Mount Rushmore National Memorial came into being as a project both to commemorate the first 150 years of American history and to attract more tourists into South Dakota. The giant images of Washington, Jefferson, Th. Roosevelt and Lincoln were carved into the rock face by artist Gutzon Borglum with the help of hundreds of workers from 1927 to 1941. When Borglum died, the project was left unfinished (the images were meant to be completed down to the waist).