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Mount Rushmore
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One of the most famous parks in South Dakota is Mount Rushmore National Memorial. In 1998, visitors brought $585 million to the state of South Dakota.
Sculptors used dynamite and drills to shape the presidents faces near Rapid City, South Dakota. 450,000 pounds of rock was removed from Mount Rushmore to carve the faces. The faces show four important presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
In 1927 a sculpture named Gutzon Borglum began Mount Rushmore, the work ended in 1941 unfinished. Borglum was a famous American artist. He visited the Black Hills, looked at many mountains, and studied the shapes of the rocks. Borglum had a crew of 400 people. There were several broken bones, bruises, and cuts, but no one was killed. The people who worked on Mount Rushmore earned 50 or 60 cents an hour.
Mount Rushmore is 60 feet tall, about the height of a five story building. In 1997 Mount Rushmore National Memorial park was remodeled. The Memorial got a new museum, visitors' center, a gift shop, a theater, and a 0.5 mile trail that leads people along the base front of Mount Rushmore. They also got a multilevel parking garage.
