Is There a Secret Room Behind Mount Rushmore?
Despite being one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world and visited by thousands of tourists a year, few know that there has been a secret it has harboured for decades.
image © Kimon Berlin via Flickr
When Gutzon Borglum designed the huge sculpture featuring the faces of US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, he had further plans for the monument.
image © Rachel.miller727 via Wikimedia Commons
Tucked behind the head of Abraham Lincoln, is a secret room measuring 75 feet long and 35 feet tall. The room was meant to depict American history and in the image above you can see the holes that housed the sticks of dynamite and the red paint that marked where and how rock was supposed to be extracted. Though Borglum insisted on finishing the project, Governor William Bulow forced him to finish the faces of Mount Rushmore and therefore abandon the ancillary work.
Since the project was abandonded, the government offered Gutzon permission to start work on a Hall of Records which is a hidden chamber containing America's most important paperwork. Unfortunately the architect passed away before completing the project.
The project was revived however, by family members in 1998. Inside the chamber room is a locked titanium vault that has panels featuring American history, a biography of Gutzon Borglum, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. One of the tablets inside the vault (as seen above) is Gutzon Borglum's intention for the mountain and the room.
Despite the chamber now being revealed to the public, it will remain inaccessible to tourists.
Want to create your own secret room? Check out the '3D Model Gallery' on CADdetails.com to download models you can use in your planning.
Sources: The Sun, Daily Mail, & Mental Floss | cover photo © Kimon Berlin via Flickr
