--- description: Work ceased on the monument on Oct. 31, 1941. Here, see what it looked like in the 14 years during which it was being built. title: Mount Rushmore Is 75. See Early Photos of the Monument Under Construction image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351fa16fea2b287b/6988a786196cf4920403d566/160923-mount-rushmore-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [photography](/tag/photography/) ## photography Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Mount Rushmore Is 75\. See Early Photos of the Monument Under Construction by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Oct 31, 2016 12:30 PM CUT  Construction of George Washington section of Mt. Rushmore Monument, circa 1941. Construction of George Washington section of Mt. Rushmore Monument, circa 1941.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Oct 31, 2016 12:30 PM CUT On Oct. 31, 1941—75 years ago Monday—work ceased on the iconic Mount Rushmore monument, the massive South Dakota sculpture from which four of America’s most beloved presidents gaze out over the landscape. Though the sculpture did not yet match the original designs by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, by the time it was completed it had been in the works for years, as these photos show. According to the [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/carving-history.htm "undefined"), the 400 workers who made it happen had to climb 700 steps every single day, before beginning the dangerous dynamite work that earned them $8 a day. But in fact, the 14 years of construction don’t even tell the whole story. Borglum had been [employed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1924-05-26/page/15/ "undefined") since 1915 designing a massive [monument](http://www.stonemountainpark.com/Activities/History-Nature/Confederate-Memorial-Carving "undefined") to the Confederacy in Georgia, but, after public support for that idea [dwindled](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-03-02/page/15/ "undefined") during the 1920s and he fell out with the funders, he was [replaced](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-03-09/page/16/ "undefined") on the project by another sculptor in 1925—at which point, “seeking employment,” as TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-09-07/page/20/ "undefined") then, he went to South Dakota to meet with prominent citizens about them hiring him to carve “historic figures” in the Black Hills, an idea that had been floating around [since 1923](https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/timeline.htm "undefined"). When he asked which national heroes those Dakotans could imagine on their hill, they named George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The project site was eventually selected at Mount Rushmore, and Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson joined their fellow presidents in the plans. The project was underway. In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge officially [dedicated](http://time.com/vault/issue/1927-08-22/page/9/ "undefined") the monument. Individual dedications for the figures took place in 1930 (Washington), 1936 (Jefferson), 1937 (Lincoln) and 1939 (Roosevelt). [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter "undefined") In 1941, Borglum [died](http://time.com/vault/issue/1941-03-17/page/46/ "undefined") of a heart attack, his monument unfinished. Lincoln Borglum, Gutzon’s son, continued to supervise project until the end of that season—they had to [stop](http://time.com/vault/issue/1937-09-27/page/35/ "undefined") every winter and restart in the spring—but would not pick it back up in the spring. Though the monument did not yet match the designs, it was [declared](http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/11/21/104309795.html?pageNumber=19 "undefined") finished. It was clear America would soon become involved in World War II, and the government funds that had been sustaining the project were needed elsewhere. ### See the Evolution of Mount Rushmore  The sculptor of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, with a model of the four presidents that included arms and hands. Bill Groethe  Mount Rushmore with the face of George Washington first beginning to appear (top left), c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  A close view of the face of Thomas Jefferson under construction, with drill marks below it, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  George Washington's face under construction, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  Workers take a break atop the mountain, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  A powderman positions dynamite charges used to sculpt Mount Rushmore, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  From left: Gutzon Borglum and nine workers who sit in bosun chairs as they prepare to begin their work, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  Gutzon Borglum addresses President Franklin D. Roosevelt (seated in the presidential car) and the crowd at the dedication of Thomas Jefferson on Aug. 30, 1936. Bill Groethe  The faces of Washington and Jefferson with the pulleys used to raise and lower the work platforms for men and equipment visible, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  Tourists stopped to view Mount Rushmore while it was still under construction, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  Gutzon Borglum, wearing his usual scarf knotted around his neck, works from a bosun chair, c. 1930s. Bill Groethe  The head of Thomas Jefferson under construction, taken from atop Lincoln in 1939. Bill Groethe  The head of Theodore Roosevelt under construction, c. 1930s. Roosevelt was dedicated in 1939. Bill Groethe  The head of Abraham LIncoln under construction, c. 1930s. Lincoln was dedicated on Sept. 17, 1937. Bill Groethe  The 50th Anniversary dedication of Theodore Roosevelt on July 2, 1989. Bill Groethe  The Golden Anniversary Celebration and Formal Dedication on July 3, 1991, attended by President George Bush and the First Lady, South Dakota Gov. George Mickelson, and Tom Brokaw, among others. Bill Groethe  Mount Rushmore, as it appears today, with visitors climbing atop the monument. Bill Groethe By the time the Lincoln portion turned 50 in 1991, it was clear that the fight would continue, even if the sculpting did not. “Environmentalists decry the busts as a desecration of nature,” TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1991-07-15/page/27/ "undefined"). “_New Republic_ writer Alex Heard identified Gutzon Borglum, Rushmore’s eccentric creator, as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. And the Sioux Indians charge that the memorial is sculpted from sacred land that was stolen by the government.” And yet those four men continue to gaze upon the nation they helped shape. By one [estimate](http://time.com/vault/issue/1941-03-17/page/46/ "undefined"), it will be 108 million years before nature reclaims the rock. Though the sculpture’s creator and its very existence may be subject to reassessment in the light of three-quarters of a century, the monument itself is there to stay—and to impress. “There is something in sheer volume that awes and terrifies, lifts us out of ourselves,” Borglum once [said](http://time.com/vault/issue/1941-03-17/page/46/ "undefined"), “something that relates us to God and to what is greatest in our evolving universe.”  Sculptor Gutzon Borglum's scale model for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, featuring US Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, Rise Studio, circa 1925. Vintage Images—Getty Images  Drillers work on the George Washington head of the Mount Rushmore Memorial in the Black Hills area of Keystone, S.D. on July, 22, 1929\. Gutzon Borglum, sculptor, directs the carving from a projecting ledge at the left. AP Photo  President Franklin Roosevelt gazing up at Mount Rushmore under construction. He dedicated the 70-foot image of Thomas Jefferson being carved with those of Washington and Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore in August 1936. AP Photo  Mount Rushmore under construction in 1936. ullstein bild—Getty Images  Stone workers carve the eyes of President Theodore Roosevelt with air hammers during the construction of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial circa 1939. Frederic Lewis—Getty Images  Construction of George Washington section of Mt. Rushmore Monument, circa 1941. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Construction of Thomas Jefferson section of Mt. Rushmore Monument, circa 1941. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scaffolding around head of Abraham Lincoln only partially sculpted during Mount Rushmore Monument construction, circa 1941. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sculptor Lincoln Borglum (son of Gutzon Borglum) on the scaffold below the stone face of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt on the Mount Rushmore Memorial in April 1944. AP Photo  The memorial at Mount Rushmore under construction circa 1941. MPI—Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4508007/mount-rushmore-anniversary-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4508007/mount-rushmore-anniversary-photos/"},"headline":"Mount Rushmore Is 75. 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