The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

ended the most serious accident in all fourteen years of Rushmore’s construction. The days of summer flowed past and then it was fall, and with fall came money from the new appropriation, making it possible again to continue carving throughout the winter. It was a presidential election year, and Franklin Roosevelt, winning fifty-five percent of the popular vote, was returned to office. Much to Borglum’s dismay, however, South Dakota returned to her traditional loyalties and gave fifty-eight percent of her vote to Roosevelt’s opponent, Wendell Willkie. There was war talk in the air that fall, and the talk was growing. A Selective Service act was passed, and in November young men began receiving letters in which President Roosevelt extended his greetings and directed them to report to their local draft boards for classification.