9781422287514

12 Mount Rushmore: Memorial to Our Greatest Presidents

first to have such a grand imagination. Twenty-seven years earlier, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled, rising 300 feet above New York Harbor. And nearly 75 years earlier, a Missouri Senator had proposed a large carv- ing of Christopher Columbus in the Rockies. The idea of making enormous sculptures had become especially popular since the turn of the century. Larger-than-life memorials, statues, and sculptures were commissioned by the government, religious groups, and private investors to adorn and commemorate public and private buildings, parks, and spaces. And at the very same time when Doane Robinson was conceiving his dream, there The area of the Black Hills known as the Needles consists of tall spires of granite, which have been worn down through years of erosion by wind and weather. Doane Robinson originally envisioned carvings of American heroes on these spires.