Theodore Roosevelt, Protector of the Working Man

After Borglum had worked on a model with three presidents and completed measurements on the mountain, it was decided that there was room for one more president.

Many thought that Roosevelt was too recent to be selected as one of the Presidents and that his presidency had not had the test of time. But like Jefferson, he had contributed to the expansion to the West by his construction of the Panama Canal which opened a much quicker route to the West.

At this time President Calvin Coolidge had selected the State Game Lodge in South Dakota's Custer State Park to be his summer White House and he became interested in the project.

Lincoln Borglum said, "...it was Coolidge who added the decisive reason for the the inclusion of Theodore Roosevelt upon the mountain (a subject on which he was most adamant). I heard him say that Roosevelt was the first president who had actively worked to protect the rights of the working man."

(It was through the help of President Coolidge that federal funding was obtained to speed up the work on Mount Rushmore.)