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Millions of Americans and liberty-loving people from all over the world
have come to the Black Hills of South Dakota to look upon Gutzon
Borglum’s _Shrine of Democracy_.
The exact number of visitors to the great granite carvings is not known
but each travel season the pilgrimage increases in size.
During the period of construction from 1927 to 1941, when work was under
supervision of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission, no
accurate records of visitors were kept. Hundreds came each day, however,
to keep a fascinated watch over the emergence of the likenesses of the
four great presidents from the great stone uplift.
Consecration ceremonies attended by President Coolidge and the
unveilings of Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln
were attended by thousands of people. Distinguished guests participating
in these ceremonies included the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Then in 1939, the Memorial was placed under the supervision of the
National Park Service of the Department of Interior. World War II
intervened, but in the peace years since the transfer, the flow of
visitors has been measured at close to a half million persons each
travel season, 419,817 being reported for the 1947 travel year.
Among the nine great memorials in the National Park Service system,
Mount Rushmore, by 1947, had risen from seventh to fourth place in
attendance. So far as these memorials are concerned, those reporting
larger visitations were the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial,
and the Washington Monument, all in the District of Columbia.
As with other national parks, monuments, and memorials, Mount Rushmore
was designated for inclusion in the National Park system because it had
become a most inspiring site of historic significance.
Its present administration is designed to promote and regulate the use
of the memorial area to conserve the scenery and the natural and
historical objects and to provide for the enjoyment of it in such a
manner as to leave it unimpaired for the enjoyment of future
generations.
A total of nearly 1,800 acres of the Federal Game Sanctuary in the
Harney National Forest now comprises the memorial area. It is under the
administration of Superintendent Harry J. Liek with headquarters at Wind
Cave National Park. The memorial is directly under Acting Custodian J.
Estes Suter.
A brief description follows for Wind Cave National Park and the three
national monuments—the Badlands, Jewel Cave, and Devils Tower—that are
embraced in the Black Hills and Badlands area of southwestern South
Dakota and northeastern Wyoming.