No One Died Carving Mount Rushmore

Carving four presidents into a mountain was dangerous work. The U.S. National Park Service says 90 percent of Mount Rushmore was carved using dynamite, with powdermen setting charges sized to remove precise amounts of rock. Drillers were raised and lowered by workers hand-cranking winches on top of the mountain, through weather that ranged from blazing hot to bitter cold. Yet, according to the Park Service, during the 14 years of construction, from October 4, 1927, to October 31, 1941, not one fatality occurred. The project involved nearly 400 men and women. Dynamite was used until only three to six inches of rock remained, and the faces were then smoothed by hand. Many workers were uneasy with heights, the Park Service notes, but during the Depression any job was a good job. One earned 8 dollars a day.