Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower and the Motorcycle Mecca, Sturgis

October 4 We started the day with Mount Rushmore, sculpted by Gutzon Borglum. He first did a model out of plaster of Paris that was 1/12 the finished size and transferred to the mountain with a giant 3 dimensional pantograph which works through a system of hinged and joint rods. This is similar to how painters have  use the grid system or Art projector today. That was the easy part. Then they used dynamite to blast the granite. Amazing. Noses are about 20’ long, eyes about 11’ wide and mouths about 18’ wide!

Below is the Artist model carved by the artist.

Devils Tower was equally amazing. Created when the molten magma was forced into sedimentary rock above and cooled underground. Cooling caused fractures forming columns and erosion exposed the Devils tower over millions of years. The 1.3 mile hike around the tower was quite exhausting at a mile high. I thought my 2-5 mile walks a day would prepare me for it, but I was quite winded.

Then we wen to Sturgis, a big motorcycle town. Nothing was open on Sunday and we were lucky to find dine in. But we did and had a great late lunch. The weather was amazing and it was once again a great day