The First Actual Carving Began At Mount Rushmore, Marking The Official Launch Of A Remarkably Ambitious Sculptural Project. This Event Followed A Ceremonial Drilling In August Of That Year, But October 4 Is Recorded As The Moment When Tools Met Granite. The Location Was In The Southern Black Hills Of South Dakota Near Keystone, On A Granite Face Selected For Its Firmness And Solar Exposure. The Sculptor Gutzon Borglum Led The Work. His Decision To Begin On This Date Signified Commitment To A Long-Term Vision For A National Memorial.
The Initiation Of Carving In 1927 Carried Multiple Layers Of Significance For American Cultural And Political Identity. The Mountain Became A Canvas Where National History And Symbolism Would Merge. Borglum And His Patrons Chose To Represent Four Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, And Abraham Lincoln. Each Figure Embodied A Phase In American Narrative: Founding Ideals, Territorial Expansion, Industrial Emergence, And Preservation Of Union. These Interpretations Emerged Not At The Carving Moment Itself, But Are Frequently Cited In Retrospective Analyses Of The Memorial’s Purpose.
Starting Carving In 1927 Also Meant Undertaking A Technical And Logistical Challenge. Over Fourteen Years Until Completion In 1941, Teams Of Workers Used Dynamite, Pneumatic Drills, And Fine Carving Tools To Transform Raw Mountain Face Into The Presidential Visages. More Than 400 Men Labored, Often Suspended From Cables On Steep Faces. The Process Combined Large-Scale Blasting With Precise Sculptural Refinement. That The Work Began In 1927 Set In Motion This Intensive Sequence.
The Year 1927 Also Reflects The Political Climate That Made The Memorial Possible. In The Summer Of That Year, President Calvin Coolidge Traveled To The Black Hills. Borglum Had Arranged For Coolidge To Attend A Dedication, Dropping A Wreath From A Plane As Invitation. At The August Dedication, Coolidge Pledged Federal Support. This Momentum Contributed To The Formal Start Of Stone Carving Later That Year.
The Timing In 1927 Illustrated An Intersection Of Private Ambition And Public Endorsement. Sponsorship By Senator Peter Norbeck Of South Dakota And Others Helped Secure Congressional Backing. In 1929 Congress Passed The Norbeck-Williamson Act Establishing A Commission For The Memorial. But The Foundation Laid In 1927 Solidified The Project’s Legitimacy And Initiated Actual Work.
Historically, The Beginning Of The Carving In 1927 Signaled A Turning Point In How Americans Commemorate Presidential Leadership. Rather Than Erecting Statues Or Monuments In Plazas, The Project Envisioned Embedding National Memory In The Landscape Itself. The Mammoth Scale Challenged Aesthetic And Engineering Norms Of Its Day. The Fact That The Public Would Witness A Presidents’ Faces Rising From Mountain Stone Turned The Site Into Both A Work Site And Symbolic Theater Of American Ideals.
The First Carving Moment Also Initiated Later Tensions And Complexities. The Land On Which Mount Rushmore Sits Had Been Part Of The Great Sioux Reservation Before U.S. Seizure Of The Black Hills. Lakota And Other Native Communities Regarded Parts Of The Black Hills As Sacred. The Placement Of This Monumental Symbol Thus Would Become Enmeshed In Debates Over Land Rights, Indigenous Sovereignty, And Cultural Memory. That Controversy Was Latent Even At The Start.
Over Time The 1927 Beginning Has Been Mythologized As The Foundational Spark. The Carved Faces, Once Completed, Became Among The Most Recognized Icons Of The United States. The Memorial Increased Tourism In The Black Hills Region And Contributed To The Growth Of National Park Visitation. Its Symbolic Weight Grew As Photographs And Narratives Spread. But All Of That Depends On That First Act Of Carving.
By Choosing October 4, 1927 As The Start Of Physical Labor, Borglum And His Collaborators Turned A Conceptual Promise Into A Material Process. The Date Anchors The Memorial’s Lineage, Linking Early Political Support And Fundraising Efforts To The Tangible Act Of Sculpting American Memory In Stone. In Historical Perspective, The Beginning Of Work That Day Represents Both The Birth Of A Uniquely American Monument And The Moment When Questions Of Art, Power, Land, And Identity Converged In The Granite Of The Black Hills.
References / More Knowledge:
“Construction Of Mount Rushmore,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_of_Mount_Rushmore
“Memorial History – Mount Rushmore National Memorial,” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/memorial-history.htm
“Carving History – Mount Rushmore National Memorial,” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/carving-history.htm
“Work Begins On Mount Rushmore | October 4, 1927,” History.com. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-4/work-begins-on-mount-rushmore
“Timeline – Mount Rushmore National Memorial,” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/timeline.htm
“Mount Rushmore — Britannica,” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mount-Rushmore-National-Memorial
“Norbeck-Williamson Act Of 1929,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbeck-Williamson_Act_of_1929