A BIG IDEA It was 1923 and Doane Robinson had a big idea Robinson was the state historian of South Dakota He knew his state was full of natural beauty It was also an important part of American history during the frontier days However South Dakota had a problem It was far away from most major American cities and difficult to get to Robinson wanted other people to discover South Dakota and he thought of a clever way to get them there Robinson wanted to carve giant statues into the rocks of South Dakota’s Black Hills He believed that these large statues would attract tourists to South Dakota Robinson talked about his idea to everyone he knew Many people liked Robinson’s idea Freedom Fact At the time automobiles were becoming popular making it easier for people to travel Building giant statues seemed like a great way to attract new drivers to the state 4
One of the people Robinson talked to was Peter Norbeck Norbeck was a U S senator and he had many important connections in the government Norbeck loved Robinson’s idea Because of his state support many other people joined the project The faces of four great U S presidents look out from Mount Rushmore one of the United States most powerful symbols 5
There was just one big challenge to face Who would carve Robinson’s giant figures Robinson knew how difficult the job would be He said The fellow who does it must be something more than a stone carver Then Robinson heard about a sculptor named John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum Borglum had a great reputation for creating huge sculptures In August 1924 Robinson wrote Borglum a letter inviting him to the Black Hills to create a heroic sculpture of unusual character Who Was Gutzon Borglum Gutzon Borglum was born in Idaho in 1867 but grew up on the frontier in Nebraska When he was sixteen Borglum traveled to San Francisco California to study painting Later he moved to Paris where he became a well-known artist In 1901 he moved to New York and started a new career as a sculptor Before starting on Mount Rushmore Borglum sculpted the Saints and Apostles for the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Newark New Jersey a bust of Lincoln for the U S Capitol in Washington D C and a statue at Lincoln’s burial place in Springfield Illinois 6 1867 1941
When Borglum got Robinson’s letter he was in Stone Mountain Georgia carving a monument to commemorate Civil War heroes from the Confederate Army However Borglum got angry with the people who had hired him for the job In 1925 Borglum destroyed all his models so no one else could use them and quit the job Then he headed off to South Dakota Gutzon Borglum quit his job carving Confederate heroes into Stone Mountain Georgia to take on the job of carving Mount Rushmore 7
