MOUNT RUSHMORE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 439.

There is a unique monument in the state of South Dakota in the USA. It is called Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The memorial is indeed a lasting tribute to American leadership. It features 18-meter tall sculptures of the heads of four US presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln – all carved in granite rock. The project was carried out by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. When he died, his son Lincoln Borglum finished it.

Curiously enough, the mountain itself was once named not after a President but just after a prominent New York lawyer. The entire project took 14 years to complete. The work continued between 1927 and 1941. The sculptor Borglum and 400 workers created the colossal busts of U.S. presidents to represent the first 150 years of American history. These presidents were selected by Borglum because of their role in preserving the Republic and expanding its territory.

It is hard to believe it, but Mount Rushmore raises many controversial issues. Firstly, it is controversial among Native Americans. It happened so because this area was annexed from the Lakota tribe after the Great Sioux War. In 1971, members of the American Indian Movement led an occupation of the monument and even named it “Mount Crazy Horse”. However, several years ago the first Native American superintendent of the park was appointed. He said that he would promote the opening of more “avenues of interpretation” of the monument and its symbolism. Secondly, there is some controversy about the sculptor himself. For instance, he was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Anyway, Mount Rushmore is a top tourist attraction in the area. In 2004, over two million visitors traveled to the memorial. Because of its fame as a monument, Mount Rushmore has frequently been depicted in popular culture. In some films, it has been humorously depicted as a secret base of operations for the United States military. In another one, the memorial marked the location of the mythical golden city. But whatever the media depict, the monument itself remains well known all over the world and most likely will stay where it is now for the next 40 million years or so.