FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2022-140 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (August 10, 2022) – In Issue 2022-140 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, we carve out a special moment marking U.S. Presidents.

NOSES 20 FEET TALL

On August 10, 1927, President Calvin Coolidge attended the dedication ceremony of the Mount Rushmore Memorial and handed sculptor Gutzon Borglum drill bits to begin the project.

This was merely for show, with actual carving beginning in October of 1927 and ending in October 1941, just months after Borglum’s death.

The work was created to celebrate the first 150 years of the United States.  The Presidents Borglum chose to depict were selected to “commemorate the founding (George Washington), growth (Thomas Jefferson), preservation (Abraham Lincoln) and development (Theodore Roosevelt) of the United States of America.”

More than 400 workers were involved in this iconic piece of Americana, visited by about 3 million people every year.

This R. T. White pictorial map of South Dakota only shows Washington in the lower left, likely as the map was issued three years prior to the completion of the monument.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon.