Since the New York Times article How Kristi Noem, Mt. Rushmore and Trump Fueled Speculation About Pence’s Job was published on Saturday, we've seen a lot of trepidation about this notion:
Since the first days after she was elected governor of South Dakota in 2018, Kristi Noem had been working to ensure that President Trump would come to Mount Rushmore for a fireworks-filled July 4 extravaganza.
After all, the president had told her in the Oval Office that he aspired to have his image etched on the monument. And last year, a White House aide reached out to the governor’s office with a question, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversation: What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore? . . .
In private, the efforts to charm Mr. Trump were more pointed, according to a person familiar with the episode: Ms. Noem greeted him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included a fifth presidential likeness: his.
But we recalled a recent article in the Argus Leader that lets us sleep at night: Adding fifth face to Mount Rushmore National Memorial has been political football for decades.
Apparently, adding another face could actually achieve what some indigenous South Dakotans (including our romantic partner, a citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) have dreamed of as long as the sculptures have been on the rock in the sacred Black Hills.
Is there room for a fifth face on Mount Rushmore?
The National Park Service says no, there is no secure surface on the mountain. While a large expanse to the right of George Washington seems a likely spot for at least one more president, NPS officials point out that sculptor Gutzon Borglum intended to place Thomas Jefferson there.
But it turned out the area was not stable, so Jefferson was relocated and crunched between Washington and Theodore Roosevelt. The rock next to Washington is simply not available.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial Chief of Interpretation and Education Maureen McGee-Ballinger said it is a frequent question.
“From time to time individuals, groups or organizations make proposals to add the busts of other individuals to Mount Rushmore National Memorial,” McGee-Ballinger said. “Additions are not possible for two reasons.
Since 1989 the National Park Service has worked with RESPEC, a rock mechanics engineering firm, to study the structural stability of the sculpture and to install rock block monitoring devices that assure long-term preservation of the sculpture, she said.
“RESPEC supports our long-held belief that no other rock near the sculpted faces is suitable for additional carving,” McGee-Ballinger said. “RESPEC also believes that if additional work were undertaken it is possible that exposing new surfaces could result in creation of potential instabilities in the existing carving.
We trust the rocks to know what they're doing. For more on the origins of the notion of putting Trump's face on Rushmore, that April 2018 Argus Leader story, Mount Trumpmore? It's the president's 'dream,' Rep. Kristi Noem says, has this juicy tidbit:
"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'" Noem said. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' "
Noem thought he was joking.
"I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious." . . .
The problem is, as most South Dakotans already know, adding Trump, let alone any president, is not possible.
"There is no more carvable space up on the sculpture," McGee-Ballinger said. "When you are looking on the sculpture, it appears there might be some space on the left next to Washington or right next to Lincoln. You are either looking at the rock that is beyond the sculpture (on the right), which is an optical illusion, or on the left, that is not carvable."
A brief history lesson: Gutzon Borglum originally intended to put Thomas Jefferson first in the lineup. Washington had already been started in his current spot, but when work commenced on Jefferson, it was determined the rock wasn't usable. Washington remained, but Jefferson had to move. . . .
We'll have more Bluestem Prairie in the morning.
Photo: From Twitter, via New York Post article Trump staffer tweets photo of ‘improved’ Mount Rushmore, July 3, 2020.
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