The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

Nonetheless, the tempest did escape its teapot, and when it did Calvin Coolidge said he was withdrawing from the unfortunate affair. The Mount Rushmore commission then drafted a resolution asking him to reconsider and submit another text, but to no avail. Coolidge was, he said, washing his hands of the whole thing. He did not, however, forget it. In January of 1931 he was visited at his Massachusetts home by Paul Bellamy, and during their conversation Borglum was mentioned. Whereupon (so this author has heard Bellamy tell it) Mr. Coolidge asked, in his dry New England twang, “About how far would y’ say ‘tis from here to the Black Hills?” “Oh, I don’t know, Mr. President,” Bellamy replied. “I’d guess maybe fifteen hundred miles.”