MOUNT RUSHMORE - SOUTH DAKOTA [1102 US] In 1923, state historian Doane Robinson suggested carving giant statues in South Dakota's Black Hills. Robinson wanted his sculptures to stand at the gateway to the West, where the Black Hills rise from the plains as a prelude to the Rockies. The memorial's backers called in the master sculptor of Stone Mountain, Gutzon Borglum. Borglum scouted out the location: 5,725-foot Mount Rushmore, named in 1885 for New York lawyer, Charles E. Rushmore. Borglum envisioned four US presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and T. Roosevelt. The work was completed in 1941, on the eve of US entry into World War II.
