The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

Mary went with him this time, and on the way they stopped in Chicago, where Borglum was to deliver a speech. While there, he consulted a doctor friend about some prostate trouble he had been having. The doctor recommended surgery. The surgery was performed on February 17. Three days later, while on her way to the hospital, Mary slipped on a patch of ice and broke her wrist. Nonetheless, arm in a cast, she continued to stay beside Gutzon at the hospital, where both he and the doctor thought he was recovering nicely. Actually, however, he was not. Surgery in the pelvic area is especially likely to produce blood clots, and in Borglum’s case it had. Now, undetected and dangerous, the clots were wandering about in his system. He still appeared to be doing very well on the last day of February, when Russell Arundel dropped in with a crushing piece of news. President Roosevelt had announced he was cutting non-defense spending to the bone, Arundel said, and would approve no more money for such projects as Rushmore. The Shrine of Democracy must now give way to the Arsenal of Democracy. Two days later one of the blood clots lodged, and Borglum suffered, but survived, a pulmonary embolism. Mary sent for Lincoln at Rushmore and Mary Ellis in Nevada, both of whom arrived within forty-eight hours. Early on the morning of March 6 another blood clot lodged and produced an embolism that even the indomitable Borglum could not withstand. A few minutes later, a week to the day after he had le...