Mount Rushmore, Mountain and national memorial in the Black Hills, South Dakota, United States

Mount Rushmore is a granite peak in the Black Hills carved with four presidential heads about 60 feet (18 m) tall, set at different depths along the cliff. From left to right are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, cut into pale gray stone above darker striated rock, with broken stone and evergreen trees on the slope below.

The idea came from state historian Doane Robinson, who first proposed western heroes; sculptor Gutzon Borglum argued for four presidents instead. Work ran from 1927 to 1941, with the faces finished between 1934 and 1939, and Senator Peter Norbeck secured federal funding. After Borglum died in March 1941, his son Lincoln took over until money ran out on October 31, 1941, leaving only Washington detailed below the chin.

Gutzon Borglum called the memorial the Shrine of Democracy, and the Lakota know the peak as Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe Pahá, Six Grandfathers Mountain, after six head-like knobs on the ridge linked to Black Elk's 1873 vision. The Black Hills are sacred ground to the Lakota, and the 1980 Supreme Court ruling awarded the Sioux $102 million, which they refused while demanding the land back.

The memorial is open every day of the year, but the busiest months are in summer, so early morning or late afternoon visits are more comfortable. A walking path leads closer to the base of the sculpture, and the main viewing terrace is wheelchair accessible, with parking nearby.

A chamber called the Hall of Records was cut into the rock behind the heads, intended to hold founding documents, but it was never finished. In 1998 sixteen porcelain enamel panels with documents and biographies of the four presidents and Borglum were sealed in a titanium vault there; visitors cannot enter it.