Days 48-49 Mt. Rushmore

[Kalon] From Karen and Paul's in Minneapolis, we drove to Pierre the capital of South Dakota.  Then the next day on to Mt. Rushmore.  As we drove that day we passed some trails (Deadwood Trail and Rosebud Trail) that had historical markers.  I tried in vain to see the original wagon tracks but the vegetation made that impossible.

 



 

 

More ubiquitous than the historic trail markers were roadside signs for Walls Drugs.  These advertising signs started a hundred miles or more before the city of Wall and became increasingly frequent as we came closer.  Their content was all over the place (5 cent coffee, 6 foot tall rabbits, etc.) and so of course we had to stop and see what it was all about.  It was clever marketing for tourist schlock.

On to Mount Rushmore (neither Karen nor I had been here before).  Our first view of the memorial was underwhelming: both of us had expected it to be more "grand".  But as we parked our car and walked down the promenade it grew in stature.

It was an interesting story (told by displays and some video) of how this was created.  I was particularly interested in the triangulation process where they created some large scale models and then made measurements from those that they then rescaled to the actual carving itself and used that to determine how a dangling construction worker (with jackhammer and dynamite) should work the granite rock.

The model in the workshop using for measuring.

I hiked up the "Presidential Trail" that gave one a different perspective of the monument.

And the view from the amphitheater was probably the best one to put the memorialization of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln in perspective.

Leaving the memorial we drove to Caspar, Wyoming through an at times heavy rainstorm.

[Karen] I'm not sure when the idea to head for Mt Rushmore came to us. It was hard to leave Karen and Paul Christensen's where we had been showered with hospitality and as we left we were showered with more rain. Miss Know It All as our GPS device is called - the one with the pleasant voice and her alter ego, Ms Pronounciation, the one who is sure to garble every road name we encounter - seems to like super highways best. She spends most of her time trying to send us in the direction of one no matter what we do. She quickly put us on highway 35 and then west on 90.

Grasslands and hills of South Dakota

The next day we did manage to make our way onto highway 14 in the  direction of  Wall. It was a beautiful drive through the grasslands of the plains of the Midwest. Yes, there were all those signs talking up Wall and as our route went in that direction we stopped at Wall which I commemorated by buying a pin for my travel hat which says "Wall Drugs". 

I was surprised by the number of tourists at Mt Rushmore. It never had registered in my mind as a highly ranked U.S. Park but it was teeming with cars and people. The presidents depicted by G are Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln. The reasons they were chosen are interesting - Washington because he is the President considered the "Father of our Country". Jefferson because he was the Father of our Constitution. Theodore Roosevelt because he represents  U.S. expansion and Lincoln because he represents the ideal of Liberty and Justice for all.

Inside cafeteria at Mt Rushmore where tourists were stuffing themselves with large ice cream cones

I do not know how we came to know of it - perhaps it was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal or LA Times - but Kalon acquired an audio reading of a book about the Four Fathers of the U.S. Constitution. We have been listening to this as we have traveled. It lists the four as George Washington, John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. It has been an interesting history which I have never heard before. I would highly recommend it if you are interested in an in depth historical view of how the U.S. became a large Republic rather than a Confederation of states which it started out being. It is primarily because these four had a belief that a strong central government was the only thing which would keep the thirteen colonies from being overrun by England, France and Spain and reclaimed as colonies and even then these men had a view that the colonies should expand east at least to the Mississippi and south to Georgia. They even discussed how this expansion should occur and set up a plan for regulated population expansion to ensure it did not occur so rapidly that the settlers would be exposed to threats from Indians by being to  widely separated. A fascinating book . Listening to this book as we drove across the great grasslands was especially meaningful. One could wish that more people would read or hear this story.

Interspersed with all this intelligent historical discussion was the nonsense engendered by that great self involved ego that is Donald Trump!