Mt. Rushmore's Secrets

in south dakota sculptor Gutzon Borglum conceives of a great monument carved out of granite the heads of four US presidents George Washington Thomas Jefferson Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carving the heads starts in 1927 and ends in 1941 Gutzon never deviates from his original plan and from the beginning the monument is meant as a testament to the idea of manifest destiny and absolutely everyone loves the massive 60-foot tall sculpture the lies in that account are as big as the mole on Lincoln's face starting with the idea that the four presidents were always the plan it was not borglum's idea to create a monument in the Badlands of South Dakota that idea was first conceived by the historian of South Dakota Doane Robinson and his idea was to create figures that celebrated the west of the Indian Red Cloud Lewis and Clark Buffalo Bill Cody although Borglum agrees with Robinson that the carving would be a great tourist attraction he wants to celebrate the nation's presidents who had done the most to create democracy foster freedom and expand the United States somewhat surprising given his lifelong affiliation with one of America's most notorious organizations Borglum was a member of the Ku Klux Klan he did the first version of Stone Mountain in Georgia which is a huge Confederate monument he then ran into trouble with the funders they threw him off the job and in fact tried to arrest him and chased him out of the state of Georgia but he doesn't have to wait long to find his next gig Robinson approaches Borglum in 1924 in carving starts in 1927 with 400 workers and a lot of dynamite and everything goes exactly as planned not quite Borglum originally plans to have Thomas Jefferson on George Washington's right The Rock turns out to be too unstable so Borglum simply blasts the unfinished Jefferson moves them to the other side there's also the question of wardrobe people assume that Mount Rushmore is a completed Monument but if you look at the sculptors original plans you'll see that the figures were originally going to be half length that is there would have their clothing or their uniforms

Channel: American Heroes Channel

Views: 206,538

Keywords: history documentary, america facts vs fiction, mount rushmore, secret history, american history, Mount Rushmore National Memorial (Protected Site), america facts vs fiction tv show, military channel

Id: vcyzAGoNEeU

Length: 2min 55sec (175 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 04 2014