Mount Rushmore - Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota Mt. Rushmore stands as a shrine of democracy, a monument and memorial to this country's birth, growth and ideals. Mount Rushmore symbolizes the greatness of this nation through the greatness of it leaders. Between 1927 and 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the 60-foot busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history.