Mt. Rushmore could have featured Lewis and Clark instead of presidents: Carving our name on hearts

In honor of Presidents’ Day, let’s discuss Mt. Rushmore, one
of the most famous of all presidential tributes.

I was surprised to learn that the sculpture was originally
intended to honor Western heroes such as Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill Cody,
and Lakota leader Chief Red Cloud. The idea was to promote tourism in South
Dakota; state historian Doane Robinson thought a monument to such heroes would
be effective.

However, after Robinson enlisted the help of renowned
American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, the artist convinced the historian that the
monument would be better received if it had a more national focus. The two
settled on four presidents they felt best represented the country.

Building the monument employed over four hundred men and
took fourteen years to complete. The miners had to remove 450,000 tons of rock;
90 percent of the monument was carved by using dynamite. Finishers were then
lowered down the five hundred-foot face of the mountainside in bosun chairs.
Remarkably, no one was killed or seriously injured.

One other interesting fact: the mountain was named after New York attorney Charles E. Rushmore, who happened to pass through on his way back from a business trip. When he learned that the monument had no official designation, the wealthy investor worked to have it named after himself.

Carving our name on hearts

Leaving a legacy in stone is an appealing way to be
remembered when we’re gone. We give money for the naming rights on buildings
and carve our initials into trees and concrete sidewalks for the same reason.

In a secular culture, leaving such secular reminders of
ourselves is the best we can do. But Charles Spurgeon had a different idea:
“A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were
helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your
name on hearts, not on marble.”

Spurgeon did not mean that we should not have a tombstone at
our grave (his was…