• U.S.

84 Years Later: The Making of Mount Rushmore

1 minute read

The Danish-American sculptor Gutzon Borglum began carving the heads of four presidents out of South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore in 1927, embarking on an ambitious project to build one of America’s most iconic memorials. Today, the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt attract more than 2 million visitors every year.

But construction was predictably laborious, and Borglum died in 1941 before he could see his project finished. His son, Lincoln Borglum, completed the sculpture later that year. Today, on the 84th anniversary of the Fourth of July dedication of Washington’s head in the early years of carving, TIME looks back at the construction of the memorial that immortalized four presidents.

MOUNT RUSHMORE
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum has marked off the rock which he will carve the likenesses of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., Aug. 15, 1927. AP
Mount Rushmore Construction
Drillers, suspended in slins fastened with cables to the winches at the top of the mountain, work on the George Washington head of the Mount Rushmore Memorial in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D. on July, 22, 1929. AP
Gutzon Borglum Working on Model
Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor, at work on the model for Mount Rushmore in his studio near the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D. circa 1930s. Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Gutzon Borglum Working on Sculpture
Gutzon Borglum seen in his studio at Rushmore is working on the model of the head of Washington, Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., circa 1930s. Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Mount Rushmore Construction
Stone carvers on scaffolding carve the face of Thomas Jefferson into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D. in 1930. Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Gutzon Borglum Inspecting Washington's Statue on Mount Rushmore
Gutzon Borglum and another man hang from the sculpted forehead of President George Washington on Borglum's famous monumental sculpture at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D. on May 31, 1932. Corbis
MOUNT RUSHMORE Construction
Sculptor Lincoln Borglum on the scaffold below the stone face of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt on the Mount Rushmore Memorial in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., April, 1944. AP
Mount Rushmore Construction
"Oculists" at work on Jefferson's eye while Gutzon Borglum inspects the operation in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., circa 1930s. Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Gutzon Borglum at Mount Rushmore
American sculptor Gutzon Borglum (c), who is leading the Mount Rushmore National Memorial project, talks with a group of sculptors while inspecting an eye of one of the presidential heads in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., circa 1930s. Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Gutzon Borglum Overseeing Mount Rushmore Construction
American sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, inspect the Jefferson head from an aerial tram in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D. on Nov. 23, 1935. Underwood & Underwood/Corbis
Popperfoto.The Book. Volume 1.Page: 93. Picture: 9. A man on the head of George Washington at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, U.S.A. circa 1930.
A man on the head of George Washington at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., circa 1930s. Popperfoto/Getty Images
View of Mount Rushmore in Progress
View of Mount Rushmore in progress, 1927-1941. Bettmann/Corbis
Mount Rushmore In South Dakota
The finished Mount Rushmore sculpture by Guzon Borglum, in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D., circa early 1940s. Underwood Archives/Getty Images

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com