Who was the chief sculptor of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota?

Gutzon Borglum was the chief sculptor of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Borglum designed the monumental carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hills. Work began in 1927 and continued until 1941, when the project ended after funding ran out. The sculpture was completed without finishing the planned lower portions of the figures.

Borglum used controlled dynamite blasting and detailed carving to shape the granite faces. The four presidents were selected to represent the nation's founding, growth, development, and preservation. The memorial is administered by the National Park Service and attracts visitors from around the world.

The project also has a complicated context. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota, and the United States acquired the region in violation of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. Borglum died in March 1941; his son, Lincoln Borglum, supervised the final work.