Provide some information about the President's Hill in the United States.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is the American Presidential Memorial near Key Si Tong, South Dakota. There are four 60-foot-tall portraits of former American presidents in the park. They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, theodore roosevelt and abraham lincoln. These four presidents are considered to represent the history of the United States since its founding 65,438+050 years ago. The whole park covers an area of 1278 acres (5. 17 square kilometers), and the highest point is 5725 feet above sea level (1745 meters). The park is managed by the National Park Service under the US Department of the Interior and attracts about 2 million visitors every year.

1885, Charles E. Rushmore, a famous lawyer in new york, named a granite mountain near his mine in Black Hills, South Dakota "Mount Rushmore" with his surname, which is the origin of the name of Mount Rushmore. Several decades later, the construction plan of Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park was officially launched, and rushmore also donated $5,000. The original intention of building sculptures on Mount Rushmore was to attract more people to visit Mount Braque. However, this construction plan triggered a long-term debate between the US Congress and then President johncalvin coolidge. Finally, the construction plan was approved by Congress. The construction of the whole project started at 1927 and ended at 194 1.

Today, Mount Rushmore is not only a world-class tourist attraction, but also a symbol of the American president in American culture. At the same time, under the influence of contemporary pop culture, Mount Rushmore has also spawned many other meaning.

Second, history.

As early as 1923, a historian named Donne Robinson proposed to carve a group of presidential portraits on Mount Rushmore to attract more tourists to South Dakota. Therefore, in 1924, he persuaded the sculptor Gutzon Borglum to make an investigation in the Braque Mountain area to determine whether this area was suitable for this huge carving project. At first, the carving site was the needle in Braque Mountain, where there were many granite columns for carving. Later, however, Borglum found that the granite in the needle had been eroded for many years, and it was difficult to carve such a huge work on it. Mount Rushmore, on the other hand, meets the requirements of sculpture. Borglum once said when he saw Mount Rushmore: "The United States will extend on this horizon." ("America will move along the horizon." )1925 In March, the US Congress officially approved the construction of Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park. President Coolidge emphasized here that besides indispensable Washington, the other three presidents must be two Republicans and one Democrat.

From 1927, 10 year1October 4th to194 10 year1October 3rd/kloc-0 day, Gezeng. These four presidents are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, theodore roosevelt and abraham lincoln-they represent the history of the United States 150 years ago. Borglum chose these four presidents because of their important position in American history.

Since 1933, Mount Rushmore has been under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Since then, engineer Julian Spotts has improved some facilities in the project construction. For example, the reinforcement measures he took for construction cranes made it easier for workers to reach the top of Mount Rushmore from the ground. 1On July 4th, 934, Washington's facial sculpture was completed for the first time. Two years later, the statue of Thomas Jefferson was also carved. The third is the statue of abraham lincoln, which was announced to be completed in September 1937. In the same year, someone put forward a bill in Congress, demanding that susan anthony, a civil rights leader, be included in the whole sculpture. However, the plan was aborted because there was an additional clause in the annual budget of the US government at that time, which stipulated that the federal funds invested in this project could only be used for the four sculptures that had already started construction. 1939, the last part of the sculpture, theodore roosevelt's head, was completed.

From 65438 to 0939, Gezen Borglum directed the establishment of a sculptor's studio to display related miniature plaster models and production tools. 194 1 March, Borglum died of thrombosis. His son Lincoln Borglum took over his job and continued to lead the progress of the whole project. But seven months after his death, the project was forced to stop due to financial problems. According to the original plan, the statues of the four presidents should all be busts, that is, the sculptures should include all parts above the waist. Due to the stoppage, the statue of Washington has only a bust, while the statues of the other three presidents have only completed the head part. The whole project cost 989,992.32 dollars. It is commendable that no worker died in the process of such a huge project construction.

1966 65438+ 10 15, Mount Rushmore was officially listed in the national register of historical place names. 1975, the management set up a special copper pillar in the studio of old Borglum. At the top of the copper column is a copper plaque engraved with an award-winning article written by William Andrew Burket from Nebraska forty years ago. During the period of 1934, Borglum cooperated with william randolph hearst, an American newspaper tycoon, and held a prize essay contest in his newspaper to expand the influence of this project. In the end, Birket, who participated in the thesis writing in the university group at that time, became the lucky one. Although his article was not really printed on Mount Rushmore until 1975, this award-winning composition was enough for him to win a four-year university scholarship at that time. Because the whole sculpture was not completed as planned, Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park was not officially completed for a long time. It was not until July 3, 199 1 that Bush, then president of the United States, officially inaugurated Mount Rushmore. And this day happens to be the 50th anniversary of the end of Mount Rushmore sculpture project.

1998, the ten-year renovation project of Mount Rushmore came to an end. The final part of the project includes facilities convenient for tourists, such as tourist center, museum, presidential road and pedestrian walkway. The daily maintenance work of the whole park (especially the main sculptures) is quite complicated, among which it is the most difficult to remove the moss and clean the statues, which needs to be carried out frequently. On July 8, 2005, the German cleaning machine manufacturer KACH (K? Rcher) gave a free cleaning for the face of the presidential statue. The temperature of high-pressure water used in the cleaning process is as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit (about 90 degrees Celsius).

Three. argue

Indian tribes living nearby consider Mount Braque as their sacred mountain. After the Montenegro War from 1876 to 1877, the American government seized this land from the Lakota tribe, and the Lakota tribe obtained this land from 1776 in the war with the Cheyenne tribe. Since then, the contradiction between the Lakota people who were driven out of this area and the American government not fade away. The statue of the president in Mount Rushmore has also become the target of Lakota's criticism. Even after the authorities appointed Gerard Baker, the first Indian director in the history of Mount Rushmore National Park in 2004, such criticism did not stop. In response to the Presidential Mountain Project, Lakota people built the Crazy Horse Memorial Hall in another part of the Braque Mountain to commemorate the crazy horse of the famous Lakota Chief in history. Although the Crazy Horse Memorial Statue Project only received a small grant from the US government, it was finally successfully completed due to the strong support of the Lakota tribal chief to which Crazy Horse belonged before his death.

Fourth, the ecological environment.

The distribution and composition of plants and animals in Mount Rushmore are similar to those in the Black Mountain area of South Dakota, and the Memorial Park has become a paradise for many representative plants and animals in the Black Mountain area. Large birds such as the red-headed American vulture, vulture, eagle and meadow pipit often hover over Mount Rushmore, and they often nest on the rock wall of the mountain. And some relatively small birds, such as songbirds, finches, woodpeckers and so on. Most of them live in the pine forest around the foot of the mountain. In addition, there are many mammals in the park, such as mice, chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, porcupines, raccoons, beavers, coyotes, bighorn goats and wild cats, many of which are native to the United States. At the same time, there are several kinds of frogs and snakes living in the park. There are also two streams in the park, named "Grizzly Bear Stream" and "Stirling Depression Stream", which provide shelter for long-snout minnows and brook trout. Not all animals that live in the local area are local. The local goats were bred by sheep that escaped from Caster State Park, which was given to Caster Park as a gift by Canada.

At lower altitudes, coniferous forests dominated by Pinus ponderosa cover most areas of the park, creating a large area of shade. Of course, other trees such as Quercus variabilis, spruce and poplar are also included. There are 9 kinds of shrubs and many kinds of wild flowers near Mount Rushmore, especially Snapdragon, sunflower and violet. At higher altitudes, vegetation is relatively sparse. It is worth mentioning that only about 5% of the plants in the Braque Mountains where Mount Rushmore is located are native.

Although the annual average precipitation in the area where Mount Rushmore is located reaches 18 inch (460 mm), it still cannot meet the huge water demand of animals and plants. Plants try to absorb surface water to prevent its loss; Ditches, rock seepage and spring water provide places for animals to divert water, which reduces the impact of surface water loss to some extent. In addition, sandstone, limestone and other rock formations are also conducive to the formation of groundwater.

According to the trace analysis of fire in tree ring sampling survey, it is known that a forest fire occurs in Song-Lin Huang near Mount Rushmore every 27 years, which is helpful to remove the residual branches and leaves accumulated on the surface for a long time and maintain the natural cycle of ecology. However, large-scale forest fires are very rare, but what is certain is that fires of this scale have definitely occurred in the history of this area.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) geological survey

Mount Rushmore is mainly composed of granite. The memorial sculpture is located on the northwest rock wall of Hani peak foundation of Mount Braque, so the geological structure of Mount Braque can be clearly seen on the sculpture of Mount Rushmore. During the Precambrian period about 654.38+600 million years ago, the magma of bedrock invaded mica and shale during its formation. However, the uneven cooling of magma, mica and shale forms fine-grained ore beds with coarse particles, including quartz, feldspar, muscovite and biotite. Cracks between rock layers are filled with crystalline granite. The light lines on the forehead of the presidential statue are the masterpieces of these crystal granite belts.

At the end of Precambrian, the granite in the Bulake Mountain area was constantly eroded because of its exposure. But in CAMBRIAN, it was buried by a lot of sandstone and other sediments. This area slept underground all the Paleozoic, but it was exposed again about 70 million years ago and was eroded by geological uplift. A dome-shaped landform with an altitude of 20,000 feet (about 6 kilometers) was formed when the Bralek Mountain rose, but after years of natural erosion, the altitude was only 4,000 feet (1.2 kilometers). Natural erosion removes sediments and other relatively soft rock layers covering granite layers, which is beneficial to the construction of sculptures. Today, under the sculpture of President Washington's head, the dividing line between granite layer and darker schist can still be seen.

Borglum chose Mount Rushmore as the main architect of the sculpture for the following reasons: First, Mount Rushmore is mainly composed of flat fine-grained granite. Granite is strong and chemically stable. Every 10,000 years, the natural erosion is only 1 inch (2.5cm), which is enough to support the whole sculpture. In addition, the altitude of 5725 feet (1745 meters) also makes it the highest peak in this area; At the same time, the granite exposed part of the mountain faces southeast, which allows the statue to bathe in the sun for most of the day, thus showing a better viewing effect.

Six, sightseeing tour

Tourism is the second largest industry in South Dakota. Mount Rushmore has always been the most attractive place for tourists in the state, with more than 2 million tourists visiting in 2004 alone.

Lincoln Borglum Museum is located in Memorial Park. It has two 125-seat cinemas, which have been showing a short film about Mount Rushmore for 13 minutes. Above the Borglum Museum, the best place to watch sculptures is the Beauty Terrace. The Presidential Trail refers to a path from the Grand View Garden, through Song-Lin Huang and finally to the sculptor's studio. It provides a good opportunity for people to get close to the memorial hall. The sculptor's studio was built by Borglum's father, Gutzon Borglum. The whole sculpture building process and tools used were briefly introduced. Near dusk, the cinema also shows a 30-minute program about Memorial Park. Then, the whole Mount Rushmore will be illuminated by lights for 2 hours every day.

Seven, Mount Rushmore in popular culture

Because Mount Rushmore is famous for its spectacular sculpture of the president's head, the popular media often replace the four presidents with other characters or roles when spoofing. In the movie Superman II II, General zod, the number one villain, and his accomplices used their superpowers to replace the heads of four presidents with the faces of three of them. Similarly, in tim burton's famous spoof sci-fi movie "Martians Play Around the Earth", Martians also carved the president on Mount Rushmore into the head of Martians with the laser emitted by their flying saucers. The rock band Deep Purple was also inspired by Mount Rushmore-on the cover of their album Deep Purple in Rock, they replaced the presidential statue on Mount Rushmore with the heads of five members of the band. Coincidentally, The Chipmunks, a band composed of virtual characters, also used Mount Rushmore as an article on the album cover. On the cover of their album Chipmunk Rock, the statues of four presidents on Mount Rushmore became the heads of james young, Alvin Chipmunk, a member of Styx, and two other singers, joey ramone and Frank Zappa. In the red dwarf series Better than Life, when Dave Liszt discovered Mount Rushmore, which was mostly buried by garbage, he realized that he had returned to the earth. In addition, the head of the fictional American President Elaine Salinger was added to Mount Rushmore.

Because Mount Rushmore is a geographical symbol with great historical significance, it is often used as the base of one party's power in many action movies and novels. In the spoof doll movie Team USA: World Police, Mount Rushmore was built by the team USA as their base. In the end, however, it was blown up by suicide bombers in michael moore. In the Wildstorm cartoon, Mr. Majestic, a superhero from another planet, also set his secret base in Mount Rushmore. In the series of comics DC Universe, All Purpose Enforcement Squad also established a secret base in Mount Rushmore.

In an episode of the 25th century TV series barker rogers, barker rogers, the hero accused of waging war to destroy the earth, found himself in a room at the foot of Mount Rushmore.

In the "Star Trek Adventures" series, a fictional statue of the president was added to Mount Rushmore.

Among those films that contain the scene of Mount Rushmore, the most famous is Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (also known as North by Northwest). The last scene of this classic suspense film (that is, the famous plane chase) is set in Mount Rushmore. However, this scene was not filmed in Mount Rushmore. Because in the pre-submitted shooting record, it was mentioned that there was a scene in the film containing the content of the hero who tried to shoot the face of the president statue, the park management did not allow the crew to enter the filming. Finally, this group of shots was built in the studio.

In the TV movie 10.5: Apocalypse, Mount Rushmore was destroyed by the earthquake.

In the movie Ricky Richie, the Fu family carved the heads of three family members on a huge stone mountain and named it Richmore Mountain.

In the movie National Treasure 2, the statue of the President on Mount Rushmore is considered to protect the legendary "Huang Jincheng" treasure. Benjamin Franklin Gates, played by Nicolas Cage, finally found this underground treasure on Mount Rushmore.