Today I biked to a patriotic pilgrimage site that tops them all – Mount Rushmore. Called the “Shrine of Democracy,” the four faces carved into the side of a mountain in the Black Hills is almost religious, depending on how you look at it.
First, let me show a picture I took of the sky by the highway. South Dakota has the most amazing skies:
And now the monument. Here it is, behind the Avenue of Flags, where all the flags of the states and territories are displayed:
And the monument alone:
There’s tons of history to tie the mountain to religion. At Mount Rushmore’s first dedication in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge said that its cornerstone was laid by the hands of the Almighty. Money for construction from Washington, D.C. was referred to as manna, and it was in the early years that people began referring to it as a shrine. In fact, sculptor Gutzon Borglum consistently spoke and wrote of his divine inspiration and guidance in creating the monument, and it’s rumored he hid a copy of the Ten Commandments in a cave in the back with the Constitution. Check out this quote:
“Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away.”
Such sentiment certainly carries through to today. It may be as slight as a 2002 speech from President George W. Bush, saying that patriotism is more than just pledging allegiance to a nation under God. Or it may be largely apparent, like the 2006 National Day of Prayer, which brought six hundred people to the monument.
But a spiritual connection to these mountains goes back much further. The Black Hills have always been a sacred place for the Lakota tribe, which views it as the heart of the world. The hills hold many traditionally sacred locations, including Bear Butte, which is seen as the exact center from which the land of the world emanates. From the beginning, Mount Rushmore was intended to become another sacred site.
Interestingly, the connection between faith and Mount Rushmore is only growing. Recently, the story of its carving has become one of the most popular analogies for proponents of Intelligent Design. In essence, the argument states that because Mount Rushmore is so complex, it would be infinitely unlikely to appear in nature on its own. After all, there are no natural human-looking rocks on the planet. No one would assume that the faces of Mount Rushmore are things of change, so why then, they ask, should this not be true for ourselves?
But the main reason people flock to this monument is to bask in the glory of our nation, which has almost become a religion in itself. I met visitors today who have been coming to the shrine every year for decades, decked out in blue shirts and red-and-white striped pants. How is this not a pilgrimage?
I’m very tired, so it’s hard for me to think of this right now. (To get to Rushmore and back, I had to climb 3-mile-long hills over and over again.) But I’ll leave you with this picture of me in front of a statue of George W. Bush from a nearby teaser for a garden with statues of all of the presidents. It didn’t turn out so well:
