rick at tct@pageone-inc.com