We should build a similar one in Inyo County California. Then we can call it "Inyo Face"...
7
I visited many years ago before the elaborate visitors center and the parking garages. I went back a few years ago and was not impressed with all the build up. But everything has to been a tourist destination now. C'est la vie.
1
I took my granddaughter to Mt. Rushmore in the summer time and we witnessed the thrilling light show and music at night over the statues. I was moved to tears by the beauty of all of it. I felt so patriotic. My granddaughter asked me why I was crying. I think she understood why. We later drove through the Badlands and were so moved by the scenery, the vast quietness, the prairie dogs. South Dakota was full of friendly people, many international tourists were there from all over the world. We went to the famous Wall Drug Store for bacon, eggs and coffee. I don't know what this writer expected. Maybe he should not have gone in winter. I tell everyone to go to South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore.
8
To anyone who might be wondering what the buildings are to the right of GW's head, it's called the K Bar S Lodge. We spent 3 nights there back in Sept '11. Very charming. We loved it! Probably not good enough for the urban sophisticates, so beware.
3
Wow, I am amazed at the reaction to this article. Mr. Anderson, I live in Oregon and have never even thought about going to Mt. Rushmore, but your piece makes me want to go and to take my family with me. For me, you portrayed the grandeur along with the failings (I won't expect great food, and I will be careful about what time of year I go). I would like your critics to explain where your "arrogance" is in this piece. I wonder if they have children... I have four wonderful grandchildren around the ages of your children, and I see them in your portrayal of your two. They have no feeling for the outdoors, they would be happy to go on rides in a Disney-like mall rather than be outside, they would be fine with Pizza Hut, and they would want to leave a site within about ten minutes of seeing it. I can only hope, as I think maybe you do, that I can influence them to learn an appreciation of nature, history, and values beyond a tweet and click of a button.
4
In visiting both sites a few years ago, I was thinking, "I'll bet Republicans are a large majority at Mt. Rushmore, but not at Crazy Horse."
My wife commented previously on my account.
Wow, they ate at a pizza hut just like in Chicago. Saw our greatest presidents chiseled in stone just like in the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest and the Chief Crazy Horse work-in-progress. Saw American endemic Pronghorns and a Bison herd in the vast expanse of Custer State Park. Still, just another ho-hum day in silly, jingoistic America. Big deal.
I guess we have the president we deserve.
Wow, they ate at a pizza hut just like in Chicago. Saw our greatest presidents chiseled in stone just like in the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest and the Chief Crazy Horse work-in-progress. Saw American endemic Pronghorns and a Bison herd in the vast expanse of Custer State Park. Still, just another ho-hum day in silly, jingoistic America. Big deal.
I guess we have the president we deserve.
4
I too visited Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore - impressed by the engineering but wished they had left the original mountains intact. Mountain carving is not my thing.
6
Maybe you should visit the Monument when new citizens are taking the Pledge of Alligance and there are so many tears flowing. You visited a Pizza Hut? You mean you failed to try the local treats such as walleye, bison ribeye or pheasant? You do realize South Dakota is the pheasant capital of the world right? Doing what you did is akin to my wife and I passing on a great sushi or Italian resturant on a visit to NYC for a stop at McDonalds in Times Square. You really cheated yourself out of experiancing Needles Highway, Badlands and Deadwood for starters. My wife and I have lived in NYC and Los Angeles and would never move back quality of life is just too good out here.
31
Not sure his objective in writing this piece but maybe he should have started his trip at Freedom Tower-for a multitude of reasons. And dude- go in summer.
2
I kept waiting for this to circle back that he got it. But was left feeling like he was as snarky about this treasure as his kids. Maybe go back in the summer, and sit and listen to the ranger give the evening talk before the lighting. Maybe sit and watch as they call veterans up to lower the flag. Maybe then you will get it, all of it,in an adult manner. The gift of national parks and the beauty of it all. I waited my whole life for the privilege to get to visit here as I did last year, and a privilege it was. Go to myrtle beach next time, perhaps meaning for you will be found there.
8
Does anyone wonder how it got named "Rushmore" !??? I know! :)
I first visited the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore as a child in the early 60's...What is remarkable is how they have been preserved and not desecrated with billboards, drive-ins, etc.....they are as beautiful and pristine as the first time I was there. Deadwood, is a whole separate issue. But then, Deadwood is what it always was, casinos, bars and an overgrown rough and tumble town at the edge of the wilderness.....Mount Rushmore is still remarkable as an achievement and a memorial to what all Americans should aspire to achieve....Those are 4 remarkable individuals....one could do worse them to try and emulate them....they are great men, certainly none of them were perfect, if they were perfect they'd be gods and not men.....
7
My impression is that the essay is an allegory. The writer, like many Americans, is confused or disillusioned by the animus and divisiveness in our country. The writer acknowledges his own sadness in losing his feeling of greatness about the USA. And, his fear that the problems are more overwhelming than usual, overtaking more of his internal dialogue than usual, are we really at a point where the problems in the country are reaching a point of no return? He chose a trip to Rushmore to try and restore his faith in the greatness of the USA, with SIZE as an allegory for greatness. By leading the reader through the ups and downs of his trip, including the general disinterest of his children, he was representing the petty inconveniences that occupy our time and energy. The children represent the lack of confidence that some elders have in any younger generation. The writer takes the reader through various views of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse-grand photographs. His description of the area beautiful and poignant-deliberately choosing winter to represent the desolation he was feeling. I detected no disrespect in his observations. He made a deliberate decision to stay in an inn to contemplate his point of view-comparing the gargantuan view with the tiny view from a distance. Concluding that the country is at a dangerous, fiery point. Rushmore and Crazy Horse are very big ideas that have not been completed-similar to the grand plans that politicians promise but never finish.
9
My dad was transferred from Ohio to Utah when I was a senior in high school. I was then like these author’s children...more interested in Pro football on TV, watching “The Fugitive” and talking on the phone to my friends. 50 years ago-not much changed.
But now instead of watching TV, my new high school classmates grabbed me from the house and took me to the mountains to ski. We had a ski team and a rodeo team--complete culture shock. And I fell in deep love with the mountains, high crystal clear lakes, cross country skiing through green pine forests, the white snow glittering against an impossibly blue sky.
I learned how the weather could change in seconds to cloud, heavy rain and wind. Along with love came a deep and abiding respect for something much bigger than myself. I hiked every one of Utah’s five National Parks---some so “desolate” that a tiny cactus flower was incredible in its perfection, and delicate beauty. We fished for trout in high mountain lakes fed by glaciers. We glissaded down those glaciers. Glissade is sliding down these great masses of ice on our hiking boots.
The powder snow of Alta, then Snowbird were taken for granted...a year ski pass for Alta was $150. Ski buses made their way each day through the upper campus dormitories of the University of Utah nestled in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. 15 inches of new powder, brilliant sunny day--resorts 30 minutes away...Hmmm. Organic chem? or downhill skiing?
The quiet. The majesty!
But now instead of watching TV, my new high school classmates grabbed me from the house and took me to the mountains to ski. We had a ski team and a rodeo team--complete culture shock. And I fell in deep love with the mountains, high crystal clear lakes, cross country skiing through green pine forests, the white snow glittering against an impossibly blue sky.
I learned how the weather could change in seconds to cloud, heavy rain and wind. Along with love came a deep and abiding respect for something much bigger than myself. I hiked every one of Utah’s five National Parks---some so “desolate” that a tiny cactus flower was incredible in its perfection, and delicate beauty. We fished for trout in high mountain lakes fed by glaciers. We glissaded down those glaciers. Glissade is sliding down these great masses of ice on our hiking boots.
The powder snow of Alta, then Snowbird were taken for granted...a year ski pass for Alta was $150. Ski buses made their way each day through the upper campus dormitories of the University of Utah nestled in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. 15 inches of new powder, brilliant sunny day--resorts 30 minutes away...Hmmm. Organic chem? or downhill skiing?
The quiet. The majesty!
8
Why did you even take the trip? Your negativity and complaints belie the title of this piece. And, why or why did you go in the Winter? Next time, stay home and read a good book. You're not ready to adventure
10
The fact that none of the family could name the 4 presidents tells you they made a wrong turn when headed to Disneyland.
13
The saddest thing about this sad article is how the author describes his children's reactions. The cynicism and vacuousness reads like it comes straight out of a current-day sitcom. At their ages - admittedly a long time ago - I would have been thrilled. Are pre-teens capable of being thrilled any more?
13
Unfortunately, literacy does not mean one is insightful or intelligent. The author of this article is a good example of why I left the East Coast over 40 years ago to enjoy the glories of the Black Hills of South Dakota. When I would go back east to visit friends and family most seemed to think I had lost my sanity to pick such a place to call home. What they did not realize was that they were the ignorant ones. A few asked if there were any jobs here and I would reply, "no." I did not want them to ruin the neighborhood. Thank you Mr. Anderson for helping to keep the riff raff out.
15
Amen! My Bostonian family visited South Dakota several years ago. It's hard for me to fathom how the author of this article so completely missed the magic of the state. Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Badlands, Custer State Park, Deadwood, Sturgis, Jewel and Wind Caves - one package after another to open. Our country offers such diversity! We may all love home best, but each region is a treasury for all of us to enjoy, each a part of what makes America great.
4
Seventeen years ago, the summer following my oldest daughter's graduation from college, we took a somewhat impulsive and unplanned road trip together to South Dakota. Arriving at the public viewing plaza immediately below Mount Rushmore, we gazed at the monument carved into the mountainside above us. We walked the paved path along the base of the carved figures, thoughtfully located to accommodate a closer viewing, and we paused momentarily to inspect with both studious curiosity and awed reverence the spectacular national shrine. At both that moment and today at my home computer I am unable to determine whether the sculptures carved onto Mount Rushmore were either a product of brilliance or a creation of insanity. Experiencing early the next morning a sunrise spreading bright rays across the nearby Badlands, however, produced a precious moment of personal contact with the mysterious force, power, and spirit of creation that remains forever the fondest memory of a special road trip shared with a special person whose presence has been and is a miracle moment in my life. There are some aspects of reality I will never comprehend, understand, or fully appreciate with my puzzling human mind.
9
Yawn. Yet another in the--is it an endless number, really?--of pieces about how unworthy the rest of America is. As if every Times travel writer takes our country outside NYC as a joke and keeps waiting for the punch line while they're on the road. It's so unbelievably boring. Last week's piece on Hawaii. Every piece ever on Los Angeles. God forbid a piece about a plains state. I'm a native New Yorker living in the rest of the country now, and it's so, so embarrassing to read drivel like this. It reminds me, sadly, of how terrified my fellow native New Yorkers are of the world outside the five boroughs. It's pathetic, truly.
20
I cringed so many times while reading this. He simply doesn't get it. Not any of it. As a midwesterner and long time NYT subscriber I am very aware and am tolerant of some level of elitism and ignorance of the rest of the country that is 'west' of the City, but this piece is so awful in its pompous and pretentious take on our history..
22
Michele,
I completely agree!
Along with backpacking and skiing the back side of Utah mountains, then moving to Hawai'i to live on a 25 ft sailboat in Hawai’i the outside world is better than religion that keeps you indoors instead of falling in love with our oceans, mountains, plains.
Family too “tired” from sightseeing and Snapchat to visit a museum?Food was “bad?”
I think of our ancestors in Utah--escaping murder for being Mormon--so they set off with handcarts--the children “pushing and pulling” while the women walked along beside ox-driven wagons piled with just basics. The men rode the only horses to scout ways forward. Day after day braving hot sun, dust, then the bitter cold of mountains, fording great rivers, having to lower wagons and bullocks down 1,000 foot cliffs. Their faith moving them forward.
This story made me ashamed to be an American! Perhaps you know the best restaurants in Tribeca or live in gentrified Brooklyn--but this family has NO clue what America is REALLY about! This family wouldn’t have lasted two hours on a pioneer trail.
I guess we should have figured this out by the fact that they couldn’t “entertain” themselves for four hours in an airport terminal without needing to send out a call of desperation for “something to do!”
Sad! And it’s why corporations will buy out our protected lands and National Parks, destroy them for condos and oil. Most Americans just don’t “get it.”
Woody Guthrie did. This land is your land; this land is my land...
I completely agree!
Along with backpacking and skiing the back side of Utah mountains, then moving to Hawai'i to live on a 25 ft sailboat in Hawai’i the outside world is better than religion that keeps you indoors instead of falling in love with our oceans, mountains, plains.
Family too “tired” from sightseeing and Snapchat to visit a museum?Food was “bad?”
I think of our ancestors in Utah--escaping murder for being Mormon--so they set off with handcarts--the children “pushing and pulling” while the women walked along beside ox-driven wagons piled with just basics. The men rode the only horses to scout ways forward. Day after day braving hot sun, dust, then the bitter cold of mountains, fording great rivers, having to lower wagons and bullocks down 1,000 foot cliffs. Their faith moving them forward.
This story made me ashamed to be an American! Perhaps you know the best restaurants in Tribeca or live in gentrified Brooklyn--but this family has NO clue what America is REALLY about! This family wouldn’t have lasted two hours on a pioneer trail.
I guess we should have figured this out by the fact that they couldn’t “entertain” themselves for four hours in an airport terminal without needing to send out a call of desperation for “something to do!”
Sad! And it’s why corporations will buy out our protected lands and National Parks, destroy them for condos and oil. Most Americans just don’t “get it.”
Woody Guthrie did. This land is your land; this land is my land...
11
Perhaps the author should get out of the city a bit more often. Surprise! The world isn't just the East Coast. And not everyone lives there (nor are we as insular as Sam Anderson).
10
I agree with Rochelle Holmberg. There was something rude about this man's depiction of Mount Rushmore.
13
Family goes to iconic American monument. A writer among them writes a beautiful piece about the experience--never pretending to give the local perspective, but only his own as a tourist--a piece which turns into a marvelous essay about scale and the writer's troubled and troubling but deep love of his country. Piece is published in NYT. Comments get nasty, wedges are inserted, people are divided.
Foreign reader appreciates locals must get annoyed by tourists writing about them. And sees the point about big cities etc etc. But has learned a lot about scale. And deep, troubled and troubling love of country (his own is Australia). Thinks, what an extraordinary thing America is, even in its time of trial. What a monument to trying to do good in the world. Reader sighs. (Thanks NYT under his breath.)
Foreign reader appreciates locals must get annoyed by tourists writing about them. And sees the point about big cities etc etc. But has learned a lot about scale. And deep, troubled and troubling love of country (his own is Australia). Thinks, what an extraordinary thing America is, even in its time of trial. What a monument to trying to do good in the world. Reader sighs. (Thanks NYT under his breath.)
28
Ponderosa Pine doesn't make for good lodgepoles, but Lodgepole Pine does.
10
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?
Seriously, an American Family today does not know that Ben Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were not Presidents?
Seriously, an American Family today does not know that Ben Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were not Presidents?
14
Boring as people are , glad never took family there .
Pictures in book do it justice
Pictures in book do it justice
1
I am a native-born Manhattanite and have to admit that I find myself embarrassed by the ruthless arrogance and shameless ignorance demonstrated by the author of this dreadful article.
All America needs are more like-minded writers to assure that "Trumpians" will govern America for generations to come.
All America needs are more like-minded writers to assure that "Trumpians" will govern America for generations to come.
21
Snarky in a way I find deplorable. Smug, snide and the worst cliche of a NY Times view of the rest of the country. And that is my opinion as a faithful reader of the Times and one who values it as a national treasure.
18
Four hours at the airport and a trip to mall of America . Yawn.
5
I'm a New Zealander, I visited Mt Rushmore in 2011, and loved it. The USA builds wonderful celebratory memorials to itself, more than any other country most of them huge - it's a part of your charm/self-confidence. My visit inspired an obsession with US Presidents and I'm reading my way through as many Presidential biographies as I can find. In 2015 I was lucky enough to tour the White House. I love DC, the Presidential Memorials, Arlington and the War memorials, It's great to look backwards, to revere and celebrate your past, and you do it so well, but looking forward can be useful too and I wish you'd do it more. The Mt Rushmore Presidents looked forward, their lives were dedicated to building a better country for the people who followed them.
25
Maria, glad you enjoyed your visit, but I hope from all the replies to this article you have also gained a deeper insight into the fact that the land wasn't ours to carve up, but had been lived in respectfully for centuries by our indigenous predecessors, who were lied to, murdered, and displaced by the very heroes whose faces defile one of their sacred places. Their "displacement" did in fact make room for future generations, but at a shameful price.
2
Thank you, Maria. I've heard great things about New Zealand. Times are tough in the Free World this century. We need all the friends we can get. Fascinating that a visitor from the other side of the planet "gets" it, while the American family remains oblivious. Free nations can make mistakes, America has made more than a few, but we are trying. Half of us are very demoralized since our disastrous election. Thank you again for your kind thoughts.
I have seen capitols in Europe and China; I lived in one, D.C., and it is a lovely city, perfectly laid out with the Washington Monument as a guide post. The bridges are absolutely beautiful, as are the monuments. The White House is not pretentious; it is human scale and I never got tired of seeing it, admiring it, reminding myself of who we were, and still are. We remain the "arsenal of democracy", generous and always ready to help. I remember traveling through England many times being referred as "Yanks". There was a mutual affection, as there was in France.
Mount Rushmore was chosen for this sculpture because the quality of the granite, height of the mountain and because Borglum wanted a location that would be illuminated with morning light which he explained would thrill the tourists. Making Mount Rushmore into this Mount Rushmore, was absolutely conceived to inspire tourists to come to South Dakota. This state in the 1920s was an even more sparsely populated, mostly wide-open prairie state with mountains where roads were few and rough. People who have worked there have regaled friends with questions asked by tourists from "How did they know it was down there when they started digging?" to "Did they have trouble fitting this monument through the tunnel?" . Most native South Dakotans hope those are facetious comments. Notably according to most natives it wasn't intended to be interpreted as a complex statement on the ego or bigness of the USA.It was a tourist draw, built during the Depression, WWI and completed about one month prior to Pearl Harbor. Seeing it is powerful. Learning about all the people, all those immigrants who labored 14 years, under harsh weather conditions, in jobs this project created for 400 plus workmen during the depression makes many proud. Beautifully cared for this National Park, framed by the Midwest's big sky has flags flying and is dramatically lit in evening showings. A spectacular state, rich in environmental treasures: land, clean air, clean water, so far.
33
Thank you for your objective and valuable perspective. Instead of just bashing the author, your focus is on The Monument (and how it came to be) instead.
8
Excellent letter. You write so well!
2
One of my most memorable vacations was South Dakota-the Badlands and the Black Hills - and then the stunning drive to Yellowstone and the magnificence of that landscape. If the beauty of places like the Black Hills doesn't make you love the US, nothing will but that beauty is not Mount Rushmore, which to me is a defacement of the hills. I think I understand the writer's reaction and I don't see it as coming from a sense of superiority. I found the need to carve up the landscape alienating.
21
I hope you and your family get to visit Stonehenge and write about it, too. Or the Sphinx in Egypt.
4
Some people think the Crazy Horse monument is a scam. If it is ever finished, the donations will stop flowing....
5
As a liberal, college educated- Democrat and native South Dakotan, I have to say- you don't get it. I'm glad you have our state your tourism dollars. But your elitism is kinda gross.
27
50 miles away, you could have visited Badlands National Park. That would have been worth doing.
6
As a native South Dakotan, I am profoundly dismayed at Sam Anderson’s lack of sensitivity in his depiction of Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills area. Yes, I understand his quest to understand why Amercia needs to reveal its greatness, its dominance in enourmous representations.
However, this theme is really just a rehash of one of my college courses where we argued the myths versus the realities of American prosperity across the landscape and in literature.
But I must ask: Why does he feel it’s necessary to write a belittling article? His words in fact reveal his ignorance.
But let’s just discuss a “monumental” IRONY: He went to the Crazy Horse Memorial but was the only one of his family to get out of the car. This memorial of the revered Ogala Sioux, Crazy Horse, should’ve been his whole point in juxtaposing the imperial presidents with the trials and sufferings of the Native Amercians!! And, did he BOTHER to read that the memorial has created the INDIAN UNIVERSITY OF NORTH AMERICA® to which it provides scholarships! Yeah, it’s another large monument but it counters the Mt. Rushmore legacy by acknowledging and honoring the Native Amercian culture.
Again, Anderson writes a number of derogatory comments regarding South Dakota & I have not space to contradict them but here’s what you should know ...
We have a saying in South Dakota: If you don’t like it here, please leave. Better yet, DON’T COME AT ALL.
However, this theme is really just a rehash of one of my college courses where we argued the myths versus the realities of American prosperity across the landscape and in literature.
But I must ask: Why does he feel it’s necessary to write a belittling article? His words in fact reveal his ignorance.
But let’s just discuss a “monumental” IRONY: He went to the Crazy Horse Memorial but was the only one of his family to get out of the car. This memorial of the revered Ogala Sioux, Crazy Horse, should’ve been his whole point in juxtaposing the imperial presidents with the trials and sufferings of the Native Amercians!! And, did he BOTHER to read that the memorial has created the INDIAN UNIVERSITY OF NORTH AMERICA® to which it provides scholarships! Yeah, it’s another large monument but it counters the Mt. Rushmore legacy by acknowledging and honoring the Native Amercian culture.
Again, Anderson writes a number of derogatory comments regarding South Dakota & I have not space to contradict them but here’s what you should know ...
We have a saying in South Dakota: If you don’t like it here, please leave. Better yet, DON’T COME AT ALL.
14
As a native South Dakotan, have you talked to many Natives about their pride (so-called) in the Crazy Horse monument? Most I have talk to – at least those without a financial stake in the project – see it as a desecration of the natural landscape, which Native Americans almost universally worship as divine. (I've heard the same attitudes expressed toward the presidential monument, though some might dismiss that as "resentful racism.")
I think the author does justice to the beauty of the landscape of South Dakota, and the west in general. His disdain for the carvings is in my opinion well-placed. We are a nation devoted to an idea, saved by that idea more than once, we do not need monuments, idols, and other kitsch to focus our patriotism. The land itself inspires awe enough.
I think the author does justice to the beauty of the landscape of South Dakota, and the west in general. His disdain for the carvings is in my opinion well-placed. We are a nation devoted to an idea, saved by that idea more than once, we do not need monuments, idols, and other kitsch to focus our patriotism. The land itself inspires awe enough.
3
I thought this was a pretty insightful piece. I'm originally from Minnesota (another beautiful place no one goes to except for the MOA). It does seem that "bigness" was a strong American characteristic from the beginning. It's what led us to a president with a big (orange) head. Perhaps it will all explode at once. Or perhaps our young will begin to embrace a new smallness.
6
Medical care maybe?
2
Great article. I see these kinds of reactions a lot, interesting to get a first person perspective. I too have wondered "why Mt. Rushmore" ... since I first came to the Hills 40 years ago.
5
Having visited Mount Rushmore many times, and having seen the good the bad and ugly of the Black Hills, I can only marvel at the priggishness of this review. No, you don't have to love Mount Rushmore, but you need to take it seriously enough to give you your annual trip to Cape Cod, to visit in the regular season. I agree with the person who said the review seems to have known what he wanted to write before he left on his safari to flyover country. Isn't it just possible that the problem here does not lie in the scale of the monument or the "weirdness" of it's existence but in small mindedness of the Mr Anderson who seems to regard everything touched by humanity, from the horror of the hungry non-native burros the listlessness of an off season hotel as some sort of portent of American doom -- or a freak show. Either way, what an insult to the people of the Black Hills and to the people who visit Mount Rushmore.
21
Unfortunately, a cynical article about American real or presumed greatness, interspersed with irrelevant personal recollections. Perhaps it is a sign of the New Yorkers having become alien elements in this country.
10
Fails as a travelogue; succeeds admirably as an inadvertent indictment of American shallowness. Early in the article, the author tipped his hand when described the attempt by his family to name the figures in their order of appearance. I have no particular interest in the monument other than to say "It's impressive", "It's a work of art", "It's there", or "If I were within a few miles of it and had the time, I'd stop by for a quick look." But what a colossal indictment of the apparent shallowness of many American minds to embark on a trip to that particular monument with a young family without seeming to have encouraged the most elementary research into its history – especially by his children, who were taken out of school for this trip! Might they have learned something important to read of the deadly displacement (read "killing") of our native peoples! What a lost opportunity for their true education! Might this have anything to do with our failure to appreciate the unfolding tragedies of the Kurds? The Serbians? The Israelis and Palestinians? The Afghanis and the Pakistanis? The massive takeovers of India and Africa by Great Britain, the French, and the Dutch? Gentrification within our own cities? I’m sure the author is a good and decent person, but really, what a grand loss all around….
20
Ten years ago we spent almost two weeks in the Rapid City area. We did not have a particular itinerary but assumed we would see Mount Rushmore at some point. When we were in the vicinity of the Crazy Horse monument, we decided to check it out. It was massive, impressive, etc., but I kept wondering why anyone would want to change the natural beauty of the mountain? We spent the rest of our time enjoying the natural wonders of the area without viewing Mount Rushmore. No regrets yet.
6
When I visited Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument maybe a couple of decades ago, I wondered the same thing... why would somebody think that carving faces into these beautiful mountains would make them any more attractive? They are quite grand in their natural state.
1
It exists because it represents a time in the nation's history when traditional values of love of country and respect for the patriots who shaped our history were core linchpins of the nation. Unlike today, when Liberal-Leftism is running amok and the nation has degenerated into a state of enclaves ruled by gender, racial, sexual proliclivity and other assorted 'identity' commandments.
8
Rushmore also stands in contrast to today, when extreme Republican conservatism has degenerated the nation into a state where diversity is under profound attack, women's rights are suppressed, income inequality is institutionalized, and generosity is ridiculed as a vice.
Borglum was a virulent KKK member. What traditional value does that honor?
9
of COURSE , true patriotism can ONLY be expressed with bumper stickers, gimme caps, tube tops, beer cans , drunk country songs , walmart and blind allegiance to a vulgarian narcissist.
4
Great article and your kids are funny.
9
American Experience has a great documentary on Mt. Rushmore.
2
Easy Answer. Hey City Slicker, you were there in the off season. Gotta Visit South Dakota in the Summer. You've got the beautiful Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Hill City, and lots more. Don't visit in the winter. Do your research and plan better.
12
I was surprised that he didn't mention The Badlands, a truly fascinating place to visit, especially at dusk.
11
Neither Franklin or Hamilton were ever President....
5
I like this story very much. It was the same there, when obsessed with Devil's Tower, I and a friend drove all the way from New York to look for ourselves. We loved "Close Encounters" and this was our inspiration for a long, long drive.
4
Well written...You captured one corner of the essence of our country.
Thank You
//r
Hope you can ignore the less patriotic. ... I do.
Thank You
//r
Hope you can ignore the less patriotic. ... I do.
2
Beautifully written evocation of one of the strangest pieces of Americana ever created. I hope to go some time.
6
Why is everyone so cranky? Sick photo btw.
7
Here's an alt-headline for this piece.
The Andersons : Strangers in a Foreign Land.
Maybe Sam can take the family to Martha's Vineyard for a make up vacation this summer.
The Andersons : Strangers in a Foreign Land.
Maybe Sam can take the family to Martha's Vineyard for a make up vacation this summer.
6
The andersons need to get out of New York more
4
I have long thought of Mount Rushmore as something weirdly imposed on a landscape held sacred by people who were here first. Yet at the end of the day, Mount Rushmore is the perfect monument to America. It’s not merely the scale, size, and the dramatic setting. The sculpture was conceived of as a way to make money, and the sculptor who executed it was, in the author’s view, a “publicity hound, populist, salesman, self-styled tough guy,” an All-American guy! When you add in the destruction of a pristine mountain for what even the locals thought was an absurd project, the picture is complete. If the sculpture is somehow supposed to embody American values, one might ask, “Which values are those? Manifest Destiny? The destruction of Plains Indian culture? The exploitation of nature? Pick any values you like, Mount Rushmore is indeed who we are.
13
Read Jesse Larner's book "Mount Rushmore, An Icon Reconsidered", for a more-critical look at the who, how and what of this over-rated tourist attraction.
2
Why indeed did Mr Anderson drag his family to South Dakota in the middle of winter? America was taking up a larger part of his mind than ever before? Why, did the NBA suddenly go on hiatus? I am fortunate to live in Minneapolis, a few miles from the Mall of America, (which as another writer noted, is rarely visited by locals). I'm not going to claim superiority by virtue of my Midwestern roots but good God. The flight was delayed four hours! The elevators were cramped! The drive took too long! The poor souls!
Obviously the reason for the trip was that Mr Anderson or his editor thought it would make a good article. Unfortunately, either or both of them were wrong.
Obviously the reason for the trip was that Mr Anderson or his editor thought it would make a good article. Unfortunately, either or both of them were wrong.
14
I wonder if they visited James Mason's house and airport on top? The article doesn't say.
1
My sense of Sam Anderson's article is that it is a metaphor for the impending loss of our freedoms while we are being distracted by other things, whatever they may be. "Tiny giant America" is burning, absolutely. My thanks to Mr. Anderson for his remarkable article and to Giles Price for the gorgeous photos.
5
I thought the writer was a woman until he said, "my wife." A real man would have climbed the face of Washington with Eva Marie Saint.
You need to take your kid hunting or camping before he turns into you. Ready the snarky comments it may be too late.
You need to take your kid hunting or camping before he turns into you. Ready the snarky comments it may be too late.
4
...but you had the pleasure of meeting my dear dear historian friend when you stayed at her B and B. I'm sure she treated you to some tasty desserts too.
4
I was out there a few years back to help rebuild a house for a native Grandfather and his family with a church group. The men I was riding with wanted to see it which to my mind was a bad idea. I feel like Mt. Rushmore is the equivalent of putting a Starbucks in the Vatican; a way to assert dominion over the most cherished piece of that land. I chose to stay outside when they went in and offered some tobacco smoke to the land outside. Numerous Native folks driving by gave me a nod or a thumbs up as they drove by.
5
More about Borglum is needed to provide some balance to the adolescent maturity/theme of the piece.
2
What I found most interesting about Mount Rushmore was the technology behind the carvings.
2
Would be great to have a writer of this quality but with an interest in the subject as more than another opportunity to demonstrate urban superiority. Read some Jim Harrison or maybe Steinbeck or Willa Cather.
9
Never been there and now will never go. I can see shoddy malls and ugly Americans all over the country. Why eat junk and drive forever through the land except to suffer. Many times have driven across the western Wyoming has been completely trashed with fracking. I have stayed that the unfriendly single motel available in the Western part of the state. That was enough of a trip to cure me of seeing the wide open spaces of America. Why does American trash every decent thing we ever had?
I was just in NYC two weeks ago and found the city a gargantuan monument to American enterprise. Little that is natural is left there, aside from Central Park's well coiffed environ. And the windswept, snowy sidewalks weren't particularly inviting. Give me my Black Hills any day over the man-made sky scrapers.
11
Mt Rushmore is another man-made sky scraper, like NYC's skyscrapers, every bit a monument to American enterprise. Sadly, it is native Lakota Sioux sacred land snatched by the feds. The sculptures are bizarre, unnatural, a "SuperSized order" of anglo culture dropkicked on Native land. For me, the true beauty of the Black Hills is in its wildness.
How fitting that Mt Rushmore was creatively applied in North By Northwest and Mars Attacks. It is, after all is said and done, an American icon.
How fitting that Mt Rushmore was creatively applied in North By Northwest and Mars Attacks. It is, after all is said and done, an American icon.
8
The Lakota Sioux stole the Black Hills from the Cheyenne in 1776, so they really don't have much to complain about if somebody else steals it from them in turn.
3
It sounds like your family did not really enjoy Mt.Rushmore or maybe your expectations were too high.I feel one of the reasons is that you went there in the dead of winter,cold and dreary.Also,your kids were distracted by technology and therefore were unable to appreciate the beauty and awesomeness of this wonderment.Back in 2000,our family was on a move from California to Illinois and we were sitting next to this beautiful creek near Aspen,Colorado and we were deciding which route to take.We all decided together to go see Mt.Rushmore as we felt,it might be our only opportunity.This was in late June,perfect weather and when we arrived to Mt.Rushmore,we were not dissapointed,especially my boys who were young at the time.They are both now in their late 20's and they still talk and remember what an awesome place Mt.Rushmore was.Looks like you missed out.
9
Wonderful piece of writing, humorous and reflective, with more honesty in attitude than most of the millions who normally visit.
5
It's amazing to compare the picture of the Avenue of Flags in the online version to the same one in the physical magazine. The former makes the avenue vibrant and bright; the latter makes it look gloomy and dismal.
1
Boy, you folks in flyover country sure do suffer from a persecution complex. One of those nasty eastern liberals writes a piece about Mt. Rushmore that doesn't describe it as the most terrific, fantastic, bigly thing ever created by the hands of man, and you immediately seize upon it as prima facie evidence as to why Trump was elected. This nasty eastern liberal has been there four or five times. The first time, I was surprised that the sculptures seemed smaller in relation to the mountain than I expected. In later visits, they seemed larger than I remembered. Regardless of the societal implications of the sculptures, they are indeed impressive, and I believe the author conveyed that. BTW, after years of not being able to remember the four presidents on the mountain and their order from left to right, I finally came up with an acronym, using the callsign of an imaginary (actually a real station in Dothan, Alabama) station, WJRL. You can figure out how it works.
18
Why does this travel article exist? Not one interesting or surprising observation from a writer who had already decided what to write before leaving home. Tips for your next travel article: leave the family at home, get out of the car, talk to at least a few of the locals, see if you can say something original, and read some Paul Theroux for some ideas on how to write in this genre.
13
It dismays me to read this article and these comments, to find so much lack: of understanding, respect, care, and human meaning. I appreciate the author's attempt to leverage a travelogue to highlight our troubled history's long shadows and today's cultural quandary of questioning patriotism, bigness, and the definition of American. Who are we? What do we aspire to be?
Do we want snap-chatting, "drive through" families who can't be bothered with learning much about current state and how shaped by history (in this case: indigenous, presidents, politics, Black Hills, and the last two percent of American prairie)? My fellow Americans would be so much more tolerant if we all had the time and money to hit the road with our families and truly understand what makes this country great: the diverse natural beauty, the kind and caring people of all stripes in every region (including the despised "coastal elites" whomever they are), and a rich history that has helped us learn from our mistakes where we care to dig deeper and understand.
For those who dismiss this author as an urban elite snubbing his nose at flyover country, I beg you to look more closely. He is asking us all to question our assumptions, current paradigm (shallow, big, divided), and future. I hear a yearning for more unity and meaning, not less.
Do we want snap-chatting, "drive through" families who can't be bothered with learning much about current state and how shaped by history (in this case: indigenous, presidents, politics, Black Hills, and the last two percent of American prairie)? My fellow Americans would be so much more tolerant if we all had the time and money to hit the road with our families and truly understand what makes this country great: the diverse natural beauty, the kind and caring people of all stripes in every region (including the despised "coastal elites" whomever they are), and a rich history that has helped us learn from our mistakes where we care to dig deeper and understand.
For those who dismiss this author as an urban elite snubbing his nose at flyover country, I beg you to look more closely. He is asking us all to question our assumptions, current paradigm (shallow, big, divided), and future. I hear a yearning for more unity and meaning, not less.
29
I'm first reminded of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". If you set aside the more disturbing aspects of the book, the read is quite an exposition on the American road trip. A folk explanation of that inexplicable and compulsive draw to the nonsensical. Wow! The world's largest Merry-Go-Round! We need to stop!
This leads to the more comical rendition featured in the video game "Sam & Max Hit the Road". Guy Noir meets Sasquatch. Throw in a maniacal rabbit for fun. Kids love it.
Mount Rushmore falls in a similar but uniquely bizarre category. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to make a pilgrimage though. If I happened to be driving through South Dakota, I'd be inclined to make a detour. Plane trip? Not unless family or work is involved.
No. Mount Rushmore always felt more like an unfortunate compromise. Some teenager carved "manifest destiny accomplished" on a rock wall. I know the site is an engineering marvel. The people who built the thing have no discredit to their name. Still, the entire premise grates against the very idea of our National Parks system. The site expresses hubris rather than humility. This makes me very uncomfortable.
My advice the next time you plan a vacation: dig a little deeper. A little self-education helps too. I remember climbing through Devil's Den in Gettysburg as a child. Believe me. I knew the entire history before I ever arrived. Colonial Williamsburg? Same story. Yellowstone? Yep. These things genuinely benefit a individual's experience.
This leads to the more comical rendition featured in the video game "Sam & Max Hit the Road". Guy Noir meets Sasquatch. Throw in a maniacal rabbit for fun. Kids love it.
Mount Rushmore falls in a similar but uniquely bizarre category. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to make a pilgrimage though. If I happened to be driving through South Dakota, I'd be inclined to make a detour. Plane trip? Not unless family or work is involved.
No. Mount Rushmore always felt more like an unfortunate compromise. Some teenager carved "manifest destiny accomplished" on a rock wall. I know the site is an engineering marvel. The people who built the thing have no discredit to their name. Still, the entire premise grates against the very idea of our National Parks system. The site expresses hubris rather than humility. This makes me very uncomfortable.
My advice the next time you plan a vacation: dig a little deeper. A little self-education helps too. I remember climbing through Devil's Den in Gettysburg as a child. Believe me. I knew the entire history before I ever arrived. Colonial Williamsburg? Same story. Yellowstone? Yep. These things genuinely benefit a individual's experience.
3
If you squint, you can see Cary Grant…
1
I inhaled my coffee lol
How long until Jefferson is retconned into a nonwhite male?
1
A trip to flyover country...quelle horreur!! Let's hurry back to NYC
4
Be quiet. Next thing you know Trump will want his image up there with people he has no business being remotely close to even if it's in image form.
5
Benjamin Franklin wasn't a president, he died a year after George Washington's inauguration. Also there are no buffalo in North America, except maybe in zoos, only bison roam in this part of the world. I didn't know that the original plan was to feature Native Americans as well as explorers of European descent, how much more inclusive and meaningful that would have been.
3
Perhaps I'm a little sensitive, but as a Rapid City native this piece seemed to reek of east-coast elitism. (BTW, I'm not a Trump supporter, and I'm very progressive in my political views.) If you want to take in all that the Black Hills has to offer, winter is not the best time to go. For a person who's supposed to be a sophisticated traveler, Mr. Anderson seems surprised and disappointed by a lot of what he encounters (4-hour layover! Narrow roads! Mounted bison heads! A Pizza Hut in the town of Custer! A forest fire!) I've lived in Washington, DC, and worked on several congressional staffs. While DC is an exciting place, I've always maintained a fondness for the Black Hills and the people there — and Mount Rushmore which I've visited hundreds of times and never fails to inspire me.
20
Mr. Anderson, I understand your disdain for unwarranted American arrogance, but to completely ignore the last hundred years of outsized influence that America and Americans have had on improving the human condition is perverse. Thinking big is not a sin. For many people such thinking is simply motivation to be more productive.
6
As a one-time South Dakota resident, and life-long flyover country resident, I feel a bit like a zoo animal when I read articles like this.
'Is the author going to paint us all with a backward, bizarre brushstroke,' I ask myself. 'Are we going to be characterized, summed up, our flaws on awkward display for the coastal tourist once more?'
Did you know most people in the Midwesterners live in cities and have never done a day of farm work? Did you know that Midwesterners fight amongst each other bitterly about the merits of the history of our settling these lands and how our political culture is still a reflection of those self-made values? Our public servants and non-profit workers are tireless servants of a system that values them less than it ought to. Our treatment of the native communities bothers is greatly.
Here in awkward middle America you will find the most vibrant and active clash of opposing strains of American values, all the more lively than perhaps one might find in a metropolitan enclave of relative political uniformity.
'Is the author going to paint us all with a backward, bizarre brushstroke,' I ask myself. 'Are we going to be characterized, summed up, our flaws on awkward display for the coastal tourist once more?'
Did you know most people in the Midwesterners live in cities and have never done a day of farm work? Did you know that Midwesterners fight amongst each other bitterly about the merits of the history of our settling these lands and how our political culture is still a reflection of those self-made values? Our public servants and non-profit workers are tireless servants of a system that values them less than it ought to. Our treatment of the native communities bothers is greatly.
Here in awkward middle America you will find the most vibrant and active clash of opposing strains of American values, all the more lively than perhaps one might find in a metropolitan enclave of relative political uniformity.
10
I'm inspired to go there. in spite of some of the carping criticism seen above... and also I'd like to take your kids along as well! they have a good sense of dry humor..
5
So, it's time for Mount Smushmore. Some fine piece of native granite where we can inscribe the noble likenesses of Bush, Trump, Nixon and Harding. Bless them every one.
1
Actually, Rushmore speaks to much about the contradiction that is America so in many ways is a fitting monument. Its sculptor by all notions wanted to build this monument in celebration of the USA and its freedoms, yet Washington and Jefferson were both slaveholders until the day they died, and neither was willing to use their considerable leverage to abolish the practice (and it is likely they could have, the slave holding states were in such dire fiscal straits that threatening to not approve the constitution would have been self suicide), and Washington still viewed slaves as property, he refused to free the slaves Martha owned, saying they were for her descendents. Lincoln was willing to keep slavery to preserve the union, had the South not forced his hand it is likely slavery would have survived his administration. TR was an interesting person and we owe him a lot, but he also in many ways an imperialist.
And Borglum himself was a white supremacist, he was a high ranked member of the KKK and made no bones about it. In a sense Mt. Rushmore was a monument to white, European America, the "hall of artifacts" within it was supposed to house major documents of "European-American" civilization, but was never finished, it is basically a cave.
So it talks to the best of us, and the worst of us, as a country and to me that actually is important as long as we talk about it.
And Borglum himself was a white supremacist, he was a high ranked member of the KKK and made no bones about it. In a sense Mt. Rushmore was a monument to white, European America, the "hall of artifacts" within it was supposed to house major documents of "European-American" civilization, but was never finished, it is basically a cave.
So it talks to the best of us, and the worst of us, as a country and to me that actually is important as long as we talk about it.
2
Yes, we better get to blowing it up pretty darn soon
Ugh...It's so dull when New Yorkers drag their children out to places like South Dakota and the Mall of America and then find nothing to write about but complaints. Could you really find nothing to love? No irony, no nostalgia, no sense of Americana, no awe, no quest for adventure? This article reminds me once again that New Yorkers are at once the most sophisticated and the most provincial people in the world...and I live in Brooklyn. Mount Rushmore is still on my bucket list. But Sam, please, do us a favor and skip the Alamo...I don't think I can take it.
14
I grew up in Rapid City - a minority female, by the way. The author starts strong here, but yes, the cynicism and holier-than-thou elitism eventually emerge (I have a PhD, so I feel entirely qualified to make that statement - hope you all get the irony there). Unlike Sam's children, my older daughter reveled in seeing this monument that had adorned her social studies book. Perhaps my own indescribable affection for it rubbed off on her.....cynicism doesn't always have to be a hallmark of the educated.
13
Wow. Why is it that "this gargantuan shrine to democracy has never felt so surreal"? Is it because Mr. Anderson feels disconnected from his President, his country, fly-over America or just America in general?
The fact is, the heads on Mount Rushmore are small, and yet they are so much bigger than any of us. The heads on Mount Rushmore are temporary and won't last forever, and yet they will be around an unfathomable length of time after we're all gone.
South Dakota doesn't have a lot of people, but they're all Americans just like you are. Your smugness and sense of superiority to those who go to the Mall of America and Mount Rushmore doesn't make you any better than they are. Fact is, the thing that looks the smallest at the end of this article is you.
The fact is, the heads on Mount Rushmore are small, and yet they are so much bigger than any of us. The heads on Mount Rushmore are temporary and won't last forever, and yet they will be around an unfathomable length of time after we're all gone.
South Dakota doesn't have a lot of people, but they're all Americans just like you are. Your smugness and sense of superiority to those who go to the Mall of America and Mount Rushmore doesn't make you any better than they are. Fact is, the thing that looks the smallest at the end of this article is you.
12
Should have gone to Teddy Roosevelt National Park while you were out that way. A few hours drive north. It's a wonderful place.
8
The author seems haughty and obviously completely missed the beauty that was around him. No, it is not rat infested, urine smelling, stinky sewer NYC. Sorry
5
It was an incredible monument to the elites of their time, but means nothing to real people. Make the elites of today equals, and let the himan monuments crumble. All of nature is our monument and should be treated with reverence.
I enjoyed this essay. Unfortunately, it seems that many comments posted here have taken honest description for unfairly negative opinion.
I've never seen Rushmore, but it seems to me to be more vandalism than patriotism. The Black Hills belong to the Native Americans of the region. The Supreme Court has ruled this, but also found that too much time had passed to undo the extensive development that occurred since Custer's disastrous expedition. The Court awarded the Native Americans several million dollars in damages, which they refused.
The kids in this family are delightful!
I've never seen Rushmore, but it seems to me to be more vandalism than patriotism. The Black Hills belong to the Native Americans of the region. The Supreme Court has ruled this, but also found that too much time had passed to undo the extensive development that occurred since Custer's disastrous expedition. The Court awarded the Native Americans several million dollars in damages, which they refused.
The kids in this family are delightful!
8
Skipping work and school to check out the deadheads is a worthwhile effort, your timing was the problem. South Dakota in winter! What were you thinking?
4
Recommend nearby Pipestone National Monument. It is all nature, no giant carvings like Mount Rushmore. Has some of last wild prairie grasses in the US. Was somehow, miraculously, saved as sacred Native American place. Still, I did enjoy Mt. Rushmore article, rang true, and would still like to visit the four Presidents someday...
2
I wish they'd restore Mount Rushmore to it's natural state. It would be quite simple really. Just quit spending money repairing it. In a few decades it would return to a semi natural state. Another advantage would be that as it deteriorated, it would look different every year. Tourists might come back more often. It is beautiful, but carving up mountains is just not what we do anymore.
1
I hear Palmyra is really lovely in its natural state
2
The one fascinating fact the writer presented was that the rock from which the faces are carved is so hard that they are likely to erode at the rate of one inch every 10,000 years. And as to 'restoring it to its natural state", just imagine gluing on the original stone to its original spot--the only way to 'restore' it. Not quite a 'few decades' process. Somehow Friday with Time does not quite understand either the article or how time works in mountains.
1
"Why Does Mount Rushmore Exist?" This monument exists to remind us that, unlike today, there were once presidents who respected the Office of the Presidency, who (apart from Washington) knew presidential history and respected their predecessors, and who conducted themselves with the decorum befitting their Office.
Also, they were all readers who were familiar with the classics concerning personal and civic virtue. No one of them was amoral and wholly self-serving.
Also, they were all readers who were familiar with the classics concerning personal and civic virtue. No one of them was amoral and wholly self-serving.
4
Back in the 1940s "Life Magazine" featured ads for Bayer Aspirin. These ads were set out like a four part cartoon, but used photos rather than drawings to tell their brief tale. The one that sticks in my mind featured four photos of Mount Rushmore at various stages of completion and ran under the title "Gustav Borglum Had Many Headaches While Sculpting Mount Rushmore."
I am not making this up.
I am not making this up.
3
Right now, it exists to throw a dark shadow over our current president.
2
Shrine to democracy? More like a desecration and gross monument of triumphalism and chauvinism, especially to the tribe whose land was stolen to chisel it.
2
Thanks for taking your family on this trip. I appreciated your piece and now I don't have to go!
2
The central-casting sighs of ennui in this essay and the manufactured grasp to Make A Point about Big Stupid America are so thick they may be harder to cut than the granite on Mount Rushmore itself.
And why gild the lily? I’ve been there, and the access road is a perfectly modern paved highway big enough even to contain the “tank-like” SUV no one forced you to rent.
Your biggest sin may have been to write a “Mount Rushmore American Culture” think piece that left out Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. (I’ll wait. Google it.)
We get it, Sam, we get it. You are so much more evolved and so far above the---- hey, hold on a second, the barista says your latte is ready.
And why gild the lily? I’ve been there, and the access road is a perfectly modern paved highway big enough even to contain the “tank-like” SUV no one forced you to rent.
Your biggest sin may have been to write a “Mount Rushmore American Culture” think piece that left out Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. (I’ll wait. Google it.)
We get it, Sam, we get it. You are so much more evolved and so far above the---- hey, hold on a second, the barista says your latte is ready.
14
An excellent example of how The Times writes about most of America as if it were a faraway land inhabited by colorful natives. Intrepid explorers leave civilization behind and survive... a mall! Empty land! No traffic! Big cars! Bad food! Christians! Burros! Fire!
All to satisfy the writer's "crisis of scale," whatever that is, in this mysterious country that is "swelling the way an organ does before it fails and bursts."
Good grief. I'll bet that, like Pauline Kael, he doesn't know anyone who voted for the guy the colorful natives recently elected.
All to satisfy the writer's "crisis of scale," whatever that is, in this mysterious country that is "swelling the way an organ does before it fails and bursts."
Good grief. I'll bet that, like Pauline Kael, he doesn't know anyone who voted for the guy the colorful natives recently elected.
American big, Borglum Nordic KKK big, granite splinter in the Native American eye big; or maybe just a billboard for national respect. Whatever messages this thing carries, it still serves as a punctuation mark flaring out of the wild exotic landscape out there in our middle.
Driving there half a century ago on my first, and only transcontinental drive, passing southward through an unbuilt place at a railroad crossing named Oblivion SD, and thence to the Monument, sans benefit of Google or GPS and instant knowledge, I knew that it had to be more than just another gee-whiz-looky-that oddity, but must say something important; about us, about four presidents, about bigness. If memory serves, it didn't tell me anything at all, but the wild and timeless landscape all around, did.
Driving there half a century ago on my first, and only transcontinental drive, passing southward through an unbuilt place at a railroad crossing named Oblivion SD, and thence to the Monument, sans benefit of Google or GPS and instant knowledge, I knew that it had to be more than just another gee-whiz-looky-that oddity, but must say something important; about us, about four presidents, about bigness. If memory serves, it didn't tell me anything at all, but the wild and timeless landscape all around, did.
3
There's an edgy mean-spiritedness permeating U.S. culture today! Some of us should have seen this coming, including myself! Unfortunately, this article in its structure and highbrow syntax and references doesn't help! Mount Rushmore should lift us, but objectively speaking, look at the character who sits at The President's desk today!!!
4
I remember comedy movies about naive mid westerners having misadventures in New York. This story reads like the opposite.....New Yorker ventures into flyover territory and is bewildered. On land, probably has never been farther west than the Short Hills Mall.
Should have continued the harrowing journey to Minden, Nebraska, and taken in the wonders of the Harold Warp Pioneer Village.
Should have continued the harrowing journey to Minden, Nebraska, and taken in the wonders of the Harold Warp Pioneer Village.
18
I don't think this cherry band of Cleavers could withstand a trip across Nebraska - Carhenge outside Alliance would not entertain them even a tiny bit. It is a vast none-ness full of thick skulled oafs called sodbusters, cornfields and jackelopes. It is so backward they get e-mail via the Pony Express. Harold Warp's Pioneer Village in Minden is considered to be Future World by the troglodytes subsisting on the Plains. Beware : Nebraska is no place for civilized folks.
1
What a painfully effete piece. The multitude of factual errors aside, the writer's tedious dopiness with its lashings of superiority makes me weary and helps explain why folks in the much of the country are happy to elect a lying fraud if it will poke the elites in the eye.
Why did the writer rent a huge SUV other than to snicker about the cliche? I have been writing about the Black Hills for years and can say a nice regular sedan is all you need. Further, the writer talks about the l o n g drive to the site. Yep it's long if you take the route in this piece - sort of like going from NYC to D.C. via Beaver, Pa.
There some excellent reasons to write about Mount Rushmore, but they are poorly explored in this self-indulgent bit of fluff.
Why did the writer rent a huge SUV other than to snicker about the cliche? I have been writing about the Black Hills for years and can say a nice regular sedan is all you need. Further, the writer talks about the l o n g drive to the site. Yep it's long if you take the route in this piece - sort of like going from NYC to D.C. via Beaver, Pa.
There some excellent reasons to write about Mount Rushmore, but they are poorly explored in this self-indulgent bit of fluff.
105
I stopped reading at "snap chatting 12-year old daughter." The author needs to worry a little less about one of the countless things the federal government has wasted money on and focus on his family.
22
Sam, your children clearly model your too-cool-for-school-ness. Hopefully there is more in there than you give us but...that's what you did.
Are you trying to be funny? You are, mildly, but not very much, really. Your piece would seem more at home in an issue of The Sun.
In great contrast to the States Rights Federalist Nationalist sentiment going around, remember, dear reader, that America is a big place and while the Native Americans got a rotten deal, it is best when visited and enjoyed. So don't let Sam's words keep you from making that trip. But a trip just to see Mt Rushmore is really a silly thing. Make it a part of The Great American Road Trip. Rushmore, Black Hills, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, and more. It really is beautiful.
And how do you know that Burro's were not here before?
Are you trying to be funny? You are, mildly, but not very much, really. Your piece would seem more at home in an issue of The Sun.
In great contrast to the States Rights Federalist Nationalist sentiment going around, remember, dear reader, that America is a big place and while the Native Americans got a rotten deal, it is best when visited and enjoyed. So don't let Sam's words keep you from making that trip. But a trip just to see Mt Rushmore is really a silly thing. Make it a part of The Great American Road Trip. Rushmore, Black Hills, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, and more. It really is beautiful.
And how do you know that Burro's were not here before?
33
It is well established that Burro's were introduced to America by European colonists: http://www.desertusa.com/animals/wild-burro.html
I have seen them in Nevada where they also have adapted very well.
I have seen them in Nevada where they also have adapted very well.
4
how does he know because burros were not here before. he knows because they are not native to North America just as horses aren't; rather brought by European "explorers" via Arabia and North Africa...
so unless you believe dinosaurs were created as extinct fossils at the time of the Lord's creation of the universe with earth at its center you'll have to go on the facts on this one. Oh, global climate change is also not a hoax, but how would we know? Oh wait, it's called science and education.
so unless you believe dinosaurs were created as extinct fossils at the time of the Lord's creation of the universe with earth at its center you'll have to go on the facts on this one. Oh, global climate change is also not a hoax, but how would we know? Oh wait, it's called science and education.
2
The reflection on the country's reverence for manmade bigness, greatness and heft in this article is timely and telling.
America is a weird place, and our most grandiose displays often seem bizarre in retrospect. Anderson aptly points out that the the virgin Black Hills and surrounding expanse cradling the oversized busts are more impactful than the monument itself, but perhaps the contrast teaches a worthwhile lesson. What might our national landscape reveal if we were to value restraint the way we do oversized effort?
America is a weird place, and our most grandiose displays often seem bizarre in retrospect. Anderson aptly points out that the the virgin Black Hills and surrounding expanse cradling the oversized busts are more impactful than the monument itself, but perhaps the contrast teaches a worthwhile lesson. What might our national landscape reveal if we were to value restraint the way we do oversized effort?
26
The article failed to mention every face up there was involved, to one degree or another, in the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. Mt Rushmore-an outrage smack dab In the middle of stolen land.
54
Somebody is always going to win, and somebody is always going to lose.
Mount Rushmore exists in order to further ingrain the "White Man's" dominance over the Native Americans. You do know that the "faces" of their conquers were carved on the Native American's most "holy" site ?
45
I did not know that it is their most holy site! I thought it was Bear Butte. What tribe was it? Was it the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Flandreau, Arikara, Sioux, Dakota, Lakota? Or, was it all of the Native Americans? I know that Mount Rushmore is named after a New York attorney.
The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota.
". . . I don’t understand life!” Funny, I thought twelve-year-olds understood everything. It's shortly thereafter that everything starts to unravel.
1
It was a good prop for the movie North By Northwest and is good fodder for Reagan lovers who dreamed of his likeness being put there. And for sure, we'll undoubtedly be inundated with Trump lovers, including Trump himself, promising to build a beautiful beautiful likeness of the loser in Chief. What a desecration that would be to the real presidents represented there.
5
Ponderosa pines and lodgepole pines are different trees. Native people used the lodgpoles for tipis. Sam and his family learned all sorts of new things out west. It is spectacular country indeed.
11
Enjoyed the read, but Sam failed to mention so many more reasons to visit the area. Ten years ago, after her college graduation, my daughter and I set off to drive across America. With no reservations and armed with only two books - "A Thousand Places to See Before You Die", and "Road Food" we set out from Atlanta and headed west. One of our favorite parts of the trip was the South Dakota/Wyoming segment. In addition to Mt. Rushmore you have The nearby Badlands Natl Park which is stunning - like a surreal moonscape. Wind Cave Natl Park. The iconic Devil's Tower. And the drive on Hwy 16 through Bighorn National Forest may be the prettiest drive on God's green earth. If more people got off the interstate and experienced what our country has to offer we would no doubt be much better off. While visiting Mt. Rushmore stop off at Wall's Drug Store in Wall, SD and take in all of the photos and letters sent by servicemen from all over the world during WW II and you will come to appreciate just how important having a sense of ownership and pride in this country, our history and our heritage is.
71
I'll add a shout-out for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
9
My home town! It's corny, but did you realize that at the turn of the 19th century there were several hundred of these grain palaces in the plains states...and the one in Mitchell is the only one left. As a bleeding heart liberal, I'm also proud to say that Mitchell is the hometown of my hero, George McGovern!
2
The Mt Rushmore sculptures have been likened to the (approximately contemporaneous) display of the embalmed bodies of Lenin and Stalin in the U.S.S.R. both are a form of idolatry--as is the Ramses II sculpture mentioned by another commentator.
The size obsession is clearly there too, and it is visible in public and private architecture all over the U.S. and not paralleled in the architecture of other countries I have some experience of.
The size obsession is clearly there too, and it is visible in public and private architecture all over the U.S. and not paralleled in the architecture of other countries I have some experience of.
5
I went to Mt. Rushmore when I was a child with the Boy Scouts. Yes, I am a transgender woman Eagle Scout lol.
Anyway, I though Mt. Rushmore was so inspiring. I mean, people built this using dynamite and jackhammers. how amazing is that? Of course, to the current city liberal everything in the rural areas is just some manifestation of evil and racism. Thats the only word I think I hear at least 10 times a day, racism racism racism racism. It sucks when someone tells you to shut up and feel guilt, and oh, by the way, you can never not be a racist because you are white, and your whiteness is the only reason my life is hard. I mean ouch. Of course, if you even try to say anything besides "I accept that 100%" then you are a white supremacist.
While the author can make literary quips about America burning down and patriotism being evil, I looked at Mt. Rushmore as a kid in a scout troop, and I thought that this monument proves that you can do anything if you just work hard enough, which I came to believe was what America was all about. 18 years after my visit, Im starting to feel like maybe I was wrong about everything. Maybe America is just this horrible nightmare of racism and fire, maybe there is nothing special about our nation. Maybe this city liberal author is right, and that symbols like Mt. Rushmore deserve 10 minutes of distain and then its time to go to the hotel and make sure to purge any patriotism that the monument caused. Stay cynical. America is evil. Got it.
Anyway, I though Mt. Rushmore was so inspiring. I mean, people built this using dynamite and jackhammers. how amazing is that? Of course, to the current city liberal everything in the rural areas is just some manifestation of evil and racism. Thats the only word I think I hear at least 10 times a day, racism racism racism racism. It sucks when someone tells you to shut up and feel guilt, and oh, by the way, you can never not be a racist because you are white, and your whiteness is the only reason my life is hard. I mean ouch. Of course, if you even try to say anything besides "I accept that 100%" then you are a white supremacist.
While the author can make literary quips about America burning down and patriotism being evil, I looked at Mt. Rushmore as a kid in a scout troop, and I thought that this monument proves that you can do anything if you just work hard enough, which I came to believe was what America was all about. 18 years after my visit, Im starting to feel like maybe I was wrong about everything. Maybe America is just this horrible nightmare of racism and fire, maybe there is nothing special about our nation. Maybe this city liberal author is right, and that symbols like Mt. Rushmore deserve 10 minutes of distain and then its time to go to the hotel and make sure to purge any patriotism that the monument caused. Stay cynical. America is evil. Got it.
28
Well said.
2
"[Mt.Rushmore] proves that you can do anything if you just work hard enough..." The Lakota Sioux people worked hard to make the Black Hills Land their home when they were chased out of their native land 1765. They worked hard to keep this land when gold was found on their land but they were again, chased out in 1877 with the signing of the Manypenny "Agreement" where the US government officially took home away from the Sioux people once again.
For me, Mt.Rushmore is not a symbol of "you can do anything if you just work hard enough...", it's a symbol of how unfair life is and how people in power can take away homes, leave permanent scars, and change things when fellow human beings don't want that change.
For me, Mt.Rushmore is not a symbol of "you can do anything if you just work hard enough...", it's a symbol of how unfair life is and how people in power can take away homes, leave permanent scars, and change things when fellow human beings don't want that change.
2
I think you got the right message, and congratulations at making Eagle Scout.
1
No room for Walt Whitman on Mr. Anderson's shelves.
15
Mt Rushmore is pretty much an Andy Warhol -- before Andy Warhol was even born.
It's vacuity to the 10th power; and says a lot about our culture, our American-ness, and about just how special -- as powerful -- we think we are. It says a lot about how we see ourselves in relation to nature; nature is matter, while we are its masters -- perhaps even its guiding intelligence. Our job (if you will) is to make it sing our praises. The adjective we use to describe America (the place and its affluence) is "great." Mt Rushmore is America's greatness cast in stone. It is -- very -- surreal.
It's vacuity to the 10th power; and says a lot about our culture, our American-ness, and about just how special -- as powerful -- we think we are. It says a lot about how we see ourselves in relation to nature; nature is matter, while we are its masters -- perhaps even its guiding intelligence. Our job (if you will) is to make it sing our praises. The adjective we use to describe America (the place and its affluence) is "great." Mt Rushmore is America's greatness cast in stone. It is -- very -- surreal.
9
Again while reading these comments I cannot easily express the sadness that I feel for those who are saying they are holier than thou, so much more sophisticated than the rest of the little people they walk upon as they feel compelled to see the sites of America, yet feel none of the pride of what caused those great things to be executed in the first place. I only (sadly) realize you'd say the same thing about the St. Louis Arch as a tribute to those who expanded westward, while acknowledging that that exploration did indeed impact those who settled the area earlier.
It wasn't as if you went to see the great string of half-buried cars along Route 66, or went viewing some piece of modern art that requires a ten page explanation as to why the artist thought it was brilliantly executed.
Maybe only clod kickers or back woods hicks can appreciate so many more things than your ultra sophisticated upbringing and living packed together in a high level of cosmopolitan living has blinded you to. Indeed, I feel deep sorrow at what you miss. I do not engage at all with your portrayal of these things, done at a time you did not live in nor are apparently willing to understand enough to realize why, to those people at that time, was great.
It wasn't as if you went to see the great string of half-buried cars along Route 66, or went viewing some piece of modern art that requires a ten page explanation as to why the artist thought it was brilliantly executed.
Maybe only clod kickers or back woods hicks can appreciate so many more things than your ultra sophisticated upbringing and living packed together in a high level of cosmopolitan living has blinded you to. Indeed, I feel deep sorrow at what you miss. I do not engage at all with your portrayal of these things, done at a time you did not live in nor are apparently willing to understand enough to realize why, to those people at that time, was great.
1
Loved this piece. Mr.Anderson touched on but, understandably, left out the details of the devastating double-cross of the US (Custer) violation of the treaty of Fort Laramie that "guaranteed" ownership of The Black Hills to the Lakota Nation. Youtube The Native American Genocide or 500 Nations for the sad truth.
Adding insult to injury, the brazen act of Mt. Rushmore was permitted..a dark and disturbing reminder (for those with a conscience) of who caused the pain and suffering of so many indigenous souls.
Adding insult to injury, the brazen act of Mt. Rushmore was permitted..a dark and disturbing reminder (for those with a conscience) of who caused the pain and suffering of so many indigenous souls.
22
Who needs a conscience when we have so many guilt-and-shamers to constantly remind us original sinners how barbaric we are? Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.
Kinda cynical perspective, but I love this essay it was so well written.
My thing is that the authors family seems so foreign to me. Im a 28 year old millenial who lives in the forrest in the mountains of Colorado. Ive grown up in the West, although I spent 4 years going to MIT in Boston. I live in thr wilderness in a log cabin built by a miner in the 1880s. I am a prospector in my spare time (yes we still exist), and I go into old mines and collect gold ore from tailings piles.
When the average liberal looks at al old mine, they see environmental destruction, killing Native Americans, and the evil of the white man. All of these things are absolutely true. However, they never see the other side.
When I visit a mine, I am always Awed by the fact that human beings can be so motivated by something that they are willing to dig 2000 or more feet under the earth, often with their bare hands. Miners may have destroyed the past, but they created the future through hard work. If you look at historical death lists you find that hundreds of miners were crushed or blown up while working, sometimes up to 100 in just one event were killed. They worked for low pay, they died in droves, and yet they created these gigantic railroads and mills and towns and infrastructure. They worked through anything just for the small chance to make it out of poverty.
There is a great duality to the West, and these city liberals only see the side that makes us all look completely evil and horrible.
My thing is that the authors family seems so foreign to me. Im a 28 year old millenial who lives in the forrest in the mountains of Colorado. Ive grown up in the West, although I spent 4 years going to MIT in Boston. I live in thr wilderness in a log cabin built by a miner in the 1880s. I am a prospector in my spare time (yes we still exist), and I go into old mines and collect gold ore from tailings piles.
When the average liberal looks at al old mine, they see environmental destruction, killing Native Americans, and the evil of the white man. All of these things are absolutely true. However, they never see the other side.
When I visit a mine, I am always Awed by the fact that human beings can be so motivated by something that they are willing to dig 2000 or more feet under the earth, often with their bare hands. Miners may have destroyed the past, but they created the future through hard work. If you look at historical death lists you find that hundreds of miners were crushed or blown up while working, sometimes up to 100 in just one event were killed. They worked for low pay, they died in droves, and yet they created these gigantic railroads and mills and towns and infrastructure. They worked through anything just for the small chance to make it out of poverty.
There is a great duality to the West, and these city liberals only see the side that makes us all look completely evil and horrible.
22
Not with bare hands. Sometimes with pick and shovel, but usually with dynamite.
1
I live in New Jersey and these kids sound like aliens to me, too. Someone's being WAY too tolerant, and then making us read it, which is also obnoxious. They were not pleasant for me to spend the journey with, I cannot imagine they were for the author either. Or at least they shouldn't have been.
The term "gargantuan" seems a bit over the top for what this is in real life. sterile and disappointing. Go to DC, the visceral reaction that monuments on the mall evoke are more indicative of our country and it's leaders. plus the way in from Rapid City is pure schlock Americana. Pizza Hut?
6
Would you prefer Wolfgang's pizza with a side of beluga?
1
I live in a big city now. But I was trained as a geologist in Rapid City and know the Black Hills well. Knowing locals call it "The Rape of the Rock". There is an arrogant, eastern, look-down-our-nose-at-flyover-land attitude to this piece that I encounter a lot with folks from the east coast - particularly New York City. It is an all-knowing but know-nothing tone. The Black Hills are not a geologic oddity - they are the easternmost part of the Laramide orogeny overthrust. The Alex Johnson Hotel is not on oddity (although it can be weird in the winter) - it's what fine hotels used to be like before this was flyover land. The Mall of America in Minneapolis is not frequented by locals - they rarely go there - it's for New Yorkers so they can milk them for all they are worth. And you wonder why people voted for Trump?
56
Dear journ001, the trouble with your post is that you are spiteful and generalizing about those of us from the East Coast, and those of us from New York City (and who knows where this staff writer is from, in any case). When your point seems to be how arrogant and ignorant we are, this hardly seems a constructive approach. I thought the writer of this piece seemed poorly informed (he didn't know who was depicted on Mount Rushmore???, etc.) and wondered why on earth the Times gave him the privilege of writing this piece. But I don't attribute his ignorance to anything but his own apparent lack of real curiosity. We're not all arrogant or ignorant or rude here on the East Coast or in NYC. Come stay a while.
6
Lighten up, jour. Any New Yawker dumb enough to drag the family off to the Black Hills in the dead of winter can't be expected to know twiddle about anything geological.
Seems like this guy went out of his way to take his family on a cheezy winter vacation. I wonder if they got to Wall Drug on the way home?
Better for kids is trip to San Francisco with a side trip to Yosemite. So much to see! Yosemite, for me, seems like a holy place. And SF is interesting to walk around and spend time down on the embarkadero. Great food, interesting people.
Or Reno, give the kids each 10 bucks and set them loose on the upper floor of Circus Circus to play the kids games of chance and watch the cheezy circus acts. and then take them up to Mt Rose or Squaw Valley for world class skiing.
Better for kids is trip to San Francisco with a side trip to Yosemite. So much to see! Yosemite, for me, seems like a holy place. And SF is interesting to walk around and spend time down on the embarkadero. Great food, interesting people.
Or Reno, give the kids each 10 bucks and set them loose on the upper floor of Circus Circus to play the kids games of chance and watch the cheezy circus acts. and then take them up to Mt Rose or Squaw Valley for world class skiing.
6
As a full time traveler in my small RV, I liked Wall Drugs!
Oh, come on! The Black Hills and Badlands are a wonderful place for a vacation, especially with kids. But it's not a place that's particularly beautiful or hospitable in the dead of winter. Go in the summer. Hike the many trails. I grew up near the Black Hills and consider a sacred place, as do the Lakotas. I also enjoy a trip to NYC and have spent a great deal of time there and love the city. I've been in all 50 states. Yet, the Black Hills will always be special. And, unlike when I was growing up in South Dakota in the 60's and 70's, the state now embraces its Native American population, and understands and acknowledges the historical persecution of Native Americans. Listen, every region of the United States offers its own special attractions. What makes us great is the diversity of our people, our land, our food, and many other things. The Black Hills is a place that few people outside of the Midwest that folks travel to. The author flew into Minneapolis and drove 600 miles to get there...it really is isolated. (Denver is 400 miles away...where I live now.)
1
Beautiful and lyrical essay, perfectly capturing the poignant reflections many readers must feel when confronting the American values mirrored in such a monument. We can appreciate our nation's weird impulses towards grandiosity and we can love our common heritage while still, with the benefit of the last 40 years of historical insights, lament the rapaciousness and cultural elitism that "won the west." We can swell with pride at belonging to a people that dreams so large but still recoil from the desecration os such a sacred and pristine wilderness.
18
Too bad that Donald Trump's visage will be on Mount Rushmore now instead of Hillary Clinton's. And don't think that if Hilary had won there wouldn't be a real push for it- by the usual suspects, of course.
4
I was in London and Paris two weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I was in China in September. Same there.
I first went to the Black Hills in 1959. Loved it! Back again in the '90s. Same. I've read a lot of the difficulties in building the monument. Lincoln Borglum, the son, actually supervised most of the sculpture. The father had gotten just too old.
When you go on a trip, if you are smart, you let the trip take you.As for the kids. Thats why they have grandparents. Ideally, they are divorced. That way, you have four places to dump them.
Bob Johnson
I first went to the Black Hills in 1959. Loved it! Back again in the '90s. Same. I've read a lot of the difficulties in building the monument. Lincoln Borglum, the son, actually supervised most of the sculpture. The father had gotten just too old.
When you go on a trip, if you are smart, you let the trip take you.As for the kids. Thats why they have grandparents. Ideally, they are divorced. That way, you have four places to dump them.
Bob Johnson
14
Mt Rushmore is one of our greatest examples of greed, lies, and broken treaties. That, sadly, is what the monument should mean to everyone, not a celebration of the triumph of democracy. U.S. government in the Treaty of 1868 promised the Sioux territory (including the Black Hills) in perpetuity. The promise didn't last long. Wars, deaths, blood spilled over the land. Then in 1927, the facework began.
It's a spiritual mountain that has been turned into a tourist trap. It was built on the equivalent of Eden in the Book of Genesis or Jerusalem or Mecca. We have no respect over our past promises to the original inhabitants of this land.
My attitude is far from popular with those who see celebration of the carving of US Presidents & the renaming of this mountain. It's simply to give back the land that we promised in the treaty of 1868, if not all, then especially Six Grandfathers. It belongs to them. Not graffiti artists, no matter how well funded & armed.
Further information see:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/rushmore-s...
http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1212
It's a spiritual mountain that has been turned into a tourist trap. It was built on the equivalent of Eden in the Book of Genesis or Jerusalem or Mecca. We have no respect over our past promises to the original inhabitants of this land.
My attitude is far from popular with those who see celebration of the carving of US Presidents & the renaming of this mountain. It's simply to give back the land that we promised in the treaty of 1868, if not all, then especially Six Grandfathers. It belongs to them. Not graffiti artists, no matter how well funded & armed.
Further information see:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/rushmore-s...
http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1212
38
Some win, some lose. Romans . . . Greeks . . . .Egyptians. . . .and so on.
Too bad Sam and his family did not enjoy their visit to flyover country, and brief encounter with some terrane still more wild than domesticated. And too bad they could not find either historical or modern significance in Mount Rushmore that offers them any positive impressions of American ideals and experience.
Yes, people did and do live in the boonies, beyond not only urban amenities but also beyond urban smugness. And people did and do still embrace a sense of nationhood and even patriotism. Yes, plenty of flaws and sins in our past, but far better in intent and outcome than most other cultures.
Personally, I like Mount Rushmore and have enjoyed visits there. And I do find the sculptures fitting and appropriately symbolic--certainly more than the shrine built at Lincoln's birthplace (https://www.nps.gov/abli/index.htm).
Yes, people did and do live in the boonies, beyond not only urban amenities but also beyond urban smugness. And people did and do still embrace a sense of nationhood and even patriotism. Yes, plenty of flaws and sins in our past, but far better in intent and outcome than most other cultures.
Personally, I like Mount Rushmore and have enjoyed visits there. And I do find the sculptures fitting and appropriately symbolic--certainly more than the shrine built at Lincoln's birthplace (https://www.nps.gov/abli/index.htm).
33
Yup, it is strange out there all right. Rushmore's 'smallness' prevails in that gob-smacking Lakota landscape. And (back east a ways) there's the sad but beautiful Pine Ridge reservation, performing chickens, 'gator wrestling at Reptile Gardens and the plethora of Chinese-made American souvenirs at Wall Drug.
2
Perhaps Rushmore is best viewed in the Hitchcock movie.
8
Terrible article trying to be funny and all about them ( the family) instead of something much larger! Like the black hills .
13
Scout ventures forth from NYC, bravely taking on the vast middle emptiness. Repulsed by weather, bad food, lack of people like back home in Manhattan. Largely baffled by landscape, but admits to certain charms. Family alienated, bored, unable to connect to present moment. What locals think of as magnificent, isn't. Retreats as quickly as possible to civilization. Reports back to tribe: you're still a cut above.
93
“Why not just paint a mustache on everything?” another asked.
A town with a mustache on everything would probably have also attracted many tourists.
A town with a mustache on everything would probably have also attracted many tourists.
15
yeah, about as meaningless as slapping a green and mustard jersey on a boy with an egg shaped ball.
Images of dead presidents should perhaps be on money, not carved into the natural world.
24
yeah, agree, those Pyramids destroy the Egyptian desert flowers, and the Taliban was right to blow up the Bamiyam Buddha back to its original "Natural" self. Lest not forget all the nature altering Christo installations. And for god sake, that Statue of Liberty eyesore in that beautiful New York "Natural" harbor is just.... unnecessary
13
I think you may be missing the point. There are many glorious monuments to man's ingenuity and creativity...cities, towers, bridges, etc. Why deface an amazing natural wonder? Would you also have images of politicians carved into the Grand Canyon?
3
I enjoyed this essay. But the seen-it-all cynicism isn't doing us any favors. The subtext is clear: simple national pride is quaint--dangerous even.
The literary people eschew patriotism, and the sages of our age tell us nationalism is a sin. So the flag is taken up by others, who are less haughty.
This is all well and good--until a new kind of elite tries to reclaim "Americanism" by redefining it. They don't care for the softer virtues of America: respect, tolerance, conscience. But they can point to the sort of snobbery and nihilism this essay is rank with, and claim patriotism as their domain just by being "the opposite of that."
The literary people eschew patriotism, and the sages of our age tell us nationalism is a sin. So the flag is taken up by others, who are less haughty.
This is all well and good--until a new kind of elite tries to reclaim "Americanism" by redefining it. They don't care for the softer virtues of America: respect, tolerance, conscience. But they can point to the sort of snobbery and nihilism this essay is rank with, and claim patriotism as their domain just by being "the opposite of that."
83
Where is the snobbery and cynicism? This well-written piece is about what truly underlies the virtues of "respect, tolerance, conscience."
5
Oh, give me a break. I'm so tired of hearing about how "literary people" (educated people?) have ruined everything and lack patriotism. It is easy to throw about the word "elite," but what exactly do you mean? Rich people? Powerful people? College graduates? It is a meaningless term.
It is tolerance, respect and conscience that we celebrate and insist upon when it has been absent. It is you who are a snob and who wants to redefine and claim patriotism as your own narrow idea. I will not apologize for being educated.
It is tolerance, respect and conscience that we celebrate and insist upon when it has been absent. It is you who are a snob and who wants to redefine and claim patriotism as your own narrow idea. I will not apologize for being educated.
8
I didn't come away with a feeling of cynicism from this. Having driven across country a couple of times, I notice that my perspective changes as I go further in from whichever coast. Mount Rushmore is puzzling and beautiful. It sounds like Sam Anderson's perspective also changed.
2
Tiny giant America is burning
15
Just the Big Blue Urban Archipelago.
1
No different than the attempt to build a mosque at the World Trade Center site...except Mount Rushmore was completed. To the victor go the spoils, and carving Mount Rushmore on ground considered sacred by the Native Peoples, was the American way of reminding them for all eternity, that they had lost. Shameful...
54
Sounds like you spend too much time in your camp studio echo chamber.
I think I understand where your going with the mosque analogy, and I agree Mount Rushmore represents defacement and an insult to native peoples. However, I'd like to point out that 9/11 at the WTC cannot be blamed on the muslim faith in general or on the communities who attend mosques. Similarly, the American flag or a cross would be poor symbols for homegrown U.S. Christian terrorists. I think the analogy would be better if it were about a proposed tribute at Ground Zero to Al-Qaeda, an inhumane perversion of Islam. That puts the focus squarely on the point that history is written by victors not vanquished.
Not shameful.
my daughter and i stopped there a few years back on a trip across country as she got out of the truck in the parking lot she said "gee dad it's so small what the heck" i looked up and she was right we got back in the truck and continued west yellow stone craters of the moon the cascades rushmore was quickly forgotten ......
12
It's interesting that this article comes about the same time as the discovery of the Ramses II sculpture buried near Heliopolis which was supposed to have inspired the poem "Ozymandias".
24
Funny, we went to South Dakota early last summer and loved it. Maybe Sam has been in London too long.
65
I loved Anderson's last piece on Russel Westbrook. I appreciated the "dad move" Anderson had to pull as his fam waited in the car while he insisted on going to the Crazy Horse Museum. Also, the burros part was hilarious, and that's why I enjoy reading Anderson. This one is equal parts National Lampoon Family Vacation, sociological critique, and travelogue.
23
The area of the US from the Badlands over to the Bighorn Mountains (including the Ten Sleep Canyon on their western flank) is some of the most breathtaking and under-touristed parts of the Lower 48.
62
Living nearby in the badlands of Montana, I agree. Stunning desolation, and organically imprinted on me as a child. This area is definitely not "tiny" America. Strangely, the only other place that felt like home was NYC, also not exactly tiny but desolate in its own way. If you are traveling to these badlands to experience amenities and world class comfort, you are making a mistake. You have to appreciate this part of the US for what it is, and not what it is not.
42
Indeed having driven the distance many times to Jackson, WY, despite being on 70-80 mph roads, I wonder in awe of the tenacity of our early settlers with no roads, poor weather, dependency upon their skills, and motivation to seek a better life. Those are all honorable things, and at the time few were aware of their actions doing the harm that we now realize was being caused.
1