Four U.S. presidents are carved into Mount Rushmore.
The monument in South Dakota depicts George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum selected them to represent the nation’s founding, expansion, development, and preservation.
Construction began on October 4, 1927, and the presidential faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Work continued until October 31, 1941, when funding ended. The original plan called for figures extending to the waist, but only Washington’s sculpture includes significant detail below the chin.
The memorial occupies land in the Black Hills that the United States took from the Sioux Nation. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the taking required compensation, although the Sioux have declined the money and continued to seek return of the land.