The Fulfillment of a Dream

   I’m not sure when the idea to visit Mount Rushmore first came to me or what inspired it, however last Saturday on a beautiful sunny afternoon in South Dakota, my dream was realized. Al planned the short trip out perfectly, putting together the itinerary, making reservations and gathering information on the “Mount Rushmore State.”

   On Thursday September 29^th, we flew from the LAX to the Denver airport, rented a car and drove to Fort Collins where we spent the night with my cousin and his wife and had the chance to visit my sweet ninety-two year old aunt. The next morning, after breakfast with several family members who had gathered together, we said our good-byes and continued on with the journey.

   The drive through Wyoming and into South Dakota afforded interesting scenery—buttes and grasslands, pine-dotted hills and trees already beginning to show their fall colors. We stayed in Rapid City that night, with the plan to get up early on Saturday morning and spend the day exploring the Black Hills area, including the famous carving in granite. Other points of interest were the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, where my late sister-in-law worked for a couple of summers participating in digging out the bones of mammoths and other ancient creatures, the Wind Caves National Park and the mountain memorial commemorating an Oglala Lakota fighter, Crazy Horse.

   After taking an interesting tour of the Mammoth Site led by a fourteen-year old boy who shared a wealth of information about the excavation area, and purchasing a large-brimmed hat embroidered with a Woolly Mammoth in honor of Peggy, we drove north on a curvy mountainous road, arriving at Mount Rushmore by mid-afternoon.

   My first impression of it was the immensity of the project that Gutzon Borglum began in 1927. The idea came from a state historian, Doane Robinson, who wanted to commemorate many famous local people by carving statues from the surrounding pinnacle like peaks. But Borglum decided to create a monument that would be special for the entire nation and chose the current location which the Lakota Sioux called “The Six Grandfathers.” With some imagination, there are still a couple of very weathered faces which can be seen in the rugged stone cliff near the sixty-foot heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

   Over 400 people worked on the granite carvings over a period of fourteen years. Ranchers, miners, loggers, men and women contributed to this magnificent creation. The question “How in the world did they do it?” kept coming to mind! By careful planning, good engineering, creative problem solving, teamwork and lots of dynamite!

   Borglum’s creation inspired me to think of our Creator, God, the evidence of whom is not only reflected in the wonder and beauty of nature and the world around us, but also in the amazing way we human beings are designed. Just think about the complexity of the human brain! Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God declares “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9 NIV

    This Creator God, Elohim in Hebrew, desires that we know Him personally. He wants to walk with us through life and to bring us into an eternal relationship with Him. Hard to imagine? And yet it’s true! A close personal relationship with Him can be realized through faith in and acceptance of His wonderful Son, Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God!

 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139: 14 NIV