The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

where all that can be seen of the carvings is the profile of Washington standing splendidly against the sky. “Borglum gazed at the profile for a long time. Then he said in a choked sort of voice, ‘Look! Korczak, look! I can’t believe I did that!’ Then he wept.” Unfortunately, this warm association lasted only two months, but brief as it was it would change Ziolkowski’s whole life and ultimately would make him about as well known nationally as Borglum himself. The breakup came on a hot afternoon in August when Ziolkowski was working in the studio and Lincoln Borglum, accompanied by pointer Jim LaRue, came in to take off measurements from the Roosevelt model for transfer to the mountain. During the ensuing conversation Korczak and Lincoln somehow fell into a disagreement, then a fuss, then a fight. The subject, whatever it was, is unimportant and doubtless was insignificant. The fight was simply a case of two aggressive, husky young bucks locking horns. Lincoln was a big man and a rugged one, and certainly no sissy. But Korczak, a goliath