Mount Rushmore’s carving project was completed in 1941.
Work on the colossal memorial in South Dakota began on October 4, 1927, under sculptor Gutzon Borglum. About 400 workers used dynamite, drilling, and careful hand finishing to carve the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln into granite.
The project ended on October 31, 1941, after funding limitations and Borglum’s death brought the work to a close. The original plan called for larger figures extending toward the waist, but only the heads were completed.
The four presidents were chosen to represent the nation’s founding, expansion, development, and preservation. The mountain became a national memorial rather than simply a regional monument, though its creation remains part of broader debates about representation, land, and the Black Hills.