Power and Purpose

In honor of Presidents’ Day this week, let’s take a deeper look at one of our country’s most cherished monuments to our Commanders-in-Chief: Mount Rushmore.

Visited annually by over 3 million tourists, this tribute to four of our greatest leaders took fourteen years to complete and cost just under one million dollars. The image of those sixty-foot famous faces is so indelible, it’s hard to believe that the monument originally was meant to include the presidents’ bodies, from their waists up.

It was the Danish-American sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, and his son, Lincoln, who decided which presidents should be immortalized on this iconic U.S. symbol that would pay tribute to the early history of the United States. They chose Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln — in honor of their significant contributions to the birth, growth and preservation of our country.

Through the years, there have been several campaigns to add a fifth face to the mountain. Some of the suggestions have included: Susan B. Anthony, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, JFK… and even Elvis!