Fans of the Naruto anime definitely know the figure of the Hokage, leader of Konoha Village, which is carved into the village hill. In the real world, we can find a similar view on Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, United States. On the mountain, there are statues of the faces of four US Presidents, namely George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Work on this statue began on October 4, 1927.
A historian from South Dakota named Doane Robinson, had an idea to attract more tourists to his area. He hired a sculptor named Gutzon Borglum to carve the faces of four US Presidents on Mount Rushmore. Although this project caused protests from the native Lakota Sioux Tribe because they considered the place sacred, the project continued and was completed on October 31, 1941.
The manufacturing process began by carving George Washington's face, where Borglum first made Washington's head in the shape of an egg and then added other facial features. Next, Borglum worked on Thomas Jefferson's face, which was initially placed on Washington's right, then moved to the left, because within two years the sculpture of Jefferson's face had badly cracked, and had to be redone from the beginning by sculpting Jefferson's face on Washington's left side.
Washington's face was completed first in 1934, followed by Jefferson's face and Lincoln's face a year later. The face of the Roosevelt was not completed until 1939. The project cost approximately 1 million US dollars, funded mostly by the federal government. Borglum continued to perfect his work until he died in 1941.
Before his death, Borglum hoped to create a series of inscriptions on the mountain that would tell the history of the United States. However, work was not continued, and the Rushmore Monument was considered complete on October 31, 1941.
Borglum chose these four presidents because he considered them to represent the most important events in United States history. Washington led the American Revolutionary War, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, Roosevelt led economic growth, and Lincoln defended the union and abolished slavery. The four were chosen to represent important values in the country's history.
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