The Carving of Mount Rushmore

by Rex Alan Smith

As things turned out, however, the new arrangement was far less trying for Borglum and the Park Service than either had expected. Under what it called a program of “minimum participation” the Park Service assumed only those powers and duties it was required to assume. It took control of personnel policies, took on the duty of approving expenditures and budgets, and assumed the right to have a voice in the making of contracts. It did not, however, send another Spotts to Rushmore. Instead, it allowed Borglum to keep Lincoln as his superintendent, and because of that the sculptor was to find the new arrangement only irritating instead of intolerable. Borglum suffered another great disappointment that summer when he was forced to stop his work on the Hall of Records. To make it even worse, it was his friends on the hand-picked commission who did the forcing. Despite Borglum’s easy declaration that with the new appropriation he would be able to complete all phases of Rushmore, the appropriations committee had turned out to be willing to recommend new funds only if assured they would be used first to complete work on the presidential figures. Whereupon Senator Pittman, speaking as chairman of the commission, had given such assurance, and with that as a condition the committee had made the recommendation. Still, that did not stop Borglum. He was convinced that the Hall was essential to the success of Rushmore.