Mount Rushmore Facts

Sculpture Gutson Borglum and nearly 400 workers spent over 14 years carving out the 60 foot busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The memorial is meant to represent the first 150 years of American history. Each day during construction, the workers had to climb 506 steps to get to the top of the sculpture.

Gutson Borglum began this project at age 60 in 1927. Despite the length of time spent to complete the sculpture, the actual cost was only one million dollars. The faces of the Presidents rise 5,500 feet above sea level. If the faces were applied to scale, the height of the people that they represent would be 465 feet. Taken separately, each head sculpture is as tall as a six-story building. Measuring from the chin to the top of the head, the distance is sixty feet – as tall as the entire Great Sphinx of Egypt. The nose of each President is 20 feet long, each mouth 18 feet wide and the eyes are 11 feet across. During the course of the project, more than 800 million pounds of stone was removed.

Currently the Parks Service at the Memorial conducts interpretive programs, has display exhibits and a film which explains the dream and the realization of that dream. Each day the Park Rangers provide interpretive walks and talks. There is also a lighting program which occurs during May through September at approximately 9 p.m. This allows the sculpture to be viewed and appreciated during the night time hours.