-- why artist borglum chose him.e chose him because of the louisiana purchase, doubling the size of the country. lincoln, you configure that -- can figure that out. the challenging one, theodore roosevelt. selected by the artist, but he wasn't the most popular guy at the time. borglum selected theodore roosevelt because of the panama canal. he expanded, went into international. he also was the president standing for the common man. both of those things resonated with the artist. >> two of the four were slave owners. does that engender discussion? you talk about that in your protection of these presidents. -- your interpretation of these presidents. >> there is discussion about that. there is not as much discussion as you might expect. it is certainly something we step forward and are talking about. all of our interpretive programs -- anytime you hear about a park ranger presenting programs -- they did their own research and do their own presentation. we don't focus on one thing in particular, it is the passion of the

during that ceremony, gutzon borglum scaled the side of the mountain and applied the first drill bit to the side of the mountain. vacation in the black hills, coolidge signed a bill that gave mount rushmore its first $250,000 in federal funding, which was matching funds. it ended up taking a long time. mount rushmore was not finished until the 1940's. a lot of rushmore historians give coolidge a lot of credit for getting mount rushmore going at a time when its future was definitely not certain. he interacted with a lot of people when he was at his office at rapid city high school. commerce secretary at the time visited him. general tom pershing and leonard would came out here. lindbergh did a flyover here. earlier that year, he had did his fly across the atlantic. he was on a barnstorming tour across the country. thrilledy was really at the attention and celebrity that came to see coolidge when he was here. he also met with a lot of everyday people. south dakota citizens, politicians. he did make several visits with native americans in the rapid city area. the rapid city indian schoo