By Chuck Woodbury
ROADISIDE JOURNAL
Everybody knows Mount Rushmore, the most famous tourist attraction in South Dakota. The heads of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln loom large over the Black Hills. They are the work of Gutzon Borglum and his helpers, who blasted and chiseled the faces into the mountainside for 14 years beginning in 1927.
Today, about 2.5 millions visitors from around the world visit the National Memorial site near Rapid City every year.
Now, a bit of trivia for you.
What tourists do not see, and will likely never see, is the other side of Mount Rushmore. Yet, if you visit any tourist shop within 100 miles, you will find it difficult to miss seeing the many postcards, posters and tee-shirts that depict “the other side of the mountain.”
With a bit of tongue in my cheek, I am willing to share the scene with you. Simply click here.
##RVT932
Good one. I remember those shirts now.
Worked for me
Suckered me into looking at behind Mt Rushmore, darn funny Chuck.
Worked for me too…
If you have seen the movie North by Northwest, the top of Mt. Rushmore is shown as a luxury ranch. Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint have to claw their way up the face side. That part was actually a movie set, so the luxury ranch was as real as the backside postcard here.
Great movie though!
And I thought I had seen about everything! Obviously not since I had never seen the backside of the mountain.
Slightly related: I have often thought that if the NPS allowed visitors to take home a rock from under the faces that mess would be cleaned up in no time.
Might want to re-think the phrase, “tongue in cheek ” , in the intro 😉
OMG! True story! hahaha
Got me hook, line & sinker! Good one!
Too many ads! And I have been on the back side of the mountain. There is an Indian village leading to it. And it’s actually a nice little walk.
Actually… there is a rock climbing area just behind Mt. Rushmore known as Wrinkled Rocks… kind of fitting, eh?
Sorry, Peg. It’s still working for me, and as far as I know, no one else has had a problem with it. Hopefully you’ve since been able to get it to work for you. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
If you really want to see what is behind Mount Rushmore, go to Google Maps, go to satellite view
then turn on Globe view (that will put you into 3D mode) Then copy & paste these co-ordinates. 43.879170, -103.459490
There is all kinds of neat stuff back there.
OK, jokes aside there IS something worth noticing behind the faces. The unfinished “Hall of Records”. A place designed to be the receptical of our nation’s vital records. Original constitution, original copies of the “Bill of Rights”, etc. Like the monument itself, it never got finished.