Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore is a giant sculpture carved into a granite mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The sculpture shows the faces of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Workers carved it between 1927 and 1941. Today it is a national memorial run by the National Park Service, and about two million people visit each year.

The four presidents were chosen to represent four big chapters of American history. Washington stands for the country's founding. Jefferson stands for its growth, since he doubled the size of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln stands for keeping the country together during the Civil War. Roosevelt stands for the country's rise as a world power in the early 1900s.

The sculpture was designed by an artist named Gutzon Borglum. He picked granite because it wears away very slowly, only about one inch every 10,000 years. The faces are about 60 feet tall, taller than a six-story building. Roughly 400 workers helped carve the mountain. They used dynamite to blast away most of the rock, then drilled and chiseled the details. Surprisingly, no one died during the 14 years of work, even though the job was dangerous. Borglum died in 1941, and his son Lincoln finished the project later that same year.

The mountain has another history that is harder. The Black Hills are sacred land to the Lakota people. The United States signed a treaty in 1868 promising the Black Hills to the Lakota forever. Then gold was found there. The government took the land back in the 1870s. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the United States had taken the Black Hills illegally and ordered the government to pay the Lakota for them. The Lakota have refused the money, which now sits in a bank account worth more than a billion dollars. They say they want the land returned, not paid for.

Nearby, another huge mountain carving has been under way since 1948. It is called the Crazy Horse Memorial, and it honors the Lakota war leader Crazy Horse. When finished, it will be far larger than Mount Rushmore. The face was completed in 1998, but the rest of the sculpture is still being carved.

Mount Rushmore was meant to be a symbol of American history and pride. For many visitors, it is exactly that. For others, it is a reminder that American history is more complicated than the four faces on the cliff. Both stories are part of what the mountain means today.