Mount Rushmore Facts For Kids – Fun Facts About Mount Rushmore

Who Carved Mount Rushmore?

Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was the person in charge of designing Mount Rushmore. There was a crew of 340 – 400 people carving at any given time.

♦ The 4 presidents on Mount Rushmore were all put there for a reason, check out why.

George Washington – Our first president and considered the founder of our country. President Washington laid down the ground work for what we know today as democracy. He led his countryman to the American Revolution to win freedom against Great Britain. For his accomplishments he is the most prominent face on Mount Rushmore.

Abraham Lincoln – George Washington is probably the most prominent, but Abraham Lincoln is probably slightly more recognizable. President Lincoln was the glue that kept our nation together during one of it’s most trying periods, the Civil War. He was behind the abolishing of slavery which was probably his biggest accomplishment as the 16th president of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt – President Roosevelt became our 26th president and brought the right kind of leadership our country needed as the century turned. We were experience quick growth as a country from an economic standpoint and President Roosevelt was there to guide us. He was one of the reasons the Panama Canal was built, connecting the east to west. He also helped eliminate corporate monopolies and was a strong advocate for the common working man.

Thomas Jefferson – He put together and wrote the document that not only inspires democracy in our country, but around the world. Writing the declaration of independence is a pretty big accomplishment which definitely made our third president a strong candidate to have his face engraved on Mount Rushmore.

♦ Roosevelt was the most controversial of the presidents chosen to be displayed on Mount Rushmore. He died only 8 years before the construction began.

♦ Mount Rushmore is named after Charles E. Rushmore who was an Attorney in New York City. He was sent to the Black Hills to check on some titles of property in 1884. Rushmore was shown the giant sculptures and asked what it was going to be called. A near by resident and miner told him it had not been named, but they would start calling it Rushmore.

♦ Jefferson’s face was actually a huge do over. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum actually had him to Washington’s right, but after a year and a half of carving he changed his mind and blew Jefferson off the mountain and move him to Washington’s left.

♦ The price to put together Mount Rushmore is probably not nearly as much as you might think. It was actually under 1 million dollars, $989,992.32 was the grand total. If you adjust for inflation in 2009 it would be closer to 14.4 million. The government ended up paying around 84 percent of all the costs.

♦ There was actually very little chiseling. The faces were so large the only way to successfully carve them was with blasts of dynamite. They removed 450,000 tons of granite with dynamite to form Mount Rushmore.

♦ Ironically enough, there are no fireworks shot off on the 4th of July, which is surprising considering what it stands for. They actually shoot off fireworks on July 3rd. This is so that the surrounding towns and cities can have their own successful firework shows.

♦ The average workers salary on Mount Rushmore was .45 to .75 cents an hour. Talk about some affordable labor. The chief carver Luigi Del Bianco was paid $1.50 an hour.