AMERICA BUILDS HER GREATEST MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 96, 20 October 1934, Page 25

AMERICA BUILDS HER GREATEST MEMORIAL

America ia thoroughly tourist conscious. When it was decided to build the greatest monument ever constructod, the site chosen was Mount Eushanore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota; In this romantic region there are unique attractions for the seeker after beauty, the lovei' of Nature, tho sportsman, and tho scientist Bent on research. It is one of the playgrounds of America, and when the Mount Eushraoire memorial has been finished, it will

undoubtedly become one of tho world's

most popular tourist resorts. Thero is * great humat curiosity and genuine interest in tho very idoa of carving a mountain, apart entirely from tho interost which the monument itself will create (writes E. Or. Bonney in the Sydney "Sun"). Prom time immemorial nations have built monuments to mark some mile-stone-in history or to keep alive the memory of some famous citizen.- The

people, of the United States broke no new ground, therefore, when thoy set *mt to build a monument to the four greatest Presidents, Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, and Theodore Eoosevolt. But they went just a step further than other countries had gone and decided that their monument should be o« s scaio never before approached by any other nation. The completed • plan comprises a heroic group—to be literally carved out with dynamite from a sheer gTanite precipice—of the' four nation-builders named. It will bo on a scale several times greater than the Great Sphinx of Egypt, with a vast entablature, 80ft wide and 120 ft high, bearing deeply incised in imperishable stone the story of America, written by Calvin Coolidge. The figures of the memorial group will measure 230 ft from waist to brow, scaling to, the proportions of a man 465 ft high.. They will fado into the ledge at the waistline, tho < tops of the heads being upon the skyline. • ■.':■. Washington's head is already finished.

The face measures 70ft from brow to chin. Tho buttons on his doublebreasted coat will be 6ft across.

In tho little studio situated within sight of tho granite cliff I saw Gutzon Borglum's model of three of tho four figures. It almost reached to tho roof of- tho building,' yet it is built on a scale of one inch to the foot, so the actual figures will bo twelve times as high. I learned that.tho material of which Mount Kushmore is formed is granite —a granite, peculiar to tho Black Hills, and famed for; its textural qualities. It ■will not split nor respond to plug and feather as does true granite. The "carving" is done with drills. Powerful engines create electric power that drives the compressors. Tho great, coarse, useless masses of rock arc removed by explosive methods, the charge in "the more delicate parts being so light that a. percussion cap is sufficient. When- blasting has brought the face to within three or four inches of the surface, holes three or four inches in depth are drilled vertically at intervals of about three inches all" over the surface. The rock between tho holes is then routed off with point tools and small hammers.. This produces a very satisfactory surface, and no further "buffing" is necessary or desirable. The workmen occupy movable stagings while drilling, tho mechanism boing a leather swing with iron or steel seat, leather covered. The swing is held by Jin cablo and is: controlled by a hand windlass. The occupant is strapped in so that even if he should become injured, faint, or lose control of .himself, he cannot escape from the swing without unbuckling the straps that hold him in. .

How laiiigwill these sculpture faces endure? Nobody knows, but experts believe that they will certainly be still smiling down upon' visitors 100,000 years hence, and"they may possibly last ,for 500,000 years. Well, we eap't argue about that!. / . • '.; . ■"-.-. . .;