The history of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's Black Hills is complex and controversial: 

Origin

In 1923, South Dakota historian Doane Robinson came up with the idea of carving a sculpture into the Black Hills to attract tourists. He originally wanted to sculpt Western heroes like Red Cloud, Lewis and Clark, and Buffalo Bill Cody into the Needles, nearby stone pinnacles. 

Artist

Gutzon Borglum was chosen to carve the sculpture, and he selected the faces of four US presidents to represent important events in American history: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. 

Construction

Nearly 400 workers used dynamite to carve the 60-foot-tall faces into the granite mountainside over the course of several years. The project cost $989,992.32 and no one died during construction. 

Dedication

Borglum died in March 1941 while his son, Lincoln Borglum, was supervising the work. The impending start of World War II also contributed to the project's end. 

Controversy

The Lakota and other local indigenous communities objected to the monument, calling it desecration of their sacred lands. They also protested the racist and violent policies of the four presidents depicted in the sculpture, which they felt represented the loss of their lands and injustices suffered under the US government. 

Today

Mount Rushmore is now a national memorial that attracts nearly 3 million visitors each year. The sculpture is estimated to erode by one inch every 10,000 years.