Chapter 8: George Washington. One: Father of Our Country. Two: Born on President’s Day. Three: The Dollar-Bill Guy.
I guess I can’t hide the big reveal any longer. I can’t believe none of you figured it out! Our next stop was
Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Mount Rushmore was first conceived as an idea by South Dakota State Historian Doane Robinson in 1923. The genesis of the idea was that it would serve both as a unique memorial to the history of the United States and also serve as a draw for tourism to the Black Hills area. The idea evolved through years of arguments over funding, location, and of course whether sculpting a mountain was a worthy art project or a vile defacing of a natural feature. The first carving began on October 4, 1927 under the guidance of master sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Approximately 400 workers carved the memorial, mostly by strategically blasting away at the granite with dynamite and then removing smaller pieces by hand. Borglum did not live to see the finished work—he died in March 1941, and the project was then completed by his son, Lincoln, in October of that year. No workers died during the carving of the memorial. In the end, four 60-foot faces of U.S. Presidents stared southeast from the face of the mountain: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. There are a thousand jokes I could insert here regarding our most recent election but I suspect none of them could pass muster with the DISBoard rules. So imagine that they’re all hilarious, just like the rest of my jokes.
The actual memorial complex is fairly massive. There’s one entrance off the main road, and it leads to a loop road that takes you around two big parking garages. You can head right into the first garage or continue around the loop to the second. Wikipedia has a good aerial view of the whole facility
here.
The park is free! But if you want to park your car, it’ll cost you $10 per vehicle to enter. The parking fee is good for 7 days in case you want to make return visits. We parked in the first garage when we arrived, eager to get out and see the memorial. The mountain comes into view almost as soon as you ascend the steps, so it wasn’t long before we were trying to get a family photo (minus Julie, the photographer).
Looks nice, doesn’t it? Once again, I am forced to puncture the “perfect family” bubble by posting the behind-the-scenes action:
Once you pass the gift shops, you enter the Avenue of Flags, a series of columns bearing the flags of all fifty states in the union. Delaware’s flag is the light blue one on the second column on the right.
We’re Number One!
And then you reach the wide plaza with the big panoramic view of Mount Rushmore. Up close, it’s quite an imposing, impressive sculpture.
We immediately set to work taking photos of our kids with the memorial in the background, using both our good camera and my phone to make sure the kids never knew where exactly to look when taking the photo.
The experience of visiting Mount Rushmore is similar to that of Devil’s Tower. Once you arrive, you can marvel at the view. And it is indeed impressive. There’s a visitor center with some interesting exhibits and a short trail you can take. But after a while, you get the sense of…well, there it is. Now what? So, much like Devil’s Tower, I would plan on spending maybe a couple of hours exploring and learning about it and then have something else on the itinerary. Visiting Jewel Cave in the morning and coming here in the late afternoon seemed to work out pretty well for us.
Once our photo shoot was complete, we took a trail to the base of the mountain. There’s actually a loop you can do, but once you get past the mountain it involves lots of stairs and climbing and we didn’t bother since we had Drew’s stroller. But we did get to the bottom of the mountain so we could check and see if any of our distinguished former presidents had any noticeable boogers. Call them hanging chads if you like.
For me, the fascination of Mt. Rushmore came from learning about the work itself. It was amazing to think that 400 men hung from various scaffolds and slings and carved this intricate piece of artwork using primarily dynamite. As a piece of art, it’s a stunning achievement on a huge scale. I wouldn’t want a lot of repeated attempts to use nature’s beauty for our own sketchpad, but on the whole I’m glad this place exists.
We picked up Junior Ranger books for the boys and then headed out, looking for a place to eat dinner before returning that evening.
I’d originally planned to eat dinner back in the town of Custer, but it was a bit too far away (about a 30-minute drive) to be convenient for dinner. We drove down the hill to the nearby tourist-trap town of Keystone and ended up getting a table at the
Ruby House, which in no way resembles a cheap Western-themed tourist trap.
Oh, did I mention that Julie and I were celebrating our 18th anniversary this particular evening?
As always, I know how to treat a woman right. Also, I’m blessed beyond measure that I was able to marry out of my league and that Julie hasn’t come to her senses yet. As with most of the places we visit, you do just fine if you have a sense of humor. We took the kitschy décor in stride.
They had a photo of General George Armstrong Custer on display, which I thought fitting as it symbolized my attempt to win my wife’s heart by having a romantic meal here.
Here’s our romantic lovebird photo, complete with a kid wondering how long it takes to get a plate of French fries, cookies and ketchup (his staple diet) out here.
I figured it was my anniversary, so I was ordering a steak. A bourbon-marinated ribeye, to be exact.
It was…ok. The bourbon marinade made it tasty, but—well, ever hear the expression, “He’s tougher than a $5 steak?” This reminded me of that phrase. Only it’s a tourist trap so it was more expensive than a $5 steak. Julie, however, really enjoyed her meal—an “Indian taco”—basically a taco served on Southwestern fry bread. She loved it.
We finished our romantic dinner and…guess what? I wasn’t kicked out of the hotel room that night. If you recall, our previous anniversary meal took place in the snack bar of the Old Faithful Lodge. So this was actually an improvement.
On the drive back up the hill, I couldn’t resist getting a photo of this coffee sign:
We pulled back into Mt. Rushmore as the sun was beginning to set. Let me immediately violate my own rule of not posting photos of the same exact thing over and over again.
We met a nice couple from St. Louis and suckered them into taking our family photo. Christmas card?
We continued to kill time while the boys worked on their Junior Ranger books. We went down the stairs into the visitor center and found…
(Hang on, I need a moment to set this up)
Ahem.
(insert James Earl Jones voice)
…The Greatest Visitor Center Exhibit Of All Time. (reverberations)
Ok, remember what I said about not being able to spend more than a couple hours here at most? Forget that. This baby will keep you busy all day. They’ll have to kick you out of the place.
You can have the experience of “carving” Mt. Rushmore. There’s a TV screen. You select a view of the mountain as a work in progress from a menu in front of you. Your selected view shows up on the screen. And then…you blow it up.
Let me say that again. THERE IS A METAL BOX. A DETONATOR. WITH A PLUNGER YOU GET TO PUSH DOWN. AND IT SETS OFF AN EXPLOSION. AND YOU CAN DO THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Seriously, is there any reason why anyone would not want to do this? Had a bad day at work? Come on down and press the plunger. Kids driving you crazy? Hit the plunger. In-laws coming to visit? Take an hour or two. I am not ashamed in the least to say that I was elbowing my own kids out of the way just so I could blow stuff up. We all had a…
…wait for it…
…great time. Sorry, that Dad Joke was just too obvious.
At long last, the kids got their badges and dusk had fallen. We got seats in the large amphitheater out in front of the memorial for the nightly Lighting Ceremony. Every night as darkness falls, the park shows a 20-minute film on Mt. Rushmore here and then takes the flag down for the evening. They ask for veterans of our armed services to stand and be recognized, and then ask them to come down and join them on the stage to take part in lowering the flag for the night. The national anthem is played, and then the memorial is illuminated for the night. It’s a nice patriotic ceremony and worth seeing one time.
It can make for a bit of a late night for your 2-year-old, though.
Coming Up Next: More photos of rocks!
But the next chapter will have to wait. We’re off to Disney’s Hilton Head Resort! To my American readers: have a happy Thanksgiving! And to my Canadian readers: happy belated Thanksgiving!
A thousand times yes. I'm starting to feel it. And I'm getting older every day! Which is better than the alternative.
I wouldn't think that's possible! My teen daughter who is all skin and bones barely fit.
Yep, sounds about right!
This cracks me up.
Good one!
