
1939, Work Halts On Hall
In 1939, the political opponents of the Hall of Records threaten to cut off all funding for the Mount Rushmore project if the money is not used to complete the Mount Rushmore sculpture instead of working on the Hall of Records. All work stops on the Hall of Records and resumes on the sculpture itself. At this point and time, Lincoln Borglum, son of Gutzon, takes over as the primary sculptor at the worksite, as Gutzon spends more and more of his time in Washington campaigning for funds to continue his project. South Dakota Senator Norbeck, previous champion of Mount Rushmore at Washington DC, died of throat and tongue cancer in 1936.
The Native Americans, appalled at the construction of Mount Rushmore (which they felt was a desecration of Oceti Sakowin, their name for the sacred mountain which bears Rushmore's name to Anglo-Americans), began an endeavor of their own in 1939 known as the Crazy Horse monument. Being built just 15 miles to the southwest of Mount Rushmore, it was begun by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear and was conceived in scope to
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