In Biography of a Mountain, the journalist probes Mt. Rushmore’s fraught origins and mythic place in American history.
Who were the key stakeholders in the creation of Mt. Rushmore, and who wasn’t at the table that should have been?
The idea for Mt. Rushmore didn’t originate with its sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, or the federal government. It came from a state historian, Doane Robinson, who wanted to diversify South Dakota’s economy. The early stakeholders were really small—business owners in nearby Rapid City who Robinson had rallied for support, some state politicians. Those stakeholders grew as Borglum imbued this memorial with these huge political ideas, growing it into a national project involving the federal government. Totally left out were the Lakota. In the 1920s, there was no discussion about bringing the tribes in. Today, that has changed. Conversations are happening with the tribes who are affiliated or who have historically been affiliated with Rushmore.
Borglum was moody, controlling, and linked to the KKK. What was his impact on the project?
His is a classic American story: he emerges from nowhere to create this national memorial. He was extremely talented in all kinds of artistic forms, eventually settling on huge monumental sculpture. But he was very tempestuous, very hard to work with. His son Lincoln Borglum was instrumental in completing the memorial. Gutzon would fire people, and Lincoln would rehire them to get the work done. The memorial was the vision of one person. No committees, no one weighing in on what it should look like. It was Gutzon’s singular vision. He was very friendly with the KKK national leadership and introduced them to national politicians, including American presidents. He carried those beliefs to his work on Rushmore.
You say in the book that Rushmore couldn’t be built today. Why?
The singular way that Gutzon drove this project would be unlikely today, though technically, it would be a lot easier. He didn’t do any engineering calculations—today it would be 3D scans. He just blasted off sections of the mountain—just crazy. Plus, there were no environmental studies, no one asking, How is this going to impact water resources? Also, we are in a fraught time politically, and the idea of a sculpture like this would be deeply polarizing. You’re seeing that today with Donald Trump’s National Garden of Heroes—one of the proposed locations is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, actually.
Were you able to get on top of Rushmore?
Unfortunately not. Maybe when this book comes out, if Mt. Rushmore likes it enough, they’ll invite me to rappel on Lincoln’s nose.
