The Creation of Mount Rushmore The Roaring Twenties were filled with dramatic change. These changes varied from lifestyle and social changes, to political and economic changes. One monumental change would start the alteration of South Dakota’s skyline forever. The construction of Mount Rushmore began with a dream; it would showcase the nation’s great presidential heroes; furthermore, the journey to accomplish that dream would be challenging.
History Behind It
In 1923, Doane Robinson had a vision of a massive mountain monument carved from stone that would put South Dakota on the map. He entrusted a respectable U.S. Senator, Peter Norbeck, to set the project into motion. Robinson’s dream captured the senator’s imagination. Robinson then sought…show more content… The third figure to be featured in stone was the 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt. He bestowed grand leadership when America was experiencing many changes due to rapid economic growth in the 1900s. It was Theodore Roosevelt, who was key in the negotiation and creation of the Panama Canal that would finally link the east to the west (United States. National Park Service). He was a conservationist and set up the United States’ National Park System to protect our resources and animals (www.visitrapidcity.com). Not only did he care about the country as a whole, but he cared for the common working man, and fought to end big business and large corporate monopolies, representing development (United States. National Park…show more content… The start of a worker’s day consisted of climbing 700 stairs to the top of the mountain. In order to work on the faces of the structure, a worker had to be lowered on ⅜ inch steel cables in a bosun chair (United States. National Park Service). Ninety percent of the carving was done using dynamite, removing nearly 450,000 tons of granite (www.ohranger.com). Powder Men would use specific amounts of dynamite to remove accurate quantities of rock, three to six inches away from the final carving surface. Drillers and carvers would then take over honeycombing the granite. Honeycombing was closely drilled holes that would weaken the granite to the state where it could be removed by hand. The final step was smoothing the surface. Workers would use hand facers or bumper tools to even up the granite, as smooth as a sidewalk (United States. National Park
