Workers Battle the Elements at Mt. Rushmore

The same year that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the finishing touches were put on Mt. Rushmore, the “Shrine of Democracy,” carved into the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota.

Now, 65 years after the enormous effort was begun by sculptor Gutzon Borglum to etch the heads of four U.S. presidents into history, the National Park Service is again trying to reverse the ravages of time. Workers are scaling the 60-foot visages to plug the hundreds of cracks through which water and wind and ice have slowly worked their destruction.

It is likely that Borglum foresaw the inevitable when, in 1927, he asked the American people to say a prayer that the granite would endure until wind and rain would wear it away.

The spring maintenance was completed in May and six more weeks of work are scheduled for after Labor Day, when the crush of nearly 2.7 million annual visitors abates.

Borglum used a mixture of white lead, granite dust and linseed oil to repair cracks while he was making the monument and the Park Service used the same mixture for years until it proved ineffective.

Workers have switched to modern silicone-based sealants to patch the classic brows of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

In the past few years the Mt. Rushmore Preservation Fund has been raising the $40 million needed to refurbish visitor facilities, complete the Hall of Records and continue the monument’s preservation.