“ By MRS. GUTZON BORGLUM
A nation’s memorials are a record of its civilization and the artist who builds them is the instrument of his time. He is inspired by the same forces that influence the nation’s destiny—the greater the period, the greater the art. The artist cannot escape his destiny. ”

“ How else can we explain why a man should abandon a comfortable way of life, among pleasant surroundings, to hurl himself against a gigantic rock, to cling like a human fly to a perpendicular peak, to struggle with hostile human nature, in order to carve against the sky a record of the great experiment in democracy on this continent—a record which will live on and be an inspiration to future generations, a shrine to be visited, even after the thing it commemorated may have passed. ”

“ The struggle going on almost everywhere today, in our own country no less than in some of those others which have already lost their liberties, is the struggle between the conception of a strong centralized state controlling the lives of the citizens for the sake of economics and national power, and the conception of personal liberty affording the greatest possible scope for the individual to live his life as he wills. The old questions which Jefferson and Hamilton fought over were who is to rule, why are they to rule, what is the object of their rule? ”

“ I believed the healthy, powerful youth and frontiersman, the lover, lawyer of spotless record, legislator, the thrice candidate for President, had been falsely drawn. I believed if properly seen and truly read, the compelling and enduring greatness of the man would be found written in his actions, in his figure, in his deportment, in his face, and that some of this compelling greatness might be gotten into the stone. ”

“ The records of electricity, beginning with Franklin, which has given us light, heat, music, the radio, the telegraph, the telephone and controls in power the extent of which we can hardly imagine, must be here, together with the records of literature, the records of travel, immigration, religious development and also the record of perhaps the largest contribution that we have made to humanity, which has been free controlled peace, a government of the people, by and for the people. Struggle as we will that great contribution is today the cause for the real unrest of Europe. ”

“ While he may never be loved as Lincoln was loved, or rise to the stature of Washington, his example, fortitude in adversity, and fight for the betterment of his fellow men will ever be like a beacon going before to inspire men and women everywhere who are seeking to make the world a better place in which to live. ”

“ I want, somewhere in America on or near the Rockies, the backbone of the Continent, so far removed from succeeding, selfish, coveting civilizations, a few feet of stone that bears witness, carries the likenesses, the dates, a word or two of the great things we accomplished as a Nation, placed so high it won’t pay to pull down for lesser purposes. ”

“ Their noble heads are lofty enough to mingle with the clouds, and the parading lights of sun and moon and stars, and the processionals of rain and snow and mist give them a beauty that is always changing yet everlastingly changeless.
Only a great soul and a great artist could have conceived or achieved such a monument to them and to himself. ”

“ A great portrait is always full of compelling presence, more even than is seen in the original at all times, for a great portrait depicts great moments and carries the record of the whole man. It is, therefore, not enough to draw a mask.
Lincoln is a comfort and a reality, an example, a living inspiration to every mother and every son in America. No mask will satisfy us; we want to see what we care for ”

“ What gave Jefferson his profound importance in his own day, as it does now, was his view of human life. He was, and still is, the greatest and most influential American exponent of both Liberalism and Americanism.
Liberalism is rather an attitude than a program. It is less a solution of governmental problems than it is a way of looking at them. It is based on the doctrine of live and let live. The Liberal is willing to take risks feared by both Conservatives and Socialists. Not being a fool, he realizes, as do the others, that society must have a structure ”

“ The eastern, old-world eye could not read beyond the queer hat, bad tailoring, and boots you could not now give away—and he was so long he fairly had to stoop to look the little world in the face. Never has bad tailoring, homely, deferential manner, so completely hidden seer, jester, master of men, as did these simple accoutrements this first great gift of the West. ”

“ Yet they are not offered as gods, but as plain men who glorified the plain man. Each of them is greater in magnitude than the so-called Egyptian Sphinx. The Sphinx represented an unanswerable riddle and she cruelly destroyed all who could not answer it. But these presidents of ours represent brave, clear thinking towards safety and dignity and happiness for all mankind.
The Sphinx was really a portrait, the largest portrait ever made till Borglum came along. It is the head of King Khafre set on the body of a crouching lion guarding the king’s tomb, with his pyramid back of it. ”

“ Washington’s face is so placed that it catches the first rays of light in the morning and reflects the last ruddy glow in the evening. Many beautiful works of art are made insignificant by poor lighting.
Senator Peter Norbeck, who had created the park system of South Dakota and played an important part in the creation of the Rushmore Memorial, also agreed that, in spite of its remote position with only riding trails leading to it, there was no other location possible. ”

“ We see a dual nature struggling with a dual problem, delivering a single result—to the whole. He was more deeply rooted in the home principles that are keeping us together than any man who was ever asked to make his heart-beat national—too great to become president, except by some extraordinary combination of circumstances. ”

“ The contributing factors are of interest and should be related but two outstanding facts are that a few kindred souls, giants in their day, fostered a form of democratic government and established a great nation and that a hundred and fifty years later another group of Americans realized the importance of making a record in the granite for all time of what manner of men they were and what they achieved. ”

“ It was President Calvin Coolidge who said to Sculptor Gutzon Borglum that among the immortals to be carved upon Mount Rushmore a place must be found for Theodore Roosevelt, “because he was the first president to say to Big Business, ‘thus far you shall go and no farther.’” Washington is there because he was the trusted leader that made these United States possible, and was great and strong enough to refuse a crown and lay down the scepter when his work was done. ”

“ They brought the mountain into being and gave it form. But those relentless parents will not be content to leave their child as they fashioned it. They will continue their work of disintegration on the surface of the rock and along the cracks, until eventually they will completely destroy the mountain they formed, and long before the mountain will have been destroyed, the magnificent carvings of man will disappear. “How long,” we anxiously ask, “will the carvings endure?” Two processes will tend eventually to destroy the memorial, chemical weathering and physical disintegration. ”

“ We are not here trying to carve an epic, portray a moonlight scene, or write a sonnet; neither are we dealing with mystery or tragedy, but rather the constructive and the dramatic moments or crises in our amazing history. ”

“ In his expenses he was honorable, but exact; liberal in contribution to whatever promised utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects and all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections; but he exactly calculated every man’s value, and gave him a solid esteem proportioned to it. ”

“ But, although the granite of which the mountain is composed dates back to a period almost inconceivably remote, Mount Rushmore itself is much younger. We know that all of the granite mountains of the southern Black Hills were carved out of the rocks by the process of erosion. Field evidence indicates that fairly early in the Tertiary period, approximately thirty million years ago, erosion had carved out the topography of the Black Hills into much the same stage as we see it today. ”

“ On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance. ”

“ There was no room in the rock which contains the heads of the four presidents and the only other place seemed to be the west wall of the granite cliff, or in the hall of records. To quote again from Mr. Borglum, from a letter written in January 1940: “If we decide that the west side of the mountain is suitable, I am for it. We must work out a design that is fitting and in no sense harmful in the matter of lighting or location to subjects determined upon and I am entirely in favor of carving the faces of two or three women. ”

“ The entire head of the sphinx in Egypt is not quite as long as Washington’s nose. The entire cost of the Memorial, including all expenses of carving, buildings and salaries, is $900,000. This is at the rate of less than two dollars for every ton of stone removed, which is a cost incredibly low considering the hardness of the granite and that every piece must be removed in such a way as not to injure the surface behind. ”

“ We are cool-headedly, clear-mindedly setting down a few crucial, epochal facts regarding the accomplishments of the Old World radicals who shook the shackles of oppression from their light feet and fled despotism to people a continent: who built an empire and rewrote the philosophy of freedom and compelled the world to accept its wiser, happier forms of government. ”

“ Another unusual natural phenomenon of the Black Hills country is the Devils Tower across the South Dakota state line in Wyoming. This is a great column of igneous rock towering 1,280 feet above the Belle Fourche river, whose course is near the base. Devils Tower has the distinction of being the first national monument created under the Antiquities Act of 1906. It was established by proclamation of September 24 of that year, by President Theodore Roosevelt. ”

“ As a lone fighter he was without a peer in his day and generation, and had the impetuosity and zeal required to arouse a mighty following in any cause which he espoused and upon which he had deep convictions. ”

“ Within his coming the West has steadily rolled back the East, and of his ways the world has many. The silk hat, the tall figure, the swing, the language and manner have become American, and we all understand. ”

“ Each succeeding civilization forgets its predecessor, and out of its body builds its homes, its temples. Civilizations are ghouls. Egypt was pulled apart by its successor; Greece was divided among the Romans ”

“ The upper part of the face of Theodore Roosevelt was uncovered at that time.
The face of Jefferson begins to take form. The nose and the forehead are already plainly visible, but many tons of stone must be removed before the picture is complete.
Mr. Borglum was always scrupulously careful to protect his men from harm and it was his boast that in all his years of hazardous mountain carving no worker was seriously injured. ”

“ One of my motives in this work was to carve these records of our great West-World adventure as high into the heavens as I could find the stone.”
As man and as sculptor he was passionately American and he has not only given to his country monuments of art that equal the greatest of other nations, but he has given artistic expression to the ideals that make America America.
The Sphinx and its temple have only recently been recovered from the sand that submerged them for thousands of years. ”

“ There are about seven winches on the top of each head. The men are lowered to their place of work by these winches, taking with them their jackhammers or pneumatic tools and other necessary equipment. One man is located in a position where he can see all the men at work, and is “The Callboy,” and has a microphone with a loud speaker at each of the winches and when any of the men working in the swings wants to be raised or lowered they signal this call-boy and he relays the message thru the loud speakers to the winchman. ”

“ Owing to repeated requests from important organizations of women, the urging of some senators and congressmen and Mr. Borglum’s own realization of the part women have played in the development of our country, plans had been under way for some years to include women in the great Shrine of Democracy. ”

“ Pneumatic drills are used for drilling and the compressed air is provided by large compressors located on the ground and driven by electricity. The air is forced or conveyed to the top of the mountain by a 3′′ pipe and then by the use of smaller pipes and rubber hoses is conveyed to the drills. ”

“ His enemies seldom outmaneuvered him and he knew how to strike when a bold stroke was required to accomplish a desired end. His association with men of all types and his keen observation gave him an insight into men that enabled him to distinguish quickly and accurately the spurious from the real. ”

“ He would rather associate with an uneducated but quick-witted cowpuncher than with the dull and unimaginative. This accounts for his friendship with men and women in all walks of life. Talent and ability, usefully employed, always had for him a special appeal but he was bored and annoyed by the pretentious commonplace. ”

“ We must frankly recognize them and guard against them so far as possible, as it would be folly to ignore them. If the science of geology can do no more in a practical way for mankind than to point out dangers and sound warnings, it does a worth while service. “How long will the memorial last?” Geology cannot answer specifically. An eminent geologist has already given as definite an answer as it is possible to give, and I can do no better than to close by quoting from the address given by the late Dr. C. C. O’Harra at the unveiling of the head of Washington.
“How long will Mount Rushmore last? ”

“ It is the link that binds the East to the West by water and has helped to make this country one of the great commercial and industrial nations of the world. The canal is also of first importance from the standpoint of national defense and has added greatly to the mobility and usefulness of our Navy, which has always been our first line of defense against any possible foreign foe. ”