Mt Rushmore, the mighty

Nothing prepares one for Mt Rushmore.

Not all the photos or documentaries. Not even North By Northwest with Cary Grant dangling from Washington’s nose.

It is a stunning rock formation which seems to glow with the finesse of the faces looking down from it.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Grand, wise, good faces. Huge. High and huge. Sixty feet high. Noses 20 ft long. Eyes 11 feet wide.

Beneath the sculptures the rubble waste cascades down the hillside like an avalanche. Rocks were not just jackhammered to make these images;

they were dynamited. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, even blasted one completed face off of the cliff - because it did not meet his aims. The project involved some 400 workers and took from 1927 - 1941.

It towers there in a magnificent landscape. Other peaks have similar boulder formations and one can imagine how they could inspire an artist to create a major work.

As we stand and gaze, clouds move across the sky and we see the sculptures in changing light. The clouds bring a different and even sharper perspective.

Oh, they are mighty.

They are serene as they gaze out across the

mountain landscape to infinity.

They imbue the world beneath with a sense of its smallness.

Of course, the sculptures have created a bit of a tourism industry.

A grand avenue has been erected where people can walk to a viewing area. It has been constructed of granite and marble and given an arch and an honour guard of the flags of all the United States of America. This gives an added sense of respect and gravitas.

Its grandeur hints a little at great

archeological sites like Ephesus and Olympia.

Of course it swarms with visitors, most of them Americans exploring their own land with curiosity and pride.

There are official information centres and souvenir shops up there, too.

But down the mountain, the real tourism industry has made its merry explosions.

There are two whole villages of ticky-tacky shops, cafes, and bars. They are set out rather as one would find in a wild west movie set.

Since there are only so many Mt Rushmore souvenirs people can buy, the shops sell souvenirs of almost everything. There’s even a

Christmas Tree shop tucked in there selling Chrissy kitsch.

There’s an old period hotel and lots more recent accommodation. There are rides and activities for the kiddies.

There are serious cultural museums, waxworks, wood sculpture yards, gold panning….something for everyone. This is America, after all.

I love it all.

Except, perhaps, for the religious exploitation which takes us rather by surprise.

At the memorial there is an evangelical pod set up on the grand avenue beneath the sculptures. A grey-haired man in a dark suit sits under an umbrella amid acolytes and promotional paraphernalia suggesting that the Bible could tell us something about all this. Bruce is unusually irritated by the bad taste of this display in this place which is about nation, art, and human endeavour.

He actually pauses and gives the missionary some feedback. “Mt Rushmore is not the place to be advertising your religion. I’m of a mind to open an atheist stand right opposite you to tell people my view,” he declares. The missionary does not respond.

Worse was to come when we spied a huge sign carved out on a large wall beneath a large development just down the valley. It was a URL, “whatisthis4.com". Bruce looked it up. Oh, no. A massive missionary centre devoted to sending people en masse out to shine their light to people of other faiths? What the?

In the shadow of those wise old men of American history, those men who believed in secular government, education, and progress?

Extraordinary arrogance.