The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

Williamson to prepare a sculptor’s contract for Lincoln. Williamson complied so promptly that he had the contract drafted before the day was over, and on the following morning it was approved and signed. At the same time the commission submitted to the Park Service a new budget calling for an appropriation of $250,000, but this was just wishful thinking and a waste of time. Even before Borglum’s death there would have been no chance of getting such a thing approved, and now there was absolutely none. In fact, the Department of the Interior did not even pass it on to the Bureau of the Budget. Instead, the department asked for, and in due time the Park Service received, only enough money to maintain the monument for viewing by the public. Consequently, what the commission now had to work with, and all it would ever have, was about $50,000 remaining from the appropriation of the previous year. How could it best be used? That was up to Lincoln, and ten days later, as a guest on the CBS radio program, “We the People,” he announced