Interpretive Prospectus: Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

Division of Interpretive Planning, Harpers Ferry Center

The interpretive prospectus is the key to interpretive planning. It takes its direction from other comprehensive planning documents that have been prepared previously to guide a major redevelopment of visitor facilities at the national memorial. Among comments recorded on the occasion of the unveiling of the Washington bust on July 4, 1930, one observer noted that it was "the first occasion in history to equal the day when the Pharoah Ptolemy completed the sphinx of Egypt." It was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that Mount Rushmore invited comparison with other colossal monuments. Gutzon Borgium consciously set out to create a memorial that would surpass in scale the Great Sphinx, the Persian Behistun Relief of Darius, the twin Memnon Colossi of Amenophis III, and Abu Simbel. There is a fundamental difference between those relics of past civilizations and Mount Rushmore. The monuments of the old world glorified the egos of the tyrants who commanded them and were constructed with slave labor. The four faces in the Black Hills are of men who asked for no memorial other than to be remembered for their championship of human rights; and the sculpture was conceived, financed, and executed in a manner which is in itself a demonstration of the principles symbolized. ' The original interest in a mountain sculpture in the Black Hills was along the lines of a memorial to local heroes which would serve to attract attention to South Dakota. Gutzon Borglum, however, seized upon an opportunity to realize a long-harbored dream: to build a monument for the ages reflecting the principles upon which America was founded.