October 31, 1941: Mount Rushmore Is "Finished"

October 31, 1941: Lincoln Borglum admits defeat, and declares that his father Gutzon Borglum's masterwork, Mount Rushmore outside Rapid City, South Dakota, is finished.

Construction had begun in 1927. The faces of Presidents (left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, had been finished (in, respectively, 1939 and 1937), but the rest of it, which was meant to include them down to the waist, was not, except for the lapels on Washington's jacket. Gutzon had died earlier in the year, and there just wasn't enough money to do it all.

Gutzon had chosen his 4 Presidents carefully. Washington was "the Father of Our country." His face was finished in 1934. Jefferson was chosen not because he was the author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but because the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 made him the man who opened the American West, starting the nation's expansion. His face was finished in 1936.

Lincoln, for whom Gutzon named his son, not only saved the Union, but his championing of the Transcontinental Railroad also played a major part in the opening of the American West. Certainly, Gutzon didn't choose Lincoln for ending slavery: Gutzon was a white supremacist, and had no qualms about taking a mountain that Native Americans had considered sacred land. They had named it "Six Grandfathers," although there are now four faces on it. Lincoln's face was finished in 1937.

And Theodore Roosevelt was included because, due to his ownership and operation of a ranch in North Dakota, and his efforts to preserve many Western lands as National Parks and National Monuments, he was the 1st President with any real connection to the American West. Jefferson's home, Monticello, may have been in the Appalachian Mountains outside Charlottesville, Virginia, but it's unlikely that he ever crossed over to the other side of the Appalachians. He had Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their group to it for him, and report back on what the land, the water, the plants, the animals, and the weather were like. At any rate, TR's face was finished in 1939.

Many TV shows and movies set in the future have depicted a 5th face on Mount Rushmore, although it varies, depending on the writer. Usually, it's some unidentified President, in our future but the show's/film's past.

Other Presidents have been suggested for being put on Mount Rushmore, with varying degrees of seriousness: Franklin Roosevelt, for winning World War II; John F. Kennedy, for starting America's space program; Ronald Reagan, for "winning the Cold War" (his supporters have a slogan: "Put Ron on the Rock!"; Barack Obama, for being the nation's 1st black President; and Donald Trump, because putting his face on Mount Rushmore might be the only way to satisfy his massive ego.

There are 2 problems with this, regardless of which Presidential honoree you support. One is that it is widely believed that there is no room for a 5th face on Rushmore. Whether that is fact or a matter of opinion is not clear.

The other problem is Gutzon Borghlum's original meaning of Mount Rushmore: A tribute to America and its westward expansion. None of the suggestions mentioned above fit that description. Indeed, of those 5, only Reagan and Obama ever even lived in a Western State. And, given that we didn't stay on the Moon, the argument that Kennedy stood for American expansionism doesn't go very far (even if the missions he inspired did).

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle are sometimes called the New York Yankees' "Mount Rushmore." This can also be done for another legendary sports franchise, although not an American one: The Montreal Canadiens, with Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau and Guy Lafleur.

The Boston Celtics? If you limit it to players, thus eliminating Red Auerbach, you would have Bill Russell and Larry Bird, but who else? Which two out of Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens and Paul Pierce? Somebody's gotta go, and it's not definitive.

The Green Bay Packers? Again, if you take out coaches, so no Vince Lombardi, you can take Don Hutson -- but who are the other three? Out of Clarke Hinkle, Tony Canadeo, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, Willie Davis, Ray Nitschke, Brett Favre, Reggie White and Aaron Rodgers, seven gotta go.

The Chicago Bears? You could do four running backs: Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, Gale Sayers and Walter Payton. Or four linebackers: Bill George, Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher. But can you really do two of each? Then you'd have to leave four guys off, and I'm not going to tell any of those linebackers he's being left off. (George is dead, but the man Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly once called "the meanest Bear ever" might come back and get you if you tell him he's off.)

I suppose it could be done with coaches in Notre Dame football: Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz. Alabama football can have Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant and Nick Saban.

But the original Mount Rushmore is set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. When the Montreal Expos moved to become the Washington Nationals in 2005, they set up "The Racing Presidents," with runners wearing big foam heads of the Rushmore Presidents, and wearing jerseys over their period costumes, reading GEORGE 1, TOM 3, ABE 16 and TEDDY 26, for their places in the Presidential order. 

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October 31, 1941 was a Friday. It was also Halloween. It was also the day the Nazis sank the destroyer USS Reuben James. I have a separate entry for that event. Actress Sally Kirkland was born on this day.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't begin until the next day. So there were no scores on this historic day.