MrBates2
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11/19/2012 05:19 pm ET | Updated Jan 19, 2013
273
Bill Lucey
It seems every week or so, a political pundit or newspaper columnist, metaphorically speaking, propels the president to Mt. Rushmore status. In fact, Mount Rushmore and Mr. Obama are invoked so frequently in the same sentence that I began to wonder if in fact there is a movement in place to chisel the 44th president on the South Dakota mountainside.
Aside from a few Facebook pages and other minor petition drives on the Internet, there doesn't appear to be any major Barack on Rushmore movement.
And for good reason.
According to the U.S. National Parks, there's simply no room for any more additions to Mount Rushmore. Besides, the rock that surrounds the sculpted faces is not suitable for additional carving. David Barna, chief spokesman of the National Park Service, informs me that when Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore died in 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum closed the project and indicated that no more carvable rock existed.
Since 1989, the National Park Service has worked with RESPEC, a rock mechanics engineering firm, to study the structural stability of the sculpture and to install rock block monitoring devices that assure long-term preservation of the sculpture. "RESPEC supports our long held belief,'' Barna says, "that no other rock near the sculpted faces is suitable for additional carving.'' RESPEC additionally believes that if additional work were undertaken it is possible that exposing new surfaces could result in major instabilities within the existing carving.
Aside from the structural barriers, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial strongly believes the four presidential figures in place in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the ideals and meaning for which it was originally founded is fully representative without any new additions. As Barna explains it, Mount Rushmore "is one man's artistic interpretation, and a tribute to that period of our nation's history. The National Park Service takes the position that death stayed the hand of the artist and the work is complete in its present form.''
Despite the rock solid evidence that any additions to Mount Rushmore simply aren't in the cards, that hasn't kept some organizations from continuing to plead their case. Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project has been a strong supporter of the [Ronald] Reagan-on-Rushmore movement, even though he didn't originate the movement.
Responding through an email, Mr. Norquist's was told there actually is enough space for another sculpture. "My preference'', Norquist writes, "has always been to remove the statist Teddy Roosevelt and put Reagan there.''
Though he would love to have President Reagan added to Mount Rushmore, Mr. Norquist's real goal is to have something named after Reagan in each county in the United States. With 3,077 counties in the country, there are approximately 100 structures of some kind named after Reagan. "There is talk'', Norquist tells me, "of naming the highway to Rushmore after Mr. Reagan.''
The Reagan Legacy Project was largely responsible for persuading Congress in 1998 to rename Washington National Airport, Reagan National in honor of the 40th U.S. president. The same organization continues to try to get the U.S. Treasury Department to have Reagan placed on $10 and $20 bills.
In addition to efforts to get Mr. Reagan added to Mount Rushmore, other names that have been suggested over the years, include: John Wayne, Elvis Presley, Mickey Mouse, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lou Rawls, Larry Bird, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, the first president from the Whig party.
The idea for Mount Rushmore was born in 1923, when South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson thought the "national scenery'' needed something spectacular to lure tourists to South Dakota. "Something of special interest to make it impressive'' Robinson thought.
After Gutzon Borglum, the Danish-American artist and sculptor was selected, he initially began exploring the Needles of the Black Hills of South Dakota, but found the area too weathered and the rock much too brittle for carving. Borglum was then told about Mount Rushmore. As soon as he stood on the crest of the mountain towering 6,200 feet above sea level, near the isolated mining town of Keystone South Dakota, he reportedly cried out "Here is the place!" American history shall march along that skyline."
A Footnote: Mount Rushmore was originally known to the Lakota Sioux tribe as "Six Grandfathers.'' The mountain was subsequently renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885.
273
Bill Lucey
It seems every week or so, a political pundit or newspaper columnist, metaphorically speaking, propels the president to Mt. Rushmore status. In fact, Mount Rushmore and Mr. Obama are invoked so frequently in the same sentence that I began to wonder if in fact there is a movement in place to chisel the 44th president on the South Dakota mountainside.
Aside from a few Facebook pages and other minor petition drives on the Internet, there doesn't appear to be any major Barack on Rushmore movement.
And for good reason.
According to the U.S. National Parks, there's simply no room for any more additions to Mount Rushmore. Besides, the rock that surrounds the sculpted faces is not suitable for additional carving. David Barna, chief spokesman of the National Park Service, informs me that when Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore died in 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum closed the project and indicated that no more carvable rock existed.
Since 1989, the National Park Service has worked with RESPEC, a rock mechanics engineering firm, to study the structural stability of the sculpture and to install rock block monitoring devices that assure long-term preservation of the sculpture. "RESPEC supports our long held belief,'' Barna says, "that no other rock near the sculpted faces is suitable for additional carving.'' RESPEC additionally believes that if additional work were undertaken it is possible that exposing new surfaces could result in major instabilities within the existing carving.
Aside from the structural barriers, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial strongly believes the four presidential figures in place in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the ideals and meaning for which it was originally founded is fully representative without any new additions. As Barna explains it, Mount Rushmore "is one man's artistic interpretation, and a tribute to that period of our nation's history. The National Park Service takes the position that death stayed the hand of the artist and the work is complete in its present form.''
Despite the rock solid evidence that any additions to Mount Rushmore simply aren't in the cards, that hasn't kept some organizations from continuing to plead their case. Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project has been a strong supporter of the [Ronald] Reagan-on-Rushmore movement, even though he didn't originate the movement.
Responding through an email, Mr. Norquist's was told there actually is enough space for another sculpture. "My preference'', Norquist writes, "has always been to remove the statist Teddy Roosevelt and put Reagan there.''
Though he would love to have President Reagan added to Mount Rushmore, Mr. Norquist's real goal is to have something named after Reagan in each county in the United States. With 3,077 counties in the country, there are approximately 100 structures of some kind named after Reagan. "There is talk'', Norquist tells me, "of naming the highway to Rushmore after Mr. Reagan.''
The Reagan Legacy Project was largely responsible for persuading Congress in 1998 to rename Washington National Airport, Reagan National in honor of the 40th U.S. president. The same organization continues to try to get the U.S. Treasury Department to have Reagan placed on $10 and $20 bills.
In addition to efforts to get Mr. Reagan added to Mount Rushmore, other names that have been suggested over the years, include: John Wayne, Elvis Presley, Mickey Mouse, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lou Rawls, Larry Bird, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, the first president from the Whig party.
The idea for Mount Rushmore was born in 1923, when South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson thought the "national scenery'' needed something spectacular to lure tourists to South Dakota. "Something of special interest to make it impressive'' Robinson thought.
After Gutzon Borglum, the Danish-American artist and sculptor was selected, he initially began exploring the Needles of the Black Hills of South Dakota, but found the area too weathered and the rock much too brittle for carving. Borglum was then told about Mount Rushmore. As soon as he stood on the crest of the mountain towering 6,200 feet above sea level, near the isolated mining town of Keystone South Dakota, he reportedly cried out "Here is the place!" American history shall march along that skyline."
A Footnote: Mount Rushmore was originally known to the Lakota Sioux tribe as "Six Grandfathers.'' The mountain was subsequently renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885.
