We headed out to Mt. Rushmore through the rain and fog. What a surprise! The weather was so much like Oregon. After parking in the big parking structure, we crossed the street and went through the entrance of the park. Still now sight of the famous sculptures. We walked down a wide walk way and through a series of flags of every state. Still no view of the sculptures. Coming out of the walk way of flags, we could barely see a bit of George Washington through the fog. At least we knew we were in the right place!
As we watched the clouds and fogs, there were occasional brief liftings, and another face or two would appear.....Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln. It was a challenge to get our cameras out in time to catch the images before the clouds covered them again. After a few minutes, someone suggested it would be nice to head back up the pathway to the cafeteria, where at least it would be warm and dry....most of us headed that way. Hot chocolate was just the thing!
About an hour later, we went out to try looking again. The weather was slightly better. We walked back down to the viewing area and stayed for a few moments, until someone else suggested it might be a good idea to move inside to the museum and interpretive center.
In that warm and dry area we learned that 90 percent of the sculpture was made by dynamiting away the rock. It took about 15 years to complete the whole thing. The sculptor who engineered it all was a remarkable artist. He made a model of it and calculated to scale each day the exact amount of blasting that needed to be done to produce the results. I wasn't sure why Theodore Roosevelt was one of the faces, but after seeing his name on so many places in the Dakotas, realized, he was very important in this part of the country. He moved the country forward on a number of fronts as president. He had died not long before the beginning of the construction.
The most fun part of the exhibit was the part where you pushed a button to select a specific part of the carving/blasting. Then you pushed down a lever and the sound and sight of dynamite blasting away rock came into focus.
We emerged from the museum to one more look at the elusive statues, then headed quickly back for the shelter of the cars. We had a picnic lunch in the cars before heading on down the road. Down the road was the statue of Crazy Horse, which is still under construction. We decided not to go into the park to see it, but viewed it from the cars. So far the face of Crazy Horse is the most recognizable feature.
We concluded the day with a celebration of Ross and Beth Quackenbush's 36 wedding anniversary at the Olive Garden in Rapid City.
No comments:
Post a Comment