Why Mount Rushmore Almost Had a Very Different Look
Stand in front of Mount Rushmore today and it feels permanent, like it always had those four faces and that exact look. The funny part is: the mountain you see is basically the “budget cut, last-minute revision” version.
Behind those 60-foot faces is a whole pile of “almost.” Different people. Different location. Different layout. Extra words. Secret rooms. Even another president who nearly joined the crowd.
Let’s pull that all apart.
The Day Mount Rushmore Wasn’t Mount Rushmore Yet
In the early 1920s, South Dakota wanted tourists. The Black Hills are beautiful, but back then “pretty trees” didn’t always fill hotels. So state historian Doane Robinson had a wild idea: carve huge statues into a cliff to lure people off the highway.
At first, the mountain we know wasn’t even in the running. Robinson was staring at a spot called the Needles, a line of tall, skinny granite spires that look like stone fingers poking into the sky. His plan? Not presidents. Western legends. Think frontiersmen and folk heroes, the kind of figures you’d see on old dime-novel covers.
So the first version of “Mount Rushmore” would have looked more like a Wild West movie poster than a row of presidents in suits.
From Cowboy Cliff to Presidential Wall
Enter sculptor Gutzon Borglum. He had a huge ego, big ideas, and zero interest in carving what he saw as “local celebrities.” He wanted something national, something that shouted “United States” at full volume.
That’s when the focus shifted to presidents. George Washington for the country’s founding. Thomas Jefferson for expansion and the Louisiana Purchase. Theodore Roosevelt for modern growth and business reforms. Abraham Lincoln for holding the Union together.
The switch from regional Western heroes to national presidents is the first big reason Mount Rushmore almost had a very different look. If Borglum hadn’t pushed back, you might be looking at Buffalo Bill instead of Teddy Roosevelt.
And the Needles? Geologists warned the rock there was too cracked and crumbly to carve safely. The idea was dropped, and Robinson’s dramatic stone spires lost the job to Mount Rushmore’s broader, more solid granite wall.
Why Mount Rushmore Almost Had a Very Different Look in Stone
Once the location and the general idea were set, you’d think the rest would be simple: draw faces, carve faces, done.
Not even close.
Borglum changed his design around nine times because the rock kept surprising him. Cracks, weak spots, weird seams in the granite — “reality of the rock,” as later park officials called it.
Jefferson’s First Face That Had to Be Blown Off
Here’s one of the wildest stories.
Jefferson was supposed to be on Washington’s right side at first. Workers spent about a year and a half carving him there. Then the rock started to fail. Cracks. Bad stone. Not something you want running through a 60-foot nose.
The solution was not gentle. They dynamited Jefferson’s face off the mountain and started over on Washington’s left side. If you’ve ever taken a photo from the wrong angle at Rushmore and thought, “This looks a bit crowded,” now you know why. The whole layout is Plan B.
Imagine visiting today and seeing Jefferson on the other side, or worse, seeing a half-carved, cracked Jefferson abandoned in the rock. That was a very real possibility.
The Presidents Were Supposed to Have Bodies
Those four heads weren’t meant to float there like stone busts on a cloud. The original design showed the presidents down to their waists. You were supposed to see shoulders, suit coats, maybe even buttons and lapels.
Money killed that dream.
By 1941, federal funding dried up, Borglum had died, and the country had bigger things to worry about as World War II escalated. Work stopped. Only a hint of George Washington’s chest and collar was carved before the tools went quiet.
So the “floating head” look we know today isn’t artistic minimalism. It’s what happens when the checks stop coming.
The Missing Words, Rooms, and Extra Faces
The faces are dramatic, but Borglum wanted more. A lot more.
The Giant Stone “Entablature” That Never Happened
Borglum planned to carve a giant panel next to the presidents — an “entablature” with a short history of the United States chiseled into the mountain. Think of it as an 80-by-120-foot stone infographic, complete with a big outline of the Louisiana Purchase and key milestones in under 500 words.
That huge slab of text never materialized. Again, the rock wasn’t ideal, and the budget wasn’t either. If it had gone ahead, today’s photos of Mount Rushmore would probably have a massive block of writing off to one side.
The Secret Hall of Records Behind Their Heads
Borglum also wanted a hidden room inside the mountain behind the presidents: the Hall of Records. His idea was to store copies of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, important speeches, and records so that future generations — or maybe curious visitors thousands of years from now — could understand what this place meant.
Workers actually started blasting a chamber behind Lincoln’s head. Then, you guessed it, the project stalled. For decades, there was just an unfinished cavern back there. In 1998, the government did place porcelain panels with key historical documents and a summary of the memorial in that area, sealed under a capstone, but Borglum’s grand stairway and full hall never happened.
Mount Rushmore almost had a literal secret room, and now it’s more like a sealed time capsule than a dramatic public hall.
When Susan B. Anthony Almost Joined the Lineup
In 1937, a bill in Congress proposed adding Susan B. Anthony to Mount Rushmore. For a moment, the mountain almost included a leading voice in the women’s suffrage movement.
Another rider on the appropriations bill shut that down by insisting all remaining funds go only to carvings already started. No new faces. No Anthony.
That decision locked in the “just four presidents” look we know today. Without it, the entire balance and story of the monument would feel different.
The Reality of the Rock and the Reality of Money
When you stack all the abandoned parts together — Jefferson’s first face, the missing torsos, the giant text panel, the Hall of Records staircase, Susan B. Anthony — you see a pattern.
The rock said no. The budget said no. The clock said no.
Granite in the Black Hills isn’t one perfect block. It has veins, fractures, and soft spots. Engineers and later superintendents have made it very clear: carving more faces, or expanding the sculptures now, would be risky and probably unsafe.
Borglum pushed the mountain as far as he could. The final result is not his full dream version. It’s the version that survived politics, geology, and the Great Depression.
A Different Look in a Deeper Sense
There’s another way Mount Rushmore could have looked different: it might not have existed at all.
The mountain sits in the Black Hills, land sacred to the Lakota Sioux. The U.S. government took that land in the 1870s after finding gold there, breaking past treaty promises. In 1980, the Supreme Court agreed the land had been taken illegally and awarded the Sioux Nation compensation. The tribe refused the money and continues to call for the land’s return.
From that point of view, the “right look” for that mountain isn’t four presidents at all. It’s uncarved rock or a different kind of monument entirely. Nearby, the ongoing Crazy Horse Memorial reflects that alternate vision.
Knowing that history gives the whole place a different feel. It’s not just a cool roadside stop. It’s a symbol people argue about, defend, protest, and reinterpret.
Seeing Mount Rushmore With Fresh Eyes Today
If you visit today, you’re not just looking at four faces. You’re looking at:
A project that changed locations.
A lineup that could have featured Western heroes and Susan B. Anthony.
A design that sacrificed torsos, text, and a dramatic hall because of cracks in the granite and empty pockets.
A monument built on land with a painful backstory.
The National Park Service has a solid overview of the site’s history and why these four presidents ended up there on the official Mount Rushmore site. For a narrative take on the monument’s twists and controversies, you can also read a detailed Mount Rushmore history.
And if you like testing what you remember about presidents, national parks, and big monuments, you can dive into some fun U.S. history quizzes and see how much of this strange story sticks.
The next time you see a photo of Mount Rushmore, try to picture the ghosts of all those scrapped ideas crowding around it. Secret rooms. Extra stone jackets. A different mountain. Different faces.
Same rock, almost a completely different look.