Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Mount Rushmore National Memorial lies in the Black Hills of western South Dakota, about 3 kilometres southwest of the town of Keystone and roughly 40 kilometres from Rapid City. The memorial park covers 1,278 acres and is managed by the National Park Service.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum led the carving from 1927 to 1941, assisted by his son Lincoln Borglum, who finished the work after his father's death in 1941. About 400 workers used dynamite, drills and hand tools to shape the granite. Borglum called the work the Shrine of Democracy.

Each face is about 18 metres high. The four presidents were chosen to stand for the birth, growth, development and preservation of the nation. The Lakota Sioux know the mountain as Six Grandfathers, and the carving on land they consider sacred remains a point of debate.

The Avenue of Flags leads to the Grand View Terrace, and the Presidential Trail passes close below the faces. The Sculptor's Studio and the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center explain the carving. Entry is free, as the National Park Service does not charge an entrance fee here, but the parking structure run by the concessioner Xanterra charges a fee, and one parking ticket is valid for a year. An evening lighting ceremony is held in summer.

The idea came from Doane Robinson, South Dakota's state historian, who first imagined heroes of the American West such as Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. Borglum chose presidents instead. The mountain's English name is older than the carving: in the 1880s a New York lawyer, Charles E. Rushmore, came to check mining claims, asked his guide what the peak was called and was told it would now be named after him.

President Calvin Coolidge attended the dedication on 10 August 1927 and promised federal money, and carving began on 4 October. Washington's face was dedicated on 4 July 1934, Jefferson's in 1936 and Lincoln's on 17 September 1937. In all about 410,000 tonnes of rock were blasted off the mountainside. Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941, and Lincoln Borglum led the last months of work.

The memorial draws more than two million visitors a year, so summer mornings are the calmest time. The Lakota claim to the Black Hills has a legal history too: in 1980 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the land had been taken without just compensation and awarded the Sioux Nation $102 million, a payment the tribes have refused to accept.