Anniversary of Mt. Rushmore’s Lincoln Marked

The 50th anniversary of the carving of Abraham Lincoln’s face on Mt. Rushmore was celebrated Saturday with a second unveiling of the 66-foot likeness.

A chorus sang the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and a crowd of 7,000 applauded as workers on the mountain face drew aside an American flag that measured 85 feet by 45 feet.

The relief, completed in 1937, is one of four presidents carved on the mountain by sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The Mt. Rushmore memorial, which was started in 1927 and finished in 1941, also features likenesses of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.

“Mt. Rushmore is not simply a tribute to four men, but rather is a memorial to the ideas they represent,” said Rep. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.). “Mt. Rushmore is not a place of stoic stone faces. It’s a place of dreams.”

Four jets flown by the South Dakota Air National Guard screamed past the mountain twice during the ceremony. A Strategic Air Command band and a fife and drum corps also entertained the crowd.

Borglum’s daughter, Mary Ellis Vhay of Reno, Nev., and about 10 men who helped carve Mt. Rushmore also attended Saturday’s ceremony.

The flag was made earlier this year and was displayed at the Kennedy Library in Boston and aboard the Constitution, the ship known as “Old Ironsides.”