Day 11 | Mount Rushmore

Another gorgeous morning. The heat wave seems to have broken. More rearranging of the camper for the next part of the trip and laundry.

A group of our fellow neighbors gathered at one unit to watch virtual church services… one thing Covid-19 has offered up. People can attend services wherever they are and it’s a lovely morning for it.

My experiments with having fresh homemade bread seem to be working. I should have enough for the rest of the trip.

Mount Rushmore today. The haze had diminished with the heat so it should be a good day for visibility.

Mt Rushmore

So, who doesn’t or hasn’t seen photos or movies of Mt Rushmore?

Mount Rushmore was conceived with the intention of creating a site to lure tourists, representing “not only the wild grandeur of its local geography but also the triumph of western civilization over that geography through its anthropomorphic representation.” Though for the latest occupants of the land at the time, the Lakota Sioux, as well as other tribes, the monument in their view “came to epitomize the loss of their sacred lands and the injustices they’ve suffered under the U.S. government. Under the Treaty of 1868, the U.S. government promised the territory, including the entirety of the Black Hills, to the Sioux “so long as the buffalo may range thereon in such numbers as to justify the chase.” After the discovery of gold on the land, American settlers migrated to the area in the 1870s. The federal government then forced the Sioux to relinquish the Black Hills portion of their reservation. The battle that took place in 1890 between the U.S. Army and the Native Americans is known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, which was summarized by PBS as “where hundreds of unarmed Sioux women, children, and men were shot and killed by U.S. troops” using the historian Dee Brown‘s account of the event.

The four presidential faces were said to be carved into the granite with the intention of symbolizing “an accomplishment born, planned, and created in the minds and by the hands of Americans for Americans”.

Historian Doane Robinson conceived the idea for Mount Rushmore in 1923 to promote tourism in South Dakota. In 1924, Robinson persuaded sculptor Gutzon Borglum to travel to the Black Hills region to ensure the carving could be accomplished. The original plan was to make the carvings in granite pillars known as the Needles. However, Borglum realized that the eroded Needles were too thin to support sculpting. He chose Mount Rushmore, a grander location, partly because it faced southeast and enjoyed maximum exposure to the sun.

Borglum said upon seeing Mount Rushmore, “America will march along that skyline.[Wikipedia]

The interesting thing is the number of times the heads were moved around / redone, 5 times in fact. Lincoln was supposed to the the left of Washington but half way through the sculpting the rock was fragile so he was scraped off and moved to the right. Jefferson had a crack through his nostril so his head was positioned back a bit so the crack doesn’t cause his nose to fall off in 2000 years and Roosevelt also had to be repositioned slightly in order to remove the unsculptable rock where his head was supposed to be. There were supposed to be pictorials where Lincoln ended up but they had to be abandoned. Each president represents a different value / contribution factor for the development of the U.S.

Lunch was a beautiful picnic area on Iron Mountain in the Blackhills National Forest followed by icecream at a horse ranch along the Iron Road a twisty hilly road with very narrow, very low tunnels. Our vehicle is about the biggest RV that could drive this.

The drive through Custer State Park again was beautiful but only gave us 2 solitary bison. There were some Aspens along a creek that are starting to turn their beautiful fall yellow color. These are the first Aspens we’ve seen. The National Forest is mainly pine.

We are now back in camp relaxing for the rest of the day after driving a loop around Stockade Lake just east of our campground. It is noteworthy because it is one of the very few lakes we have seen in SD.

Our van continues to draw attention. Almost every time we stop, someone comments on it or asks about it. And today was no exception. Lunch today was hotdogs which Brian cooked inside. The driver of the car parked next to us was incredulous that we had a kitchen.

After a wonderful birthday zoom call with our children / grandchildren we are enjoying a birthday 🎂 campfire. I will even make small microwave cakes for dessert.