The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is one of the world's largest sculptural and engineering projects. Sculptor-designer John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (1867–1941) was contracted in 1927 to carve the solid-granite memorial. Borglum conceived the model figures, brought them to life within the mountain's stone, and directed 400 artisans until his death in 1941. Later that year, his son Lincoln finished the project, which had spanned 14 years (6.5 years of actual carving and 8.5 years of delays due to lack of money and bad weather) at a cost of $1 million.

Mount Rushmore is considered a priceless U.S. treasure, memorializing the first 150 years of the country's struggle for independence and the birth of the republic as represented by George Washington; the idea of representative government in an expanding nation as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson; the preservation of the union of states and the equality for all citizens as...