City of PresidentsJul 7, 2009
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Warren Harding
Willism Taft ready to throw first pitch at a baseball game
Martin Van Buren with a Kinderhook, NY newspaper
On my way to Mt. Rushmore to see the monuments on this sunny day, I went by an intersection with statues on each corner. I stopped to see that they were statues of past presidents in various poses. I then saw that the next block had statues also. I ended up walking for about an hour in a 5x2 block area looking at each President's statue. A couple of them weren't labelled, so I have to go back to compare faces with the pictures I took at the President's Garden a few days ago. I didn't find Lincoln's statue and was told that there wasn't one of George W Bush or Clinton. So maybe there isn't one of Lincoln, because 4 Presidents aren't represented, so I was told by a passerby. These statues are a gift to "The City of Presidents" so that must be the new nickname of Rapid City. I found out later that Bush and Clinton will come out in 2010. When they have done all the Presidents, they will add the next ones when they are finished with their terms of office.
I didn't go in to Mt. Rushmore because I've already been there, but this time, I was able to stop alongside the road to see them and to see Washington's profile. Lincoln was supposed to be on Washington's right, but the granite wasn't good enough, so Borglum blasted the beginnings of it away and polished it off, causing the profile to be seen from the road.
I can't see where they blasted some rock around Crazy Horse's horse on July 4th. I see what looks like chalk outlines, so maybe they didn't blast it as scheduled?
