Once Mount Rushmore was settled on as the
location, Gutzon Borglum decided the sculpture should have a
more national focus, and chose the four presidents whose
likenesses would be carved into the mountain.
After securing federal funding,
construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents'
faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon
Gutzon Borglum's death in March 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum
took over construction. Although the initial concept
called for each president to be depicted from head to waist,
lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941.
The entire project cost just under one million dollars!
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