Lincoln Borglum Museum, Museum at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

The Lincoln Borglum Museum stands within Mount Rushmore National Memorial near Keystone, South Dakota, below Grandview Terrace. It holds two 125-seat theaters showing a 13-minute film on the memorial's making, and the Presidential Trail to the Sculptor's Studio begins at the terrace above it.

The carving began in the 1920s when sculptor Gutzon Borglum saw the potential in the Black Hills rock face. His son Lincoln joined the effort and helped bring the work to completion in 1941.

The museum is named after Lincoln Borglum, Gutzon Borglum's son, who helped complete the carving. At dusk the amphitheater hosts a 30-minute program describing how the memorial was built, after which the mountain is illuminated for two hours. The Presidential Trail starts at Grandview Terrace above the museum and winds through Ponderosa pine forest to the Sculptor's Studio, where Gutzon Borglum's tools are discussed.

The museum sits right next to the monument and is easily accessible from the main viewing areas. Plan to spend at least a couple of hours here if you want to see everything and watch one of the films.

The museum keeps a collection of large photographs showing the workers in their daily routine on the mountain. These images document the faces and names of people who spent years carving away at the rock.