For those of you who weren't awake much during American History, Gutzon Borglum was the ... uh ... is "artist" the right word? Anyway, he's the guy who sculpted the dead presidents' faces on Mount Rushmore. Now, I gotta admit - that's no mean feat. But really now, why does there have to be a sign every 10 miles advertising the Gutzon Borglum museum?
The signs themselves are interesting. They're not bill boards. Instead, somebody collected a bunch of big trailers (an 18-wheeler semi minus the cab) that I presume weren't usable any more. Those trailers were parked along the road and the sign was painted right on the side of the trailer.
Some of them are really broken down, and it gives the whole thing a very cheezy feel. It's pretty obvious that they traded quality for quantity. All this for a museum for goodness sake! Lets just say that we decided to leave Gutzon for a future trip.
And while we're at it, I guess I have to confess that I must not be much of a patriot. Karen and I debated blowing off Mt. Rushmore all together. But we decided that doing so would be considered child abuse in most states, so we went there. And granted, my son was pretty impressed with the scale of the thing. But come ON now ... I prefer to have dead presidents' faces on little pieces of green paper.
On the other hand, the Badlands National Park, Wind Cave, and Jewel Cave (all of which are all easy drives from Mt. Rushmore) were WELL worth the trip. E-mail me for details if you're interested.