Mt. Rushmore, the national monument located just outside Keystone, South Dakota, is a gigantic granite masterpiece by Gutzon Borglum.

Sculptures of former presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, cover 1278 acres.

Originally known to the Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers, the mountain was renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885.

Between October 4, 1927, and October 31, 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the colossal 60-foot carvings of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history.

These presidents were selected by Borglum because of their role in preserving the Republic and expanding its territory.