The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

55. NBC announcer Lynn Brandt describing the dedication of the Lincoln head on September 17, 1937. He startled the crowd, and his radio listeners, by announcing that the head of Franklin Roosevelt soon would be carved on the mountain. The dedication was held on a weekday rather than on a weekend and started at the early hour of ten in the morning. It was held at the very tailend of the tourist season, and it included no participants of national prominence. Accordingly, it should have been but lightly attended. In fact, however, just the opposite happened. When the ceremony started, the parking lot was full and cars were lined up for almost a mile back down the road. The affair opened with Lynn Brandt giving the radio audience a description of the monument. Next, there were the customary speeches. Then came the climax.