In 1927 , some400 peopleset to work with chisel , jackhammers , and dynamite on theMount Rushmore National Memorial , a gigantic project that would take 14 twelvemonth to stop . Even before they had completed their work , Americans were purpose additional campaigner to conjoin presidentsGeorge Washington , Thomas Jefferson , Abraham Lincoln , andTheodore Roosevelton the South Dakota versant . Protestations from sculptor Gutzon Borglum that therewasn’t enough room(or rock music ) for a fifth promontory were n’t enough to cease the prompting from rolling in .
Numerous other noggins have been suggested over the year — sometimes facetiously , but often with dead sincerity . When the Sioux Falls , South Dakota , Argus Leadernewspaperinvited readersto offer their own ideas in 1991 , the divers list included disgraced Vice President Spiro T. Agnew , President Jimmy Carter , inventorThomas Edison , Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev , Martin Luther King , Jr. , country singer Merle Haggard , Betsy Ross , Sacagawea , and evenBart Simpson . And , of course of action , Madmagazinehasmade the casefor its gap - toothed mascot Alfred E. Neuman , bring home the bacon Americans with a trailer of how that might take care on a 1957 cover .
Here are seven salient Americans whose head have been put forth for consideration .
1. Susan B. Anthony
Asearly as 1927 , lifelongSusan B. AnthonyadvocateRose Arnold Powellwas lobbying to add the famous suffragist to Mount Rushmore ’s old boys ’ club . Eleanor Rooseveltalsochampioned Anthony ; bills in the U.S. House and Senate in 1936did likewise , although they were at long last unsuccessful . Borglum himself opposed the move , tell a newspaper reporterthat the monument ’s intent was “ to portray the human race who founded , defend , and expanded the United States . ”
While Powell and her allies were n’t able to get Anthony ’s head on Mount Rushmore , they did bring home the bacon in getting her aspect ona postage stamp , which come out in 1936 . Anthony would be honour with another stamp in 1955 and ona one dollar bill coin , starting in 1979 — pass water her the first adult female ever to come out on a circulating coin in the U.S.
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower
World War II grinder and former presidentDwight D. Eisenhowerwould have been the first bald head on Mount Rushmore hada 1960 initiativeby New York Senator Kenneth Keating and Minnesota’sHubert Humphreysucceeded . Keating , a Republican , and Humphrey , a Democrat , actually proposed that two heads be added : the Republican Ike and Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt . The proposalwent nowhere , with paper joke that it was a “ bust . ” While that seems to have been the last time Eisenhower ’s name came up for serious consideration , FDR would remain a repeated contender .
3. John F. Kennedy
In the nationwide grief followingJFK ’s 1963 assassination , some Americans trust the most meet testimonial to the martyr young chair would beadding him to Mount Rushmore . Nothing came of it , but a 1991 NBC News - Wall Street Journalpoll find that he was still the president Americansmost wanted to seeon the monument . In a2014 American Legion surveythat asked , “ If you could select one president to be tally to Mount Rushmore , who would it be ? , ” Kennedy do in second with 11 pct of the vote but distantly trailed the more recently cash in one’s chips Ronald Reagan , who scored 42 percent .
4. Elvis Presley
Two calendar month before his end in 1977,Elvis Presleygave one ofhis last concertsat the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center . Perhaps not surprisingly , calls to tally his wavy - hirsute head to the nearby monument have echoed ever since — most loudly in 1991 , when Los Angeles disc jockey Magic Matt Alan started a nationwide missive writing campaign . “ There ’s spate of room to the right of Teddy,”he say . That same year , when Postmaster General Anthony Frank purport a mould honoring Presley , he noted that , “ We do n’t have a place where famous the great unwashed can have their movie put up except perchance Mount Rushmore . A stamp is as close to it as you’re able to come . ”
Presley got his stamp , at least , in 1993 . According to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum , it became“the most popular U.S. commemorative legal tender of all time . ”
5. Ronald Reagan
Well before his death in 2004 — in factbefore his first termhad even ended — the40th president ’s lover were suggest that sculptors commence sculpture . In 1989 , R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. , editor of the conservative magazineAmerican Spectator , begana lighthearted campaignto make that happen , supposedly withReagan ’s own blessing . To get around the protest that there was n’t enough granite remaining to fashion another head , he suggested creating the parts out of cement and attaching them to the mountain . One booster came up with the idea of build an capitulum out of discarded chunks of theBerlin Wallin testimonial to Regan ’s role in bringing it down . Reagan critic naturally opposed the idea and cartoonists get it a motherlode of material in it .
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt
After his sudden end in 1945,Franklin D. Roosevelt — the only U.S. president ever elected to four terms — seemed a natural to join his fifth cousin-german , Teddy , on the monument . He also had a inscrutable connection to the monument : He aid fund it andspoke at the dedicationof Jefferson ’s promontory in 1936 . Though fewer and fewer of FDR ’s contemporaries stay alert , his name still follow up high on the tilt whenever there ’s talk of adding another head . A2016 Expedia surveyfound him in first place with 29 percentage of the vote .
7. Donald J. Trump
At least one remarkable person has suggested putting Donald Trump ’s expression on Mount Rushmore . That would be Trump himself , who reportedly secern then - South Dakota congresswoman and now governor Kristi Noem that it was his “ ambition . ” The 45th president later suppose he was joking , but still seemed to endorse the intellection , say in a tweet that “ it vocalize like a good theme to me . ” Just in casing , he also bewilder for a photo in front of the monument , show how his head might look alongside Honest Abe ’s .
In the 2016 Expedia survey , which was lead before his election , Trump was n’t on the voting but received 2 percent of the voting in form of write - In , garner him a spot between Jesus Christ and Mickey Mouse .
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