Four Faces of Freedom

Upon recommendation of several park rangers at Wind Cave, we decide to wait until evening to head up to Mount Rushmore to see the lighting ceremony, the monument's main attraction that inspired a 2,500-seat amphitheater that fills up almost every night between Memorial and Labor days.

We arrive about an hour before dusk not really expecting much other than presidents’ faces in stone and perhaps a trail below them. What we find is much, much more. The monument is beautifully laid out; the entrance has the feeling of a Roman architecture with four flights of stairs leading into huge stone columns that reveal the first glimpse of the Rushmore faces. Upon entering the main grounds there’s a long walkway with every state’s flag and huge stone pillars leading up to the amphitheater site. With the usual gift shop, eatery, and a very well put together museum/visitor center we’re both impressed with Mount Rushmore.

The night is pleasant and warm, so we decide to grab some waffle cones with huge scoops of ice cream mounded on top. Jessica gets strawberry cheesecake and I get my favorite mint chocolate chip. The prices are surprisingly reasonable and we head down and get a seat, front and center. Studying the faces they almost seem fake in their perfection, a true testament to the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. It was his idea and vision to sculpt Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt upon these rocks instead of what was originally supposed to be heroes of the west like Lewis and Clark, Wild Bill or Red Cloud.

As the ceremony approaches we’re joined by a little old lady wearing a stars-and-stripes sweater and sporting a proud grin on her face as she sees the 1,000 plus people roll in. We start chatting and she tells us she’s part of the Mount Rushmore Foundation, which plays and important roll in the upkeep of the park (lawmakers wrote a section in the legislation guaranteeing no fee to enter the park). But thanks to a clever loophole, there's now a $10 fee for parking. Our new friend is full of other pieces of information and historical facts, and we both find her knowledgeable and charming. One interesting story she tells us is that this summer, three Greenpeace activists snuck up to the top and hung a huge banner over the faces with a message for President Obama, "America Honors Leaders not politicians, stop global warming."

Darkness is now upon us. A ranger comes out and plays presidential triva games with the crowd until everyone is finally settled. Every answer is one of the presidents on Rushmore, and within every set of four questions, each of the four presidents gets a nod. This is only the start of what feels like a junior high history lecture. The following video that provides the highlights of each president’s life proves to be very laughable and elementary but nonetheless does show that each man had a great impact on the America in which we live and certainly enjoy. Finally at the end, the spotlights shines and the faces are revealed against the dark starry sky, a beautiful sight that is only dimmed by the urging of the rangers to join along with the recording and sing America the Beautiful.

Upon returning to our Wind Cave campsite, we light a fire and pull out our amateur astronomy book and do some constellation identifying. The sky has so many stars that it almost makes it harder to find things. But we have fun anyway and now feel confident that if we were lost in the woods we could find our way out.

—Patrick