Mount Rushmore's Secret Chamber

The faces of Mount Rushmore represent four of the most important presidents in American history. The construction of Mount Rushmore was a triumph of American engineering and ingenuity. But laying in deep is a chamber very few have set their eyes upon, and even fewer been to. Today, we’re getting to what’s really inside Lincoln’s head. - Things are about to get strange.

One of the most recognized national memorials has a secret chamber in it and it seems to be ripped right out of a National Treasure movie. And let’s specify, in reference to the intro, the chamber is not INSIDE Lincoln’s head but rather behind it.

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is centered on a colossal sculpture carved in the granite face of Mount Rushmore. It is located in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota. It was designed by Gutzon Borglum and is called the Shrine of Democracy. Borglum oversaw the project from 1927 to 1941 and had help from his son Lincoln Borglum. The sculpture has the 60-foot tall heads of four of our presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. 

Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills are considered sacred by Plains Native Americans. Some of them are the Arapaho, the Cheyenne, and Lakota Sioux. They used the area for centuries as a place to pray and  gather food, medicine, and gather materials.  The Lakota called the mountain the “Six Grandfathers”. This symbolized the six ancestral deities personified as the six directions: north, south, east, west, above (sky), and below (earth). Euro-American settlers began pushing themselves into the Black Hills in the 1800’s, which in turn started a war with the Native American population. Then, the US government signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie. 

In 1851, the United States government signed a treaty with several Indigenous nations of the Great Plains, including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota. The treaty gave the Cheyenne and Arapaho sovereignty over the Platte River basin just as long as they allowed free passage of white migrants and allowed the government to build roads and forts on their land. However, the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59 led to an influx of white settlers, who moved onto Cheyenne and Arapaho land that was supposedly protected by the treaty. This led to a breakdown of the treaty and increased tensions between the Native Americans and the United States government.

South Dakota became a state in the 1920’s. It became a popular destination for road trippers who wanted to visit the parks in the state. Doane Robinson, the Secretary of the South Dakota State Historical Society, wanted to put a monument on the Black Hills after learning about the “Shrine to the Confederacy”. That project was to carve the likeness of Confederate generals to the side of Stone Mountain in Georgia. Robinson approached sculptor Lorado Taft to do the project at Mount Rushmore, but Taft was ill at the time. In 1924, Robinson contacted Gutzon Borglum who sculpted the “Shrine to the Confederacy” and asked him to travel to the Black Hills region to see if it could be done. 

The work on Mount Rushmore took place between October 4, 1927 and October 31, 1941. Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the 60-foot high carvings of the presidents. The four presidents were selected to represent the first 150 years of America’s history. The figures were originally planned to be from head to waste, but there was not enough funding.  

Borglum originally envisioned a Grand Hall of Records. He originally wanted there to be a list of the 9 most important events from 1776-1906 carved into the side of the building, but it did not pan out since the print would be too small to be read. He then came up with a different idea, one of a large room. It would protect America’s greatest historical artifacts and documents. There was to be an entrance crowned with a bronze eagle, accessible by a grand staircase. The 18 foot tall doorway resembles the entrance to an ancient tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh. The interior was going to have vaulted ceilings, busts, and bronze-and-glass cabinets that housed artifacts central to American democracy. He was able to start the project, but was able to only cut into the rock 70 feet before having to stop due to his funding being cut and told to only focus on the faces.

A repository was constructed into the mouth of the cave in 1998. 16 porcelain enamel panels with biographical and historical information, US milestones about Mount Rushmore as well as the texts Borglum wanted to preserve were put in there. It is behind Lincoln’s head and is off-limits to the public. Borglum wanted this room’s purpose to explain the country’s history to future civilizations and future archeologists. 

Fun fact:

-In 1933, Mount Rushmore fell into the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. 

-Mount Rushmore faces southeast because the sculptor chose it. It faces that way for maximum sun exposure. 

-State Historian of South Dakota, Doane Robinson, thought of the idea of the carving. Robinson wanted the sculpture to feature American West heroes. These heroes were Lewis and Clark and their expedition guide Sacagawea, Chief Cloud, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Crazy Horse. Borglum believed that the sculpture should have a broader appeal, and went with the four presidents. 

-Native Americans objected to the plan of Mount Rushmore because it desecrated their sacred lands, as well as the racist and sometimes violent anti-indigenous policies some of the presidents represented. 

-Mount Rushmore attracts more than 2 million visitors a year.

-There have been talks of adding more faces to Mount Rushmore. Some that were thought to be added were JFK, and Obama joked about being added as well. 

-The four presidents were chosen to represent the nation’s birth, growth, development, and preservation.  

-The best views are from the President’s Trail.