The Carving of Mount Rushmore by Rex Alan Smith

Author:Rex Alan Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abbeville Publishing Group
Published: 2011-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

32. Scaffolding on the face of Washington in May, 1930. Twisted strata in the lower center of the cliff represent the edge of a “float-block” of uncarvable schist.

As the Fourth of July and the Washington dedication approached, a committee of Rapid City women headed by Mrs. C. C. Warren worked tirelessly at constructing the dedication flag. It was a gigantic thing; when finished it measured forty by seventy-two feet, and to publicize the dedication it was suspended lengthwise above Sixth Street. With one side attached to the eighth story of the Alex Johnson Hotel and the other to a mast atop the Duhamel building across the street, and with its lower hem just high enough to be clear of passing traffic, it hung as a spectacular Stars and Stripes curtain that could not possibly be overlooked.

Apparently the flag served its purpose—or something did—for the dedication was attended by more than 2,500 people. One reason may have been that this time the visitors did not have to choose between walking or trying to drive their cars from Keystone to the mountain. They were able instead to ride up, free of charge, in buses lent by Paul Bellamy’s Black Hills Transportation Company.

Senator Norbeck could not attend this dedication, and for a sad reason. The previous September, he had gone to Johns Hopkins Medical Center to see about a bothersome growth affecting his lower jaw and tongue. The verdict—cancer! Surgeons had then removed the growth and said they probably had gotten all of it, but … you never could be sure. Norbeck had kept this secret from all but his immediate family, but the knowledge of it had plunged him into a deep depression. To make matters worse, he had suffered throughout the winter from a variety of other ailments. Hoping that a change of scene would restore him in body and mind, Norbeck took his family on a summer tour of the Scandinavian countries, and at the time of the Washington dedication they were in his ancestral Norway.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.