The Hall of Records, the most hidden part of the famous Mount Rushmore monument

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is by far one of the most famous and most spectacular monuments in the United States.

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Authorized on March 3, 1925, and located in Pennington County, South Dakota, this monument was constructed under the direction of sculptor Gutzon Borglum between August 1927 and March 6, 1941, when Borglum died. Work was completed a few months later on October 31, 1941. The monument was not completed as planned due to lack of funding.

The monument consists of four giant faces of famous US presidents: George Washington (the first president and drafter of the US Constitution), Thomas Jefferson (the third president and drafter of the US Declaration of Independence), Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th president and a major proponent of national parks and monuments) and Abraham Lincoln (the 16th president and the main architect of the abolition of slavery in the US).

Borglum's initial plans were for each president to be shown in full length, but the sculptor's death and lack of funds ultimately resulted in only the faces of those four presidents and some details of Washington's torso (above).

Beyond the monument's exterior appearance, Borglum conceived Mount Rushmore as a "Shrine of Democracy", serving to preserve the legacy of the United States for the very distant future. With that in mind, Borglum planned the construction of a chamber, the "Hall of Records", located behind the faces of the presidents. We can see the access to that chamber in this image, to the right.

The purpose of the Hall of Records was to house the most important documents and artifacts in American history, including the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The gallery would be 80 by 100 feet in size and would be accessed via a 800-foot-long granite staircase. The gallery would be located behind Lincoln's head. Here we can see a sketch by Borglum showing his design for the hall.

Work on the Hall of Records began in July 1938. Here we can see a photo of one of the first phases of the excavation of that gallery.

Work on the Hall of Records ceased in July 1939, but was not completed, following an order from the US Congress that work on the monument be limited to sculpting the likenesses of the presidents. This is how the entrance to the hall looks today.

During the year that the works on this room lasted, 21 of the planned 30 metres were excavated.

These images from the U.S. National Park Service show the state of the unfinished hall, with traces of the tools used to excavate it.

Inside you can still see the marks made by the workers who excavated the hall, just as they were left there in July 1939.

The entrance to the living room seen from inside. On the other side of the granite wall that we see in the background is Lincoln's face.

The Hall of Records is not accessible to the public, so these images from the National Park Service are one of the few opportunities we have to see what it looks like.

On August 9, 1998, a storage room was installed near the entrance to the hall, in a way fulfilling Borglum's dream when he began excavating this gallery. The storage room consists of a teakwood box, inside a titanium vault, covered by a granite slab, on which Borglum's words were inscribed:

"...let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone shall wear them away."

The interior of the vault contains sixteen enameled porcelain panels, which reflect the history of the Mount Rushmore Memorial, the reasons for the election of the four presidents, and a brief history of the United States. These panels are intended to preserve the legacy of the United States for people who visit this place thousands of years from now.

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Photos: National Park Service.