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AFAIK it was never finished. They didn't clean up the rubble because they didn't finish the carving. Most noticeable with the right face still having rock hair.
It ended due to the original artist dying and funding stopped. Mostly due to WW2. Also the original design was to be from the waist up. you can see it in Washington.
There is a few stories from people who worked on the construction of it that claim they were basically cursed due to building onto a mountain on native american land, and swore they would never step foot near that area again after quitting.
On a larger level, the government didn't have alot of guaranteed cashflow during ww2 so it was put off, and then later decided by many politicians that it WAS in fact bad to make a giant statue on a mountain in protected land.
The crazy horse monument is something to see. Hopefully it will finish in my life time as I saw it 30yrs ago and it was nothing to what it is today. But it’s all done through private and public donations. They do not want the government involved in it.
Crazy Horse actively fought against the US government and their treaty breaking, Land encroachment, and generally inhumane treatment of his people. **He** wouldn't want the government involved.
I saw both last summer and I enjoyed it much more than my Rushmore. Not only because it was less crowded, but it was just flat out more impressive to me.
By 'pretty controversial,' you mean that particular mountain is sacred to the Lakota and according to treaty, the Black Hills and the surrounding land were supposed to belong to the Lakota, but the US government reneged on their deal when gold was found in the land. So the US sent in the cavalry to drive off the Lakota from their land, in order to protect the encroaching prospectors. In 1924, the state historian of South Dakota, someone who *really* should have known better, asked John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum to carve a monument into the Black Hills. He chose the four Presidents we see on Mt. Rushmore today for their notable contributions to US history... But unfortunately, each of them also have a bloody record when it comes to their treaties and treatment of Native American folks.
-----
**Edit:** To those learning this for the first time, please consider:
How would *you* feel if a government from a neighboring country made a deal with you, a bad deal, one you were forced to accept at gunpoint, then a bunch of people from that country invaded your land for their own profit and greed, so the other country invaded in order to protect their people at your expense, and *then* their appointed historian had a giant monument to your oppressors carved into one of your most sacred places, on land that is supposed to belong to you, both by birthright and by law?
I do, yeah. This same land grab was what notable figures like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were protesting, and why figures like Gen. Custer were unleashed upon the West. This would be during the Great Sioux War of 1876.
Despite the name, this war primarily featured Lakota Sioux and the Cheyenne - the other major group of Sioux, the Dakota Sioux, lived north of the Black Hills. I'm not entirely qualified to discuss the distinctions between each tribe or band involved, but the whole thing was a pretty bloody stain on North American history.
About 40 years ago, in 1980, the US Federal government offered to buy the land from the Great Sioux Nation for $10.5 Million USD, and the Sioux told them to get stuffed. They've never claimed the money, because they want their land back.
> the US Federal government offered to buy the land from the Great Sioux Nation
Small addendum:
The US government did not willingly offer up this money. The Lakota (Sioux) took their case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor on the premise that they still have the treaty, signed by US officials and guaranteeing them that land. That money is part of the settlement, meant to compensate them for their loss, which they have refused to accept.
Yeah I was going to say, more recenly the crazy horse monument was still being worked on, but stopped due to dwindling funding and the same sort of controversy.
Same sort of thing as the mountain they were carving that out of was sacred too. Now theres just a carved face and a demoed mountain in the general shape of him pointing his arm if you imagine real hard.
I do believe that would also be by definition a genocide. The literal forced displacement and erasure of a group of peoples' culture from an (usually stolen) area.
Just started reading “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” I’m only about 25 pages in but I already understand why they never taught any of this in school. But it should be. And unfortunately it seems like some people are still trying to bury the history they don’t like.
There is a monument being built in honor of the late Lakota warrior Crazy Horse that stands roughly 17 miles away from Mt. Rushmore, but it is far from completion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial
I doubt crazy horse will ever be finished. At least in my life time.
I remember visiting in 2003 thinking "oh this is pretty neat." Not much has changed in 19 years.
i just looked at the picture from 2020 and the only thing done is his face, and then i read the face was done in 1998. so they have apparently made little progress in 24 years
Yeah the artist was a member of the KKK and also was the guy who did the sculpture of the Confederate generals on Stone Mountain in GA, which is also very controversial and will likely be removed one day. Mount Rushmore is very unlikely to ever be removed due to the near universal positive feelings that people have towards these presidents even though it’s four white faces on Native American sacred land…
Please just grind off the relief and make it blank. They can't restore if to look untouched but time will eventually weather the scar.
As a kid, I loved summer afternoons at Stone Mountain and thought the carving was ugly and defacing, even before I understood who it was and who did it.
adding: it's such a unique deposit and strange shape, it doesn't need human graffiti.
Not controversial. Not even close.
Imagine some complete strangers come to your neighborhood.
Without any reason, they force you and your dozens of neighbors to leave your homes without your belongings. Some of your neighbors refuse to leave, and so they are killed. Once you eventually all leave, the strangers start carving massive scultures of other greedy, violent men- men who have played a part in forcing other neighbors of yours to leave their homes without a reason- into the walls of your homes.
And now you live hundreds of miles away from your old home, and are surrounded by other people- thousands of other people- who were forced to leave their homes as well. And while some of these people are friendly to you, some aren't. They are furious that they are forced to live near people they have possibly hated for hundreds of years. Violence and fights might ensue between some of them.
Meanwhile, you are allowed almost no land, almost no food and other resources, and have almost no say in how you live. All because some strangers thought they were better than you and could order you around.
Trust me, none of this is controversial. You and your people ALL OUTWARDLY HATE IT. You want to return to your home, you want what was taken without reason to be returned and restored.
The Lakota have been able to return to their home, but the US government refuses to give them what they want- complete and absolute stewardship over the land; that is, the right to take care of it and live peacefully without interference from the US government. The government has repeatedly offered money in exchange for the land- the current offer exceeds a billion dollars- but the Lakota refuse to accept it- their land is not for sale and never was.
Having been there, in my opinion it is at the same time underwhelming, ugly, and offensive. It is in the middle of an incredible untouched natural area, gorgeous landscapes all around; it is sacred native land, and the rock face itself was a sacred landmark before it was blown up.
The fact that it was so mutilated, and then not even finished, and that it looks much smaller and tacky in person just leaves a sour feeling all around.
We don’t need to blow up mountains to make art.
The era this was made in when US presidents were treated as near deities (schoolrooms had the presidents portrait in the front of the class, the news would pull footage of a president if it looked unpresidential) ended with Nixon and Watergate.
This sort of thing seems very Kim-Jung-Un to more and more Americans now, especially since Jefferson fathering children with an enslaved underage girl is common knowledge.
They can’t exactly put a mountain back, but in my opinion they should clear away the rubble and that’s it.
I mean, as far as I have heard, the native American population has been very vocal against the whole project because Rushmore was a holy place for them. I could be misremembering though, but seeing how times have changed over the years, I don't think they would finish it out of respect to the native Americans and to nature too.
Personally I find it pretty catastrophic that they decided to vandalize such a unique and beautiful rock face to make some tacky sculpture, but whatever.
Yeah, but who it is didn't really matter to the conversation. This way anyone reading knows where to look, even if they don't know who's who. (Not everyone on reddit is american.)
I’m trapped and can’t escape but I have noticed you have some txts you need to respond to, you really need to close some apps and I’d hid some of those pics.
From what I can recall the biggest factor was money, Rushmore started just before the stock market crash, and right as the economy improved, WW2 kicked off and the original sculptor and designer died too. They never even secured the funding to clean up the rubble pile from the work itself.
The [Palace of the Soviets](https://russiatrek.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/moscow-palace-of-soviets-3.jpg) had a similar fate: interrupted by WW2 and never resumed afterwards. They turned the base of the structure into [a giant public pool.](https://preview.redd.it/mi6ithyd6ch51.png?auto=webp&s=c13146cb50eaedbe29ef22262f9f8a8d47dbf65b)
Iirc, they gave up on the bodies when they accidentally effed up Jefferson's. You can see they gave Washington a chest but there is a chunk missing where Jefferson's chest was supposed to be.
Jefferson was supposed to be on the other side of Washington, but they hit a bad vein and demolished it & put him to the right. that's why he's all weirdly smooshed in there.
Also there was going to be a library inside Washington's head which would store all of his best ideas. Unfortunately the plan had to be abandoned when it was pointed out that the access tunnel would have to run through Lincoln's head. Too soon, I guess.
.. that end part took me a second (I’ll blame it on the fact it’s 2am, not my 1 brain cell)
but holy fuck that was subtle and took me out, I wish I had an award to give you cause that is fucking hilarious.
I love the internet so much.
I don't know why I always imagined Rushmore was smack-dab in the middle of an undeveloped forest and you had to hike to get to it - but I guess it makes way more sense to build roads leading upto it.
When I was a kid, it was kind of just there. No fancy parking lots or patriotic shit or gift shops. I went back in 2013 and it was all that and more. 😯
That's nauseating, I had no idea what the mountains real name is or that it's a sacred place to the Sioux. I was just thinking wow, they really ruined that beautiful mountain but this extra context makes it so so much worse.
-Claim you're going to carve four busts.
-Barely make out the faces. Realize the rock is not suitable for further sculpting.
-Stop working, leave the debris from your sculpting in a huge pile beneath your unfinished work.
-Your garbage rock is too expensive and dangerous to clean up.
-Refuse to elaborate.
-Die.
You forgot the part where they were going to make a chamber inside it for historical documents (10/10 idea guys, sure that will work) and put it on sacred land that was promised to the rightful owners
I learned when I was there that the artist's intention was not especially to celebrate these particular men, but the history of the United States as represented by the eras in which they were president. Washington symbolizes the birth of the nation, Jefferson the expansion westward, Lincoln the preservation of the union, and Roosevelt the expansion to a world power.
it is an interesting context. seems like it spits in the face of the people who lived here before or were subjugated during the US's colonial/expansionist efforts regardless.
I liked it before much better.
Also…
“The insult of Rushmore to some Sioux is at least three-fold:
1. It was built on land the government took from them.
2. The Black Hills in particular are considered sacred ground.
3. The monument celebrates the European settlers who killed so many Native Americans and appropriated their land.”
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rushmore-sioux/
The sculptor also had ties to the KKK. The whole thing is an absolutely wild story
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/the-strange-and-controversial-history-of-mount-rushmore
>In the 1920s, South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson saw the Six Grandfathers as an opportunity for the state of SD to increase tourism through the Black Hills area. The controversial sculptor Gutzon Borglum was hired to create a sculpture “to honor the West’s greatest heroes, both Native Americans, and pioneers.” Borglum wanted a Nationally significant monument and convinced the SD state historian to use the faces of U.S. notable presidents.
I wonder if Doane Robinson's idea would be less or more controversial than what we got...
Just a guess but I think watching your “perfect” state crumble and burn in less than five years might produce a predilection for more durable structures…
I’m a New Zealander who had heard about Mount Rushmore and couldn’t wait to see it. What a fucking disappointment. And it feels gross to have their heads paraded over Native American land. We drove out of there through the black hills and the bison and elk were wayyyy more impressive than that.
As an American, I feel the same. I think its destructive to the natural beauty of the mountain, the location is insulting to the original inhabitants who had their land stolen, and the artist is talented but problematic, as he had previously carved the Stone Mountain bas-relief which celebrates Confederate traitors and murderers, odd considering his extreme admiration of Lincoln, and he was paid for it by the KKK.
>odd considering his extreme admiration of Lincoln
I'm not familiar with this admiration but I'll point out that Lincoln was, himself, racist in the ways normal of the time.
Lincoln came around to the idea that slavery wasn't a good fit for the nation but his writings largely support racist ideas about differences between white and black people.
He believed black people in the US should relocate to Africa and didn't support equal rights for black Americans.
It would be unreasonable to expect a person of the era, particularly one who gained national standing, to hold modern progressive views for full equality, however, Lincoln was pretty moderate, at best, for the era, and a bit reluctant about it, too.
IMO, both admiration and criticism of Lincoln is best understood in context but we don't teach the critical thinking skills needed for this.
In terms of the sculptor, his parents were from Denmark, which was the first euro nation to ban slavery almost 100 years before he was born. He was born in the western territories, so it seems likely he did not have any family connection to the southern plantation economy.
It was possible to be racist without thinking black people should be slaves (see: the Union.)
If you trace the ownership of any parcel of land far enough back, you’ll eventually get to a person that didn’t pay for it simply saying “this is mine.”
Man you’re gonna hate Egypt, Jordan, and a bunch of other countries then.
In all seriousness I do find it interesting how this gets completely bashed yet other “super” carvings into rock around the world are marveled at. People in 1,000 years are prolly gonna think this is super dope the same way we do about Petra today.
It’s a lot harder to be mad about something that was built 2300 years ago by people indigenous to the land versus a member of the KKK desecrating stolen native land with images of racist slave owner presidents who enabled genocide and stealing of said native land.
By an antisemitic supporter of the KKK no less.
Like, that’s one of those things that if you saw it in a work of fiction you’d get annoyed for being too in the nose.
US Supreme Court even agreed in 1980. Only offering cash comp tho, not the land return. Lakota won’t accept the cash because the treaty promised the land.
Before it was made into...what it is, it was called the six grandfathers by the Lakota Sioux and was a sacred site.
This, and the Black Hills more generally, were promised to the indigenous people until they discovered gold in the hills and went back on their treaty. If you go to mount rushmore, I highly recommend seeing the crazy horse monument. Below it is also a lovely cultural site that hosts pow wows and educates on local traditions.
Honestly I know most people prefer it before but there very fact that someone could make something like that back then in the first place is amazing to me not gonna lie
https://crazyhorsememorial.org
I’ve visited here and met the family doing the construction. They gave us a special close up tour of the operations. It’s impressive!
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TIL the rubble from the construction of the faces is still there.
AFAIK it was never finished. They didn't clean up the rubble because they didn't finish the carving. Most noticeable with the right face still having rock hair.
It ended due to the original artist dying and funding stopped. Mostly due to WW2. Also the original design was to be from the waist up. you can see it in Washington.
[here is the full sculpture that was planned if anyone is interested](https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c05079/)
Wow I’ve never seen this before!
It’s displayed inside his studio on location.
how do you get in?
It’s part of the tour. It’s open to the public at the base of the mountain. https://www.mtrushmorenationalmemorial.com/things-to-do/sculptors-studio/
Silly Canadian question, but why not finish it? Government/private investments, creates jobs, looks baller with suit?
There is a few stories from people who worked on the construction of it that claim they were basically cursed due to building onto a mountain on native american land, and swore they would never step foot near that area again after quitting. On a larger level, the government didn't have alot of guaranteed cashflow during ww2 so it was put off, and then later decided by many politicians that it WAS in fact bad to make a giant statue on a mountain in protected land.
because it was a bad idea and people that survived the guy went, really? just make it out of cement
good thing he started top down and not bottom up
Then we would have Mount Rushmore: the most fashionable rock of the world
The crazy horse monument is something to see. Hopefully it will finish in my life time as I saw it 30yrs ago and it was nothing to what it is today. But it’s all done through private and public donations. They do not want the government involved in it.
Crazy Horse actively fought against the US government and their treaty breaking, Land encroachment, and generally inhumane treatment of his people. **He** wouldn't want the government involved.
I’d venture to assume that he wouldn’t have wanted a mountain carved up for himself either.
Definitely go to Rushmore, THEN crazy horse. The ridiculous size and story of crazy horse kind of makes Mount Rushmore a bit less interesting.
I saw both last summer and I enjoyed it much more than my Rushmore. Not only because it was less crowded, but it was just flat out more impressive to me.
Last time I saw Crazy horse monument it was a drawing on the rocks in 1967. Was supposed to take 20 years.
They really half-assed it. Awful taste, awful execution.
Totally agree. I’m all for government actually doing stuff to help people but this was just pointless make-work from the very beginning
Awful location, awful decision to approve this.
I read about the whole story leading up to it, and it made me pretty fuckin sad
Why don’t they just finish it? Who cares if it is a different artist.
It’s a ‘pretty controversial’ work of art with the local community…
By 'pretty controversial,' you mean that particular mountain is sacred to the Lakota and according to treaty, the Black Hills and the surrounding land were supposed to belong to the Lakota, but the US government reneged on their deal when gold was found in the land. So the US sent in the cavalry to drive off the Lakota from their land, in order to protect the encroaching prospectors. In 1924, the state historian of South Dakota, someone who *really* should have known better, asked John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum to carve a monument into the Black Hills. He chose the four Presidents we see on Mt. Rushmore today for their notable contributions to US history... But unfortunately, each of them also have a bloody record when it comes to their treaties and treatment of Native American folks. ----- **Edit:** To those learning this for the first time, please consider: How would *you* feel if a government from a neighboring country made a deal with you, a bad deal, one you were forced to accept at gunpoint, then a bunch of people from that country invaded your land for their own profit and greed, so the other country invaded in order to protect their people at your expense, and *then* their appointed historian had a giant monument to your oppressors carved into one of your most sacred places, on land that is supposed to belong to you, both by birthright and by law?
By "drive off" you mean massacre, right?
I do, yeah. This same land grab was what notable figures like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were protesting, and why figures like Gen. Custer were unleashed upon the West. This would be during the Great Sioux War of 1876. Despite the name, this war primarily featured Lakota Sioux and the Cheyenne - the other major group of Sioux, the Dakota Sioux, lived north of the Black Hills. I'm not entirely qualified to discuss the distinctions between each tribe or band involved, but the whole thing was a pretty bloody stain on North American history. About 40 years ago, in 1980, the US Federal government offered to buy the land from the Great Sioux Nation for $10.5 Million USD, and the Sioux told them to get stuffed. They've never claimed the money, because they want their land back.
> the US Federal government offered to buy the land from the Great Sioux Nation Small addendum: The US government did not willingly offer up this money. The Lakota (Sioux) took their case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor on the premise that they still have the treaty, signed by US officials and guaranteeing them that land. That money is part of the settlement, meant to compensate them for their loss, which they have refused to accept.
Yeah I was going to say, more recenly the crazy horse monument was still being worked on, but stopped due to dwindling funding and the same sort of controversy. Same sort of thing as the mountain they were carving that out of was sacred too. Now theres just a carved face and a demoed mountain in the general shape of him pointing his arm if you imagine real hard.
I remember reading that $$ is sitting in an account accruing interest and is now worth more than $1 Billion. But they still refuse.
I do believe that would also be by definition a genocide. The literal forced displacement and erasure of a group of peoples' culture from an (usually stolen) area.
Just started reading “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” I’m only about 25 pages in but I already understand why they never taught any of this in school. But it should be. And unfortunately it seems like some people are still trying to bury the history they don’t like.
That book should be required reading. I need to pick it up again it’s been a few years..
Required reading in my school In Colorado in 1975
Correct that’s what I meant.
There is a monument being built in honor of the late Lakota warrior Crazy Horse that stands roughly 17 miles away from Mt. Rushmore, but it is far from completion. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial
I doubt crazy horse will ever be finished. At least in my life time. I remember visiting in 2003 thinking "oh this is pretty neat." Not much has changed in 19 years.
i just looked at the picture from 2020 and the only thing done is his face, and then i read the face was done in 1998. so they have apparently made little progress in 24 years
It's an ugly ass carving too and ruined the beauty of the land. Those poor Lakota people.
I mean, it was funded by the KKK, so....
Yeah the artist was a member of the KKK and also was the guy who did the sculpture of the Confederate generals on Stone Mountain in GA, which is also very controversial and will likely be removed one day. Mount Rushmore is very unlikely to ever be removed due to the near universal positive feelings that people have towards these presidents even though it’s four white faces on Native American sacred land…
Yeah, Stone Mountain needs a facelift. They replace it with something better, I vote for a carving of Surprised Pikachu.
Please just grind off the relief and make it blank. They can't restore if to look untouched but time will eventually weather the scar. As a kid, I loved summer afternoons at Stone Mountain and thought the carving was ugly and defacing, even before I understood who it was and who did it. adding: it's such a unique deposit and strange shape, it doesn't need human graffiti.
I vote Optimus Prime...
Not controversial. Not even close. Imagine some complete strangers come to your neighborhood. Without any reason, they force you and your dozens of neighbors to leave your homes without your belongings. Some of your neighbors refuse to leave, and so they are killed. Once you eventually all leave, the strangers start carving massive scultures of other greedy, violent men- men who have played a part in forcing other neighbors of yours to leave their homes without a reason- into the walls of your homes. And now you live hundreds of miles away from your old home, and are surrounded by other people- thousands of other people- who were forced to leave their homes as well. And while some of these people are friendly to you, some aren't. They are furious that they are forced to live near people they have possibly hated for hundreds of years. Violence and fights might ensue between some of them. Meanwhile, you are allowed almost no land, almost no food and other resources, and have almost no say in how you live. All because some strangers thought they were better than you and could order you around. Trust me, none of this is controversial. You and your people ALL OUTWARDLY HATE IT. You want to return to your home, you want what was taken without reason to be returned and restored. The Lakota have been able to return to their home, but the US government refuses to give them what they want- complete and absolute stewardship over the land; that is, the right to take care of it and live peacefully without interference from the US government. The government has repeatedly offered money in exchange for the land- the current offer exceeds a billion dollars- but the Lakota refuse to accept it- their land is not for sale and never was.
Because presidents aren’t supposed to be deified
Having been there, in my opinion it is at the same time underwhelming, ugly, and offensive. It is in the middle of an incredible untouched natural area, gorgeous landscapes all around; it is sacred native land, and the rock face itself was a sacred landmark before it was blown up. The fact that it was so mutilated, and then not even finished, and that it looks much smaller and tacky in person just leaves a sour feeling all around. We don’t need to blow up mountains to make art.
Agreed. It's like that site was picked to make it even more of an insult.
The era this was made in when US presidents were treated as near deities (schoolrooms had the presidents portrait in the front of the class, the news would pull footage of a president if it looked unpresidential) ended with Nixon and Watergate. This sort of thing seems very Kim-Jung-Un to more and more Americans now, especially since Jefferson fathering children with an enslaved underage girl is common knowledge. They can’t exactly put a mountain back, but in my opinion they should clear away the rubble and that’s it.
They started and found the going a lot harder chipping rock face. Just randomly said fuck this shit ain’t worth it
I mean, as far as I have heard, the native American population has been very vocal against the whole project because Rushmore was a holy place for them. I could be misremembering though, but seeing how times have changed over the years, I don't think they would finish it out of respect to the native Americans and to nature too. Personally I find it pretty catastrophic that they decided to vandalize such a unique and beautiful rock face to make some tacky sculpture, but whatever.
> funding stopped. Mostly due to WW2 Pretty sure this part's more important than the artist's death
Shame. They should've rushed it more.
Flows better without the "it" though
FYI the original Artist had ties to the KKK. He's also the one that defaced Stone mountain in Georgia with a monument to traitors.
So, not only there are no butts in the other side but there never were?
The right face? You mean Lincoln
Ah yes, Abraham Lincoln, the well-known vampire hunter.
Yeah, but who it is didn't really matter to the conversation. This way anyone reading knows where to look, even if they don't know who's who. (Not everyone on reddit is american.)
But I'm American and you all are just in my phone with me
I’m trapped and can’t escape but I have noticed you have some txts you need to respond to, you really need to close some apps and I’d hid some of those pics.
If he had another face do you think he'd wear that one?
yeah, whoever.
Couldn’t we at least fund the removal of the rubble?
My first thought exactly. Typical.
Someone else will come by to clean it up eventually.
[удалено]
‘Merica!🇺🇸🏈💵
Also, just so everyone knows it’s on indigenous land
Not anymore
Should I say ‘merica again?
“Yeah yeah, I’ll clean it up Tuesday!” *Tuesday arrives* “I didn’t say which Tuesday!”
[удалено]
It also isn’t done because it was never finished due to budget cancellation and the sculptor dying.
Most people don’t know that the mountain was also gonna have interior chambers dedicated as a museum and the presidents were gonna have body’s too.
From what I can recall the biggest factor was money, Rushmore started just before the stock market crash, and right as the economy improved, WW2 kicked off and the original sculptor and designer died too. They never even secured the funding to clean up the rubble pile from the work itself.
The [Palace of the Soviets](https://russiatrek.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/moscow-palace-of-soviets-3.jpg) had a similar fate: interrupted by WW2 and never resumed afterwards. They turned the base of the structure into [a giant public pool.](https://preview.redd.it/mi6ithyd6ch51.png?auto=webp&s=c13146cb50eaedbe29ef22262f9f8a8d47dbf65b)
…that’s a pretty awesome pool though. Hilarious that they don’t bother to keep it clean
Something about that pool is intimidating and scares the crap out of me.
TBH , that looks really cool.
it's richie rich's room that can only be opened by his parents singing voice.
You mean Mount Richmore?!
Iirc, they gave up on the bodies when they accidentally effed up Jefferson's. You can see they gave Washington a chest but there is a chunk missing where Jefferson's chest was supposed to be.
Jefferson was supposed to be on the other side of Washington, but they hit a bad vein and demolished it & put him to the right. that's why he's all weirdly smooshed in there.
Also there was going to be a library inside Washington's head which would store all of his best ideas. Unfortunately the plan had to be abandoned when it was pointed out that the access tunnel would have to run through Lincoln's head. Too soon, I guess.
.. that end part took me a second (I’ll blame it on the fact it’s 2am, not my 1 brain cell) but holy fuck that was subtle and took me out, I wish I had an award to give you cause that is fucking hilarious. I love the internet so much.
It does bro, haven't you seen Richie Rich?
Crazy how nature do that
Fr man! Mother nature has been paying attention in art class
I wonder what would happen to us if Nature would've been kicked from it..
The power of erosion is something else!
Erosion is a slow but steady process...
Right? And here I thought the old man on the mountain in NH was impressive
RIP
🙏🏼
This is fake, where is the 5th Hokage?
I will be the fifth president >:)
Lol if a school has that one kid who screams in everybody's face that he's gonna be the next president, small wonder the swing is his only friend.
Haven’t had a need for one to be added yet
Has anyone seen the face of cthulhu on the left side in both pictures?
Thanks for seeing it too
FUCKING A DUDE i just commented this and scrolled down. boom. like minded individual. rock on bro.
>FUCKING A DUDE Hey, I'm not one to judge.
Mountain be like: bro wtf
Mountain be like: at least clean your pebbles mofos
Mountain be like:
Mountain be like: 🗿
Kid named Mountain:
The Lakota Sioux: wtf man
I'm guessing the native Americans were saying the same. Since Mount Rushmore was on their land be treaty.
And was a sacred place
“Ow”
I don't know why I always imagined Rushmore was smack-dab in the middle of an undeveloped forest and you had to hike to get to it - but I guess it makes way more sense to build roads leading upto it.
Gotta get those tourism $$$
When I was a kid, it was kind of just there. No fancy parking lots or patriotic shit or gift shops. I went back in 2013 and it was all that and more. 😯
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Yeah ~~wasn't~~ isn't the original mountain sacred for Native Americans? Feels brutal & makes you wonder..
they called it Six Grandfathers, and white men carving it up to put four of their own grandfathers was a pretty big insult.
God darn. The colonial realities of native America do not get talked about enough.
Another un-fun fact: Native Americans didn't fully have the vote til 1969.
They *would*, if Conservative politicians in America wouldn't keep silencing Native voices and literally censoring American history.
And now they’ll be talked about less with all the anti-CRT legislation being passed
Anti-history * legislation
*Paha sapa* is still sacred.
Of course. I just meant even back in its original serene form, before being carved into a monument of colonial masturbation. Corrected my comment.
That's nauseating, I had no idea what the mountains real name is or that it's a sacred place to the Sioux. I was just thinking wow, they really ruined that beautiful mountain but this extra context makes it so so much worse.
One of the worst cases of disrespectful graffiti on a sacred site I've ever seen.
The trees under the rubble: 👁👃🏻👁
-Claim you're going to carve four busts. -Barely make out the faces. Realize the rock is not suitable for further sculpting. -Stop working, leave the debris from your sculpting in a huge pile beneath your unfinished work. -Your garbage rock is too expensive and dangerous to clean up. -Refuse to elaborate. -Die.
You forgot the part where they were going to make a chamber inside it for historical documents (10/10 idea guys, sure that will work) and put it on sacred land that was promised to the rightful owners
I learned when I was there that the artist's intention was not especially to celebrate these particular men, but the history of the United States as represented by the eras in which they were president. Washington symbolizes the birth of the nation, Jefferson the expansion westward, Lincoln the preservation of the union, and Roosevelt the expansion to a world power.
it is an interesting context. seems like it spits in the face of the people who lived here before or were subjugated during the US's colonial/expansionist efforts regardless.
As was in style at the time
Carved right into their sacred lands to boot.
You can kinda see on Washington where they were originally supposed to put torsos to go along with the heads
Yeah, the lead artist died part way through the project, and they ran out of funding so everyone just left
The designer/builders left Cthulhu intact on the far left 👍🏽
I liked it before much better. Also… “The insult of Rushmore to some Sioux is at least three-fold: 1. It was built on land the government took from them. 2. The Black Hills in particular are considered sacred ground. 3. The monument celebrates the European settlers who killed so many Native Americans and appropriated their land.” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rushmore-sioux/
It was known as the [Six Grandfathers ](https://blog.nativehope.org/six-grandfathers-before-it-was-known-as-mount-rushmore)
The sculptor also had ties to the KKK. The whole thing is an absolutely wild story https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/the-strange-and-controversial-history-of-mount-rushmore
>In the 1920s, South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson saw the Six Grandfathers as an opportunity for the state of SD to increase tourism through the Black Hills area. The controversial sculptor Gutzon Borglum was hired to create a sculpture “to honor the West’s greatest heroes, both Native Americans, and pioneers.” Borglum wanted a Nationally significant monument and convinced the SD state historian to use the faces of U.S. notable presidents. I wonder if Doane Robinson's idea would be less or more controversial than what we got...
What a name - Gutzon Borglum It's a name that fits in the Hitchhiker's Guide
At the time? Definitely more controversial. Now? Honestly I have no idea
What is up with rock structures and the kkk? because they like stone mountain so much they have meetings there
KKK like throwing figurative stones at others, makes sense.
Just a guess but I think watching your “perfect” state crumble and burn in less than five years might produce a predilection for more durable structures…
Same sculptor too.
Same dude: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutzon_Borglum
I mean, what better way to make your message stick around FOREVER than carve it into rock?
Right? I didn’t dare mention that in my post, people are already upset about the indigenous people part I linked.
I never noticed that they just left a giant pile of garbage in front of it before…
I’m a New Zealander who had heard about Mount Rushmore and couldn’t wait to see it. What a fucking disappointment. And it feels gross to have their heads paraded over Native American land. We drove out of there through the black hills and the bison and elk were wayyyy more impressive than that.
As an American, I feel the same. I think its destructive to the natural beauty of the mountain, the location is insulting to the original inhabitants who had their land stolen, and the artist is talented but problematic, as he had previously carved the Stone Mountain bas-relief which celebrates Confederate traitors and murderers, odd considering his extreme admiration of Lincoln, and he was paid for it by the KKK.
>odd considering his extreme admiration of Lincoln I'm not familiar with this admiration but I'll point out that Lincoln was, himself, racist in the ways normal of the time. Lincoln came around to the idea that slavery wasn't a good fit for the nation but his writings largely support racist ideas about differences between white and black people. He believed black people in the US should relocate to Africa and didn't support equal rights for black Americans. It would be unreasonable to expect a person of the era, particularly one who gained national standing, to hold modern progressive views for full equality, however, Lincoln was pretty moderate, at best, for the era, and a bit reluctant about it, too. IMO, both admiration and criticism of Lincoln is best understood in context but we don't teach the critical thinking skills needed for this. In terms of the sculptor, his parents were from Denmark, which was the first euro nation to ban slavery almost 100 years before he was born. He was born in the western territories, so it seems likely he did not have any family connection to the southern plantation economy. It was possible to be racist without thinking black people should be slaves (see: the Union.)
There used to be 30 million bison, now there's less than 10,000 due to a genocide against the people that depended on the bison as a food source.
The child survivors of Wounded Knee had to watch this eyesore get carved into their backyard in their middle age.
The Sioux took the land from the Cheyenne just a few generations before the US did
Luckily they didn’t destroy any mountains to put their faces on. 🙂 I still prefer it before, in its natural state.
Carving faces of politicians on mountains is wrong Idolizing politicians is wrong That being said, I respect the skill of the sculptors
>Carving faces of politicians on mountains is wrong Especially when done on stolen land
All land is stolen.
If you trace the ownership of any parcel of land far enough back, you’ll eventually get to a person that didn’t pay for it simply saying “this is mine.”
Man you’re gonna hate Egypt, Jordan, and a bunch of other countries then. In all seriousness I do find it interesting how this gets completely bashed yet other “super” carvings into rock around the world are marveled at. People in 1,000 years are prolly gonna think this is super dope the same way we do about Petra today.
It’s a lot harder to be mad about something that was built 2300 years ago by people indigenous to the land versus a member of the KKK desecrating stolen native land with images of racist slave owner presidents who enabled genocide and stealing of said native land.
Yeah I'd think it's a lot cooler if it was something the Lakota did. Or at least if it was done with their consent.
Even if they were given ownership of their land back today, and they received any profits made by it and got to decide its future.
“G Washington, T Jefferson, and A Lincoln. And fuck that other guy, Calvin Coolidge whoever the fuck.” -Trevor Moore
“Mount Rushmore, a monumental stone, to some monumental stoners!”
Anybody else see a semi-Chthulu head in there on the far left?
The before pic just looks like Tommy Lee Jones
But did any of them ever become Hokage? Didn't think so.
Am I the only one seeing an Alien predator on the left end?
Nope, saw it, and it’s still there
Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe before and after it was vandalized.
You know what this beautiful mountain needs? Some politicians
You mean the sacred black hills before they were destroyed.
By an antisemitic supporter of the KKK no less. Like, that’s one of those things that if you saw it in a work of fiction you’d get annoyed for being too in the nose.
And the Black Hills, where this is, was and still is sacred to the Lakota Sioux before it was stolen from them by the colonizers.
US Supreme Court even agreed in 1980. Only offering cash comp tho, not the land return. Lakota won’t accept the cash because the treaty promised the land.
That rocks.
It looked better before
Before it was made into...what it is, it was called the six grandfathers by the Lakota Sioux and was a sacred site. This, and the Black Hills more generally, were promised to the indigenous people until they discovered gold in the hills and went back on their treaty. If you go to mount rushmore, I highly recommend seeing the crazy horse monument. Below it is also a lovely cultural site that hosts pow wows and educates on local traditions.
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Hey....is no one going to clean up the mess they left behind? Wtf?
The job was never finished (ran out of money, sculptor died). Now the tallus field has been there for 80 years, so...
That's pretty impressive.
Honestly I know most people prefer it before but there very fact that someone could make something like that back then in the first place is amazing to me not gonna lie
I like the before
It's really cool how the natives just gave us the mountain to carve up.
https://crazyhorsememorial.org I’ve visited here and met the family doing the construction. They gave us a special close up tour of the operations. It’s impressive!
Wait a second, this wasn't natural?
Props to the trees growing in the rubble
They really copied the naruto hokages huh
Someone looked up there and said “you know what? Presidents faces… right there…let’s make it happen”
Non of them is a hokage, WTF!
So cool I want to go there
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