Mount Rushmore In 1927, workmen with lively nicknames like Whiskey Art, Palooka, and Hoot quit their regular jobs. They were among the 400 people invited to create Mount Rushmore, a massive mountainside carving of four United States presidents in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The work would be on-and-off labor lasting fourteen years. Mount Rushmore was conceived by the South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson in 1923. He had learned of a similar project underway in the southern US. Just east of Atlanta, the sculptor Gutzon Borglum had been commissioned to carve into Stone Mountain the likeness of Confederate…
In the 1820s, when War of 1812 fighting had ceased in the Niagara Falls region, local hotel owners wanted to revive tourism. The Niagara Falls had once made popular tourist destinations of two cities along the international border: Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls in New York, USA. To attract attention, the hotel owners sponsored the first daredevil Niagara Falls stunt on record: they sent a defunct ship over Niagaras Horseshoe Falls. The hoteliers stunt drew a crowd indeed. On September 8, 1827, about 10,000 people gathered to watch the condemned schooner be swept over the waterfall. The…
Ellis Island: Site of Picnics, War, and Immigration Ellis Island in New York Harbor was once the main immigration station for people entering the United States. About a third of Americans can trace their ancestry to this entry point. Today Ellis Island is a museum accessible by ferryboat. The island is named for Samuel Ellis, a wealthy colonial landholder. He once owned the land and used it as a picnic area. When selling the island, Ellis advertised it along with several other items he had for sale, including a few barrels of excellent shad and herrings and a large Pleasure…
