Where Is Mount Rushmore?

By True Kelley, Who HQ and John Hinderliter

Learn about the origin, creation, and history of one of America’s most iconic landmarks—Mount Rushmore—in this detailed history for young readers, part of the beloved Where Is? series. The perfect way to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary!

It was the early 1920s when world-famous sculptor Gutzon Borglum traveled to the Black Hills of South Dakota to plan out his next project—a sixty-foot-high likenesses of four presidents carved completely on a granite cliffside—that would take over fourteen years to complete. Who decided which presidents should be represented? Why were the Black Hills chosen as the location? And how was this immense project sculpted so high above the ground? Young historians will find the answers to all these questions and more in this detailed, easy-to-comprehend biography of one man’s life, his magnificent obsession, and one of America’s greatest symbols.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Release date: Feb 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9780698198913

True Kelley

True Kelley has illustrated many favorite books for children in her fun-filled watercolor style, including several in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series. She and the author previously collaborated on What Makes a Magnet? and What the Moon is Like? True Kelley lives in Warner, New Hampshire.

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Cover for Where Is Mount Rushmore?

For Steve, again—TK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

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Text copyright © 2015 by True Kelley. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Penguin Group (USA) LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-698-19891-3

Version_1

Contents

Dedication

Copyright

Where Is Mount Rushmore?

The Black Hills

The Sioux and the Gold Rush

Gutzon Borglum

Big Plans

How to Carve Big

The Big Boss

Big Problems

Finishing

Mount Rushmore Today

Timelines

Bibliography

Where Is Mount Rushmore?

In 1924, the world-famous sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his thirteen-year-old son took a trip together out west. They left their home in Connecticut and, days later, got off a train in Rapid City, South Dakota. Only about six thousand people lived in Rapid City. South Dakota had been a state for only thirty-five years. The Borglums felt they were in the middle of nowhere. They actually were smack-dab in the center of the United States.

Gutzon had come to South Dakota to see if he could find a mountain to carve into the biggest sculpture in the country. He was a patriotic man, and his idea was to give America a sculpture to glorify its greatness. Perhaps it could be huge carvings of great Americans with heads as high as the tallest buildings. What an amazing idea! But many people thought it was crazy. And no one, not even Borglum himself, realized how hard it would be to do.

Gutzon and his son, Lincoln, traveled about twenty-five miles southwest of Rapid City to nearby Keystone, a mining town farther into the backwoods. From there, a South Dakota state forester led them on horseback, following logging trails into the wild country of