Mount Rushmore

An obsessed artist struggles against bankruptcy, public indifference, and a brutal terrain, to build the great American monument, Mount Rushmore. High on a granite cliff in South Dakota's Black Hills tower the huge carved faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Together they constitute the world's largest piece of sculpture.

An obsessed artist struggles against bankruptcy, public indifference, and a brutal terrain, to build the great American monument, Mount Rushmore. High on a granite cliff in South Dakota's Black Hills tower the huge carved faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Together they constitute the world's largest piece of sculpture.

Since 1930, more than 50,000,000 people have visited Mount Rushmore, the biggest -- and arguably the most compelling -- monument on the face of the earth.

Gutzon Borglum and his team of workers were aware that there would be challenges to face during the sculpting of Mount Rushmore. While some of the faults were easy to identify, others were difficult to detect.

Even though the workers blasted down 60 feet to find carve-able rock, huge cracks took shape on the Jefferson face. Borglum used a special concoction of materials to fill in the cracks in Jefferson's head, costing additional time and money.

After his workers had blasted off the surface rock of the mountain, Gutzon Borglum spent days and nights watching how the light and shadow landed on the mountain. This process ultimately made him decide to deviate from the original plan and shift 20 degrees. Borglum built a studio size model of Mount Rushmore and proceeded to enlarge the measurements on a scale to sculpt the mountain itself.