Globus PARKS & CANYONS SPECTACULAR – 2007 Day 2
Day 2: Rapid City
The day begins with a visit to CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL, built in honor of the fearless Sioux Indian chief whose fame is derived from the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
We have images to show here as the history of the family that has worked with native peoples to build Crazy Horse Memorial is most interesting.
Afterward, explore MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL
We have images to introduce here as the
..
The four presidential faces, carved 60-feet high in the granite of Mount Rushmore, comprise one of America’s most revered images. But many visitors cannot help thinking of Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North by Northwest, where he and Eva Marie Saint clamber across the monolith pursued by Communist spies. The shot was actually filmed in a Hollywood studio, but it convinced millions of people that they too could climb the patriotic monument. This is not the case: Access to Mount Rushmore has been blocked by a high-security fence ever since the artist Gutzon Borglum died in 1941 and work on the giant sculpture ceased. But according to his original plan, Borglum had intended that the public be able to reach his giant faces via a splendid stone staircase. In the late 1930s, he even began work on a splendid vault buried within the rock for tourists to visit – called the Hall of Records, it was planned as a repository for the original Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Mount Rushmore features the monumental likenesses of four U.S. presidents—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt—carved on the face of a mountain. Maybe stroll along the Presidential Trail for more intimate views, or visit the Information Center.
<Our visit>
Entering the museum you can see many options the buiders used as models that were abandoned as the faces on the mountain started to take shape.
We have photos but invite you to view national park service album as well.
The history and culture is worth the read. Are you aware how the mountain was named “Rushmore?”
But examine the parks home site for good images.
Comments are closed.