In 1933, the National Park Service took Mount Rushmore under its jurisdiction.
Birds including the turkey vulture, bald eagle, hawk, and meadowlark fly around Mount Rushmore, occasionally making nesting spots in the ledges of the mountain.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is being constructed elsewhere in the Black Hills to commemorate a famous Native American leader and as a response to Mount Rushmore.
On October 15, 1966, Mount Rushmore was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Forest fires occur in the Ponderosa forests surrounding Mount Rushmore around every 27 years.
Tourism is South Dakota's second-largest industry, with Mount Rushmore being its number one tourist attraction.
Known to the Lakota as Six Grandfathers, Mount Rushmore was part of the route that Lakota leader Black Elk took in his well-known spiritual journey that culminated at Harney Peak.
The ecology of Mount Rushmore is similar to that of the rest of the Black Hills region of South Dakota.
Carved into the side of the large mountain are the faces of four men who were United States presidents. These men were chosen because all four played important roles in American history. The four faces carved onto Mount Rushmore are those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Mount Rushmore is named after a New York City attorney. Charles E. Rushmore was sent out to this area in 1884 to check legal titles on properties. On his way back to Pine Camp he asked Bill Challis [a local resident and guide] the name of this mountain.Jun 2, 2009
about 14 years
Historian Doane Robinson conceived the idea for Mount Rushmore in 1923 to promote tourism in South Dakota. In 1924, Robinson persuaded sculptor Gutzon Borglum to travel to the Black Hills region to ensure the carving could be accomplished.
Those are the famous words Sculptor Gutzon Borglum used to describe the length of time his most famous work, Mt. Rushmore, will endure. The mountain itself was originally named after Charles E. Rushmore, a New York lawyer investigating mining claims in the Black Hills in 1885.
Geology of the Area: The rock of Mt. Rushmore consists of outcroppings of fine-grained granite (a hard, light-colored, igneous rock - volcanic rock that has cooled) and some mica schist (a type of crystalline metamorphic rock).
The construction of Mount Rushmore National Memorial took 14 years, from 1927 to 1941.