Mount Rushmore National Memorial (Redux)

I had enjoyed my survey of The Badlands but it was time to keep pressing westward. Since it was now Monday I figured some of the more heavily-visited tourist spots should be more easily accessible. I made my way into Keystone, South Dakota and stopped at a classic U.S. road-trip destination: Mount Rushmore National Memorial. My first surprise (unpleasant in this case) was finding out you still have to pay for parking even if you have the National Park annual pass. What a scam. Right from the parking lot you can see the sculpture in the distance.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial – Entrance

Looking the opposite direction you’ll get your first looks at the dense Ponderosa Pine forests of Pahá Sápa – or in anglicized naming, The Black Hills. This sacred land including the mountains that bear the carvings was stolen from Sioux Nation back in the 1800’s when the U.S. government broke it’s treaties.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial – View of surrounding Black Hills from parking area

Entering the park you’ll walk down the Avenue of Flags towards the defaced mountain. Another not-so-fun fact: Doane Robinsion originally came up with the carving idea and the final choices for subjects were all American West heroes including Lewis & Clark, Sacagawea, Chief Red Cloud and Chief Crazy Horse amongst others. At the end it was all scrapped by Gutzon Borglum the sculptor and four white U.S. Presidents were chosen instead. Borglum called it “The Shrine of Democracy” while critics turned it around giving it the nickname “Shrine of Hypocrisy.” If you cannot tell I am in the latter camp.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial – Walking up the Avenue of Flags

Here’s a more close-up view of the sculpture. I take nothing away from these Presidents, but what an unsightly spectacle. This land is sacred to the Sioux and what was done here should not be applauded. In the 1980 case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians it was concluded that Sioux Nation was not fairly compensated and they were offered a monetary settlement. To this day it has not been accepted and instead they continue to pursue regaining the land itself back instead as originally promised. I hope they can regain what was stolen from them one day.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

More details about the carving, sculpting, dynamite blasting, and all the men killed on this folly can be seen inside the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center. I didn’t take many photos there due to being crowded with tourists, but I did snap this one plaque with a Thomas Jefferson quote that is just as relevant today as it was back in 1776. Also quite sad and ironic considering the mountains including Mount Rushmore (Lakota: Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe, or Six Grandfathers) are considered deities by the tribes and were taken away because of a gold rush. Needless to say I spent very little more time here and instead decided to drive the Black Hills in search of fall scenery and a good camp for the night.

Mount Rushmore – Thomas Jefferson quote plaque

Author’s note: I am revisiting old posts from my 2016 road trip because I posted all of them from my cell phone and some of them are a bit of a mess. Main reason is to properly edit photos rather than just having what came out of my phone camera, and to include higher res photos from my mirrorless camera that never got published. Additionally some of the locations on the Geomap are wrong or often have multiple locations in a single post. OG text should be captured in a summary field when available.