Mount Rushmore

This passage is about how Mount Rushmore was built.

Lexile Level: 670L

Categories: People & Places

South Dakota is very sparsely populated. Fewer than one million people live in the whole state. But every year around two million tourists travel there to see one of the most famous American monuments. Mount Rushmore is a granite mountaintop that has been turned into a sculpture. It is without a doubt the country's largest monument. The faces of four presidents have been carved into the mountain. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt look down on the land below. Their faces are 60 feet high. They can be seen from miles away. It took 400 workers and sculptors 14 years to finish Mount Rushmore . It was dangerous work. Sculptors had to hang from ropes to carve the stone. Dynamite was also used. But the workers were very careful. No workers died, and very few were injured. Today mountain climbers have to wash the monument to keep the faces clean and bright.