UNDATED (KELO AM) On Monday, October 31, 75 years ago Mount Rushmore was finished..or was it?
The Mount Rushmore Society's Debbie Ketel Speas says there is a little known fact that the original vision was to include more of the president's bodies.
"Gutzon Borglum had the original idea of carving the presidents down to their waist, so it's not entirely complete, but it's complete in our minds today." Ketel Speas tells KELO Radio News.
Stone blasters spent 14 years, much of it during the Great Depression, at eight dollars a day, to complete what has become a South Dakota icon. Ketel Speas says it would be hard to imagine the state without Mount Rushmore, as it is the major driver of the state's tourism industry.
Its 75th anniversary coming in a presidential election year is an appropriate coincidence.
"It definitely represents freedom and democracy and coming up in an election year, it's definitely a great thing to reflect on." says Ketel Speas.