Gutzon Borglum
By 1924, when sculptor Gutzon Borglum was invited to the Black
Hills of South Dakota to consider undertaking a mountain carving here, he had
already invested nine years of his life in the Memorial to the Confederacy
mountain carving at Stone Mountain, Georgia. After many years of preparatory
work and delays in funding (plus a cessation during World War I) carving on the
mountain was progressing smoothly and money was rolling in. But within a year
the project would founder, and in retrospect Borglum appears to have been
hedging his bets by casting about for future commissions.
The labyrinthine debacle at Stone Mountain contains enough high drama for a
top-notch soap opera, where seemingly all of the principals possessed inflated
opinions of self-worth, lots of funds were raised that somehow never trickled
down to the actual project, and tempers flared in a latter-day north-south
conflict. Borglum’s flamboyant style and impressive oratory had appealed to the
group in the beginning, but over the years money problems and mounting
differences of opinion wore
down any semblance of accord. The entire project
self-destructed in a conflagration of recriminations and legal proceedings which
dragged on for years. Borglum destroyed his working models lest an inferior
sculptor (and all sculptors were inferior in his mind) be hired to complete the
job. After a failed attempt to resuscitate the project the executive board
ordered his work wiped off the mountain, and there the project sat for almost
fifty years.
According to historian, Rex Allen Smith, “It was failure at Stone Mountain that
produced success at Rushmore”. But what if Stone Mountain had not led to Mount
Rushmore? What if the sculptor and committee were able to set aside their
differences and complete the project?
Borglum’s original concept - had he been allowed to pursue it - was to have the
entire confederate army traipsing across the face of the mountain, headed up by
Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson astride their faithful
steeds. Since he was still learning the mountain carving skills he so
masterfully implemented later on Mount Rushmore, this ambitious carving would
most certainly have consumed what remained of his life.
What if Gutzon Borglum had stayed in Georgia to complete the carving at
Stone Mountain?
