I recently got back from a trip to Mount Rushmore which is a place that I wanted to visit for a long time. I always like to try to save money whenever I travel and I was able to do so this time with a hotels.com coupon (http://www.prlog.org/11996528-sittercity-promo-code-25-off-coupon.html) and a good rate on airfare thanks to one of those price comparison websites.

Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When the idea for Mount Rushmore was born it was not to honor ex-presidents or to be a symbol for democracy. The idea was actually conceived by Doane Robinson (http://www.prlog.org/11996524-lifelock-promo-code-20-off-coupon.html) as a way to increase tourism to the Black Hills area. He felt that there needed to be some type of attraction that would attract people to visit this part of South Dakota.

Robinson got in contact with Gutzon Borglum who was already a very well-known sculptor at the time. It was Borglum that identified Mount Rushmore as the perfect location for a grand monument. Raising funds to get this project started was no easy task. Robinson worked with a congressman, a senator, and even President Calvin Coolidge (http://www.prlog.org/11996370-green-smoke-coupon-code-latest-working-coupons.html) to get the funding necessary to start the project. Robinson had to raise a lot of the money himself and Congress agreed to match up to $250,000 of funding to create a national Memorial.

In 1933 the project came under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and Borglum was not very happy with the fact that the National Parks Service (http://www.prlog.org/11996509-checks-unlimited-offer-code-50-off-coupon.html) was charged with oversight of the construction. Even though he was not happy about the National Park Service being involved with the project, he still continued to work on the monument until his death in 1941. After his death, Borglum’s son took the reins and completed the project. The project was completed on Halloween in 1941.

Today Mount Rushmore sees nearly 3,000,000 visitors per year. People from all over the world come to visit. In addition to the incredible monument itself (http://www.prlog.org/11998277-tigerdirect-coupon-code-20-off.html) and everything it represents, the Mount Rushmore area, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is a very beautiful place to visit. Nature lovers will have plenty to see in this beautiful wooded area that is full of wildlife and various species of wildflowers.

One thing that many people don’t realize about Mount Rushmore is the controversy the project caused. The United States seized the land from the Lakota tribe (http://www.prlog.org/11996518-bh-cosmetics-coupon-codes-save-30.html) following the great Sioux war of 1876. In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie granted the Black Hills to the Lakota tribe, or so it seemed. In 1971 there was an occupation of the monument and the Lakota people named it Mount Crazy Horse. A crazy horse Memorial is being constructed elsewhere in the Black Hills.