Lincoln Borglum

Gutzon Borglum's son Lincoln oversaw completion of the Mount Rushmore project after his father's death.

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Lincoln Borglum Details

Born in 1912, 12-year-old James Lincoln Borglum accompanied his father, Gutzon, on their first trip to the Dakotas in 1924 to investigate the possibility of carving the images of U.S. presidents into a mountain in the Black Hills. A second trip in August of 1925 led to the selection of Mount Rushmore as the site for the carving. Lincoln worked for several years on the project, with several different jobs, and was promoted to "chief pointer" in 1935. In order to enlarge a three-dimensional model onto a mountain, Borglum devised a system consisting of an angle and two measurements. Workers called "pointers" measured the angle, the distance away from the axis, and the distance down from the top to find the spot on the mountain where the drilling or blasting would take place, and then marked the spot for the drillers. He became the superintendent of all work on the project in 1938. After his father's death in 1941 he took on the responsibility of sculptor. From 1941 to 1943 he served as the first National Park superintendent at Mount Rushmore. He died of a heart attack in 1986 at the age of 74.

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